Because I Care

Works in Progress and Random Thoughts

2009-09-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

“After a half century of devastating super powered conflicts ravaged the Earth causing a wake of severe collateral damage, the super powers establish a truce effectively ending the hostilities. The truce marked the beginning of a super powered cold war. That was the summer of 1986.More than two decades later the cold war is about to heat up, when a rebellious young group of super-villains inadvertently spark a disastrous chain of events forcing them to ultimately face a destiny they always hoped to evade, and possibly destroy a legacy.”

The above highlights the premise for a graphic novel, titled LEGACY, I am currently in the process of writing.

Aside from the above mentioned graphic novel I am working on, I have also revamped a script for the first issue of my most ambitious writing project yet. The first issue is to an epic sci-fi adventure titled TOMORROW NOW. The first arc of TOMORROW NOW is slated to run six issues but could be extended beyond that point as there are some exciting directions I can take the ensemble cast.

Two other titles, IN DER NACHT, and DEADLY UNION are

also in the works. Both are also planned to run six issues each. All three titles are radically different in that TOMORROW NOW is (as mentioned) a sci-fi epic, IN DER NACHT is straight up horror, and DEADLY UNION is a historical war story set during the Civil War. Despite being three separate titles they will all be tied together by a specific event (or series of events)

All three titles will work as stand alone stories, but of course can be read together in any order.

Some Quick Hits:

If you want someone to come to your wedding be sure you send them an invite. Otherwise don’t be surprised when they are not there.

Disney to Buy Marvel Comics: Maybe now

we can get that comic where the Punisher hunts down the cast of Mickey Mouse’s Club House.

Young Liars: Last issue hits stands today. Up is down, black is white, and you don’t know what or who to believe in this delightfully twisted tale driven by amazingly complex characters and a killer soundtrack.

Moon Knight will be back on September 16th with a vengeance, and I can’t wait! I must get that Finch variant cover!

People looking to make good Motion Comics should check out the MAXX series featured on MTV’s Oddities. Over a decade old and still better than a lot of the newer stuff I have seen.

I joined my first Fantasy football league with some of the good folks over at Standardattrition.com. My team name is Sunday Best…you’ll get the irony when I finish dead last. Special thanks to Luke Wigand for the guidance.

Am I the only one that still thinks Ben Reilly’s costume is cool?

Cup of Kryptonite is helping me fill in the gaps on some of my collections with their new “warehouse” feature. Maybe they c

an help you to, so check it out.

Men that are not excited for Football season are not actually men, they are women with penises. I can say the same about men that do not like wings or beer.

comics and Stuff

2009-07-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I had a chance to post anything, which has been mostly due to the arrival of my son born back on June 10^th. There seems to be quite a lot going on in the comic book world these days, and wanted to share a couple of quick thoughts.

600 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man: With story and art by a who’s who of Marvel Superstar talent, the 600^th issue of Amazing Spider-Man proves to be a great read. This comic comes with a five dollar price tag, but I fell you definitely get your monies worth. The achievement of a comic book reaching its 600^th issue is not something that should be taken lightly, and Marvel celebrates this milestone with both style and substance. All of that being said; I feel that several other titles renumbered at the 600 mark before this one steal a little bit of its thunder. Thor, Captain America and Dare Devil have all already been renumbered, which appeared more as marketing gimmicks than anything else. Let me note that as someone currently working in Marketing, I do not necessarily take issue with what Marvel had done, and as a fan the change in numbering doesn’t really bother me. Unlike those aforementioned titles, this actually feels like a special milestone. I hope that it receives the attention it deserves.

Punisher Reloaded: It was announced last week that Marvel will be re-launching its Punisher Max series with a new number one and critically acclaimed writer Jason Aaron. Joining Jason will be Fan favorite artist Steve Dillon, who helped Garth Ennis bring the titular vigilante back into the spotlight under the Marvel Knights imprint.

Garth Ennis, another favorite writer of mine, had a 60 issue run on a Punisher series under Marvels adult oriented MAX imprint. The series established Frank Castle in the real world without the absurdity of costumed crime fighters, and super heroes. The series remains one of my favorites about one of my favorite characters. After Ennis left the series it was retiled Frank Castle: Punisher and the creative chores were passed back and forth between various creative teams.

Now it seems that title is being cancelled and reloaded by Aaron and Dillon. Once again called Punisher Max, Jason Aaron doesn’t just set his sights on the Punisher, but on two of his biggest foes as well. The first story arc will pit the Punisher against the Kingpin and Bullseye. This introduction of established Marvel characters is new to the Punisher Max Universe with but a few exceptions.

I’m totally stoked for this series, but have to admit the announcement did not come as much of a surprise to me. In fact; I not only guessed that Jason Aaron would be taking over Punisher Max after Ennis’ run, but also stated publically that I’d love to see Aaron have the Punisher face off against a villain like the Kingpin. Either I’m psychic, or dreams really do come true.

As an aside, the Punisher has always been one of my favorite characters, and I have even plotted out some MAX stories of my own that I would one day love to tell. The stories have been outlined, and I was working on the pitches, which can be a chore. I’ll keep the details close to my chest at this time, but keep your eyes open in the future for a stint on a Punisher Max series written by yours truly!

Captain Britain: The End: I came into this series late. In fact I didn’t read any of it until after its cancellation had been announced. Matt, my friend and neighbor who owns Cup of Kryptonite loaned the first dozen issues to me to read. As a comic fan, I feel I have perpetrated a great injustice because this series was really good, and unfortunately its sales were not reflective of how good it was.

There are those that feel super hero books have become nothing more than story boards for future Hollywood movies, and that was not the case here. For example, this latest story arc pits our heroes against Dracula and his invasion of Britain by space vampires…Classic!

This was the type of superhero book I would want to write, and is the type of superhero book I should have been reading. The diverse cast of heroes may not be as well known as your Avengers, or X-men, but writer Paul Cornell has done a superb job getting the reader to know and care about them. This is primarily done through their relationships with one another and their personalities more so than their super powers.

In retrospect this run has been a solidly entertaining ride, and I am regretful I hadn’t gotten on board with this book sooner. I can’t wait for Marvel to release this title as an omnibus, or at least in a couple of trade paperbacks. Maybe the sales of the collected editions will lead to the chance for another ongoing. If that becomes the case I will be sure not to make the same mistake twice.

Epic Sci-Fi: I like Sci-Fi, and I like Super heroes, but it hasn’t been until the last few years that I have enjoyed those cosmic based, sci-fi superhero comics. DC has been hitting homeruns with its Green Lantern series, which is a character I used to detest until discovering his potential under Geoff Johns direction. Green Lantern has become one of my favorite characters, and last summers Sinestro Corps War was a true blockbuster event.

We are now kicking off this summer blockbuster event, Blackest Night. And while the premise behind the color spectrum of the rings, and the various factions involved in a “war of light” may seem silly to the uninitiated, the execution has been wonderfully exciting, and new pitch perfect.

The same can be said over at Marvels House of Ideas starting with its Annihilation event from a few years ago. Annihilation introduced me to a whole new Marvel world that I never knew existed filled with exciting characters I had never heard of or completely forgotten about like Star Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and of course Nova.

I first read Nova in the pages of Spider-Man, or possibly New Warriors, but he was a character I never had much affinity for. Then the Annihilation wave changed all of that, it changed him, it changed me.

Now Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy is a couple of my favorite Marvel series. I hope the creative teams can do with Dark Hawk what they had done with Nova, and in Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s (affectionately referred to online as DnA) capable hands I am more than confident. Nova is one of those series that more people should be buying, and I fear it may soon share the same fate as the aforementioned Captain Britain series, if its sales do not pick up soon.

Novas #27 is in stores today and I recommend you all go buy a copy and become just as hooked as I am.

Speaking of Sci-Fi: It was announced last week that Moon Knight writer Charlie Huston has written a seven issue Deathlok mini series under the Marvel Knights imprint; I’ve always had an affinity with Deathlok and enjoy Huston’s comic work and prose so far. I am totally stoked for this, though I wish it were an ongoing instead of a mini-series. Hopefully the sales will demand a Deathlok ongoing, but it’s too early to tell.

New New Warriors?: After reading the latest issue of Avengers: The Initiative (#26), I have come to the conclusion that Chris Gage needs to write a new New Warriors ongoing. The ragtag team of outlaws he has put together is great including Justice (Former New Warrior Marvel Boy), Slapstick, Gauntlet, and Night Thrasher.

I don’t know how much life The Initiative has left in it since it was an offshoot of the Civil War, which seemed like ages ago. Regardless the rest of the run will be fun under Gage’s expert abilities, and I would love to see him take this book to it’s next logical step of evolution, which is a new New Warriors ongoing.

San Diego: This last week Comic Con International was held in sunny San Diego. I have never been, so I do not know what I’m missing. I know several people who were going, and wish I were able to join them in the festivities. I am hopefully going to be able to attend next year, but may do so as a guest as opposed to a vendor/artist alley inhabitant. I have heard that a show of that size and caliber would swallow my miniscule publishing venture anyway, and no-one would even realize I was there. I find that we fare better financially at smaller shows like KC’s Planet ComicCon, and MN’s Fallcon.

Hopefully next year it will be more fiscally viable to attend in the capacity as a retailer/artist, and maybe someday we could compete with the bog dogs, or maybe even attend in the capacity of working for the big dogs. Either way, I look forward to checking it out someday, and in the meantime will follow the news sites, and message boards for all the gory details.

A "non-review" of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2009-07-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

Since I feel I lack the objectivity of being able to review this movie, this is less of a review of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie and more of some random thoughts on what I like and didn't like.

Some Spoilers Below, so consider yourself warned!!

Anyone who goes into Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen expecting it to be the next Citizen Kane is going to be sorely disappointed. However, if you are looking for big alien robots and even bigger action I’ve got your ticket right here. Despite scathing critical reviews the film has gone on to gross $201.2 million dollars in a mere five days, which should definitely ensure a sequel. I usually don’t agree with the up-tight, pretentious film critics anyway, and based on those stunning box office figures it appears the majority of film goers agree. Transformers: ROTF is the epitome of summer popcorn flick filled with two and half hours of in-your-face action, provocative eye-candy, and mind blowing special effects. I loved almost every minute…almost!

You may recall last time I posted a note that I was anxiously anticipating the films released and may have overhyped the film in my head, fearing it would not live up to my expectations. Well I am glad to inform you that it did in fact live up to those expectations, and in some ways exceeded them as well. There are just a few facets of the film I want to mention that are worthy of criticism.

The first is the inclusion of some superfluous scenes and characters. I hold the same criticism of the first film regarding Anthony Anderson’s character and the hot Australian chick whose name is not important. Those characters and their scenes seemed entirely unnecessary, and should have been left on the editing room floor. The same could be said in this installment of Sam’s (played by Shia Laboufe) college roommate. The character was totally unnecessary and though he may have been intended to serve as some type of comic relief he was nothing more than an annoyance. Ever since his introduction I was holding my breath for a Decepticon to step on his head.

I enjoyed the addition of Jet Fire who has always been one of my favorite characters. The take on him in this film is not what I expected, or would have preferred, but in the end he served his purpose. There was one expository filled scene however involving Jet Fire that could have easily been cut in half. A little time would have been saved, and the same points could have been made. The scene did serve as a break in the action, but actually pulled me out of the film a little bit.

People not intimately familiar with Transformers continuity may assume that the Fallen refers to Megatron (which it sort of does), as opposed to an actual character known as the Fallen. I would have much rather seen Megatron as the main villain this time around to; though the film does a good job building on Megatron and Starscream as individual characters as well as their relationship it could have gone further, and I hope to see that continue in the third installment. That being said it does not mean that the Fallen does not work as a villain because he certainly does. He also helps expand the legacy of the Transformers by building its history.

A welcome addition to the Decepticon Ranks was another of my childhood favorites, Soundwave. I am looking forward to seeing this character again in the next installment, and hopefully he will take on a more prominent role. We were also treated to an awesome Ravage, and Devastator who totally lives up to his name.

The Decepticon’s were not the only ones with some great additions to their ranks. The Autobots were joined by Sideswipe, and Arcee; both of whom I hope to see more of in the future.

Other than some unnecessary scenes, my one other criticism isn’t of the movie itself but rather in its marketing, which is no fault of the Director, or the cast, but of the studio. The movie is rated PG-13, and it earns its rating with intense action, over the top sexuality, coarse humor and foul language. All of these items are the typical ingredients in a movie I would love, but are not appropriate for a child still watching Sponge Bob Square Pants. This movie has been promoted heavily on channels like Nickelodeon, but it’s not a kid’s movie. Many will argue that it should be a kid’s movie because it’s based on a kid’s toy, but Transformers are not necessarily kid’s toys. I can prove this by giving any child a transformer toy and watching them dismember it while attempting to transform it. I did not feel that advertising it every commercial break on Nickelodeon was not appropriate, and in poor taste by the ad guys at the studio.

All in all I loved this movie for exactly what it was, and that it embraced what it was as opposed to masquerading as something it wasn't (does that sentence make sense?), and will definitely be seeing it again before it leaves theaters. It is long in some parts, and not appropriate for younger audiences, but it has none-the-less lived up to my own hype!

Transformers Hype

2009-06-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve been anxiously anticipating the release of the Transformers sequel since the end credits rolled at the first one. I became even more excited when the initial trailer aired during this year’s Super Bowl, and then again when additional trailers surfaced. I almost couldn’t contain myself when the first wave of toys hit shelves and purchased nearly all of them in the first week. Well, the six months of excitement have built to this moment as the movie hits theatres on Wednesday (June 24^th). That afternoon, I will be there with my bucket of popcorn in one hand, a large ice cold Coke in the other, and a massive erection in my shorts.

But alas, I now fear that I’ve mentally overhyped this film and my expectations may fall short. Will I leave the theater disappointed? If I recall correctly, there are very few times I have been this excited for a major motion picture. Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, X-Men and X-Men 2, the first Transformers film and the most recent Stark Trek are a few that immediately come to mind. And none of those movies were a disappointment, all living up to my expectations, or at least within a reasonable proximity.

Now I am not expecting much in ways of plot; after all the plot of the first film was practically non-existent, or at least completely transparent. What I am looking forward to is giant robot on robot action (not that kind of action, perverts), and according to interviews I’ve read and trailers I’ve seen the movie will dish that out in spades. I am looking for intense action sequences and mind blowing special effects!

Say what you will about Michael Bay movies – I know there are plenty of haters out there – but I enjoy his kinetic, in your face cinematography. His style does a superb job of making you feel like you are in the movie, as opposed to a panoramic view of the action that leaves you feeling like a spectator. The first Transformers is awesome, The Rock is a rollicking good time, Armageddon is watchable, and Bad Boys 2 is one of my favorite action movies of all time, so Bay has a proven track record that instills my confidence. I have faith in Michael Bay to provide me with two hours of solid entertainment; I just hope the movie can live up to its hype as it has played out in my head over and over again.

So this Wednesday I will have a bucket of popcorn in one hand, a large ice cold Coke in the other, a massive erection in my shorts, and my fingers crossed. That’s what you call multitasking!

A brief review of the film will be posted next week.

First Look: the Princess and the Ladybugs

2009-05-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well I have certainly been slacking in the “Updating my blog on a regular basis” department. Well, I had some time this week to pound out some thoughts on the keyboard and post here for your reading pleasure.

A unique children’s book written by an actual child!

Several months ago while sitting at my keyboard spewing senseless drivel onto the page until it started to make some sort of logical sense I was interrupted by my beautiful, inquisitive daughter. She asked what I was doing and I explained to her that I was attempting to tell a story. Her eyes lit up, “I want to tell a story!” I pulled her up onto my lap and told her that she could tell me the story and I would type it up for her. Immediately she spoke of a magical world where a beautiful young princess spent her days watching movies, and frolicking in the garden. One day the beautiful princess wanted to ride a rollercoaster, and began walking toward the amusement park. Along the way she met a group of ladybugs that also wanted to ride the rollercoaster with the princess, so they joined her on her walk. When they reached the rollercoaster they found that it could only seat two at a time, and each of the ladybugs wanted to sit next to the princess…Well, I would hate to spoil the Climax and I know everyone is itching to read it.

The book is 100% dictated by my four year old daughter; I simply typed the words up, and removed some redundancies such as, “She wore a beautiful dress that sparkled and it was beautiful.” I also helped her sort out the beginning middle and end by asking questions such as, “What happens next?”

As with any great children’s story there is a lesson to be learned by the last page, and it was a lesson my daughter had in fact learned on her trip to the amusement park last summer. In fact I bet if we were to ask her the name of the princess in the story it would be Zoe! The book also ends on a sort of cliffhanger, which leaves room for possible sequels!

As of now the pages are in the hands of Jessica Scott, a lovely and talented local artist that was so kind as to offer her time and skills in illustrating the story. Once the story has been illustrated we will shop it around for a publisher or simply publish the book ourselves. Ninety percent of the proceeds will go towards Zoe’s college fund, and the remaining ten percent will be donated to the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. There will be more details as they become available.

As we get further into the convention season I will share some highlights on past conventions and expectations for this years conventions. To begin I want to look at my top three Fanboy Arguments: The following are actual arguments I have engaged in with passionate Fanboy’s. Though there are many, these are among my favorites.

Superman vs. Dr. Doom: One Fanboy asked a nearby artist for sketch of Dr. Doom and Superman sitting at a table playing chess, and Dr. Doom would be losing. I could not help but pipe up informing him that Dr. Doom would certainly not lose a game of chess to Superman. I spent the following five minutes elucidating the awkward young man that it had nothing to do with Dr. Doom being smarter than Superman, but rather Dr. Doom always planned several steps ahead, and was not afraid to sacrifice his pawns; two key elements in winning a game of chess. I crushed the young mans dreams with the realization that good does not always win.

Vampire Hunter D (D as in done it before): A wide eyed young lady stopped by our table pitching her dream story to anyone that would listen. In her story a half-human, half-vampire woman has dedicated her life to hunting evil vampires. Her story seemed oddly familiar, and I mentioned that to her. She valiantly defended her coveted creation, even referring to it as Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Watchmen – What!?! This was obviously a lose-lose argument for both parties involved, and I did not need a Fanboy (Fangirl in this case) suicide on my conscience, so I politely (as politely as my snarky-ass knows how to anyway) backed away, and wished her good luck.

Chaykin’s biggest fan: Ant and I had the pleasure of meeting Howard Cahykin’s biggest fan at MN’s Fall Con one year. This young man stood in front of our table for a good forty-five minutes reminiscing about his favorite Howard Chaykin stories, and how Howard Chaykin has inspired him artistically. Ant, as usual, has no idea who Howard Chaykin is and simply nodded his head and smiled as if he was following the young man’s train of thought. I did agree with many of the young man’s points especially since I like much of Howard’s early writing, but our harmony turned bitter when I mentioned that I did not care for Howard’s art, even citing it as my reason for dropping Marvel’s Blade, and Punisher War Journal series. The man shot me a look as if I had just eaten his baby; his demeanor shifted from flamboyantly giddy to judgmental, but still flamboyant. The man defended Chaykin’s art as if it was his own, and I had clearly insulted him. In my own style of concession I implied that art is always an issue of individual preference. He left the table with victory in one hand and signed copy of Bloods Own in the other!

Free Comic Book Day 2009

2009-05-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

FCBD IN RETROSPECT

Free Comic Book Day was this past weekend, and I want to thank everyone that stopped out at Jay’s CD and Hobby to visit with us, and pick up some cool free shit. I also want to condemn those that did not. I was trying to decide whether or not FCBD was a success, and by success I mean for the industry as a whole. It was certainly successful for Jay who had one of his best sales days ever. It was a success for us as a comic book company because we sold a few books (not as many as I would have liked, but Oh well), and sold some t-shirts as well. I have been scrounging around the internet trying to pool as much information as possible regarding carious retailers and creators FCBD experience in gauging whether or not the concept behind FCBD was a success, which is to introduce the medium to new readers as well as reintroduce it to old ones. Besides it gives me great joy in the fact that we geeks have at least one day a year to share our passion with the world.

My own personal experience that day along with the general consensus across the World Wide Web has been yes; it was a success. Since I do not want to speak for anyone else here, I will highlight my own personal experiences.

Our table was in a room of the store next to the free comics, which allowed for some great traffic. We also had some copies of bloods Own #1 on hand, which we were giving away for free. There was quite a bit of down time that allowed me to browse the large selection of trade paperbacks all of which were discounted by 40%. I met a young man who was searching for something any trade paperbacks featuring his new favorite character Dead Pool, and helped him find some books. While scanning the rows of books we chatted about comics, I asked what type of books he enjoyed reading, and what some of his other favorite characters are. He was not an avid comic book reader, and enjoyed less mainstream titles, so I directed him towards a number of great independent books such as Proof, Scalped, DMZ, Lock and Key, and Walking Dead (though that may be considered mainstream by now). I also pointed out some great Marvel titles such as Ghost Rider, and Invincible Iron Man. He seemed interested in the Black Panther, so I recommended Christopher Priest’s Black Panther run under the Marvel Knights imprint. He bought a couple of books, and expressed a sincere interest in returning again to check out the other books I recommended.

I know this seems like a very small gesture, and that you may think it’s only one person, but that one person can certainly has friends and family, and hopefully they can pay the experience forward. Plus, if every fan, retailer, creator were to share a similar experience with just one person the number of comic book readers would certainly double. So as small a gesture as it may be it has the potential to speak volumes.

A second experience comes from the enjoyment I receive when I see the face of a young avid comic fans face light up. That face happened to be Austin, my brother’s fiancés son (still following me?). Austin reminds me quite a bit of myself when I was his age; he loves video games, transformers, and comic books. He was not able to make it out to FCBD, so I brought the free comics to him. It’s not stealing if they’re free, right?

Anyway, my wife, daughter and I headed out to my brothers house after FCBD to celebrate the birthday of another of his girlfriend’s children. I brought a sack of free comics and upon entering the door he instinctively seemed to know that I had something for him. This isn’t the first time I had given him a stack of comics or toys, so maybe it was wishful thinking on his part. As soon as I handed him the sack his eyes immediately lit up, and a huge smile crossed his face. “WOW, comics!” he exclaimed. He quickly tore the sack apart pulling out each one and commenting how cool they were. Austin has not yet perfected the “reading” part, but is working on it, and I think that the comics will certainly help. He at least has the will to read, which a great start is.

I am grateful to be able to share my passion with someone as great as Austin, and am really looking forward to sharing that passion with my own son in the future.

Another thing worth mentioning and something I learned at FCBD is to never leave your camera left unattended. When I left Jay’s Saturday afternoon I mistakenly left my camera behind. When it was returned to me the following day it was chock full of photos of various movie and album covers, crotch shots of toys and comic art, and even crotch shots of my respective artist/partner. Let me just warn those responsible, that payback is a btich.

Countdown to FCBD

2009-04-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

The countdown has begun. Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday May 2^nd, which is fast approaching, and I am totally stoked for it! Why am I so excited you may ask? Well, first it’s on a Saturday, which is the best day of the week. And secondly; it is a day devoted to comics. Everyone else has their holidays; the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, and now the Geeks!

FCBD began as a marketing ploy to try and attract new readers to a dwindling market, and that is something I wholeheartedly support due to my own selfish agenda of trying to sell comics. It provides antidote comics with an opportunity for exposure, which is very important to a small press publisher such as Antidote. The more people I can get in front of means the more books we have the potential to sell, which means the more books we can create in the near future.

It’s not just about monetary gain, however: I love the medium of comics I love sharing them with everyone I know. Just ask my wife who puts up with my incessant babbling over the newest issue of Nova, or Proof trade paperback I picked up at this year’s Planet Comicon. Or you can ask my neighbor Matt who owns a comic shop, and can’t seem to get any gardening done without me pestering him about Marvel’s releasing Wolverine’s title out of numerical order, or Peter Parker revealing his identity as Spider-Man in not one, but two books this last month. I wish more of my family and friends read comics, and I suppose they do if you count mine, but I digress.

FCBD has not been around too terribly long, and I aim to help it grow and flourish. I will be doing that this year by hanging out at Jay’s CD and Hobby on SE 14^th Street in Des Moines IA behind Culvers, and across the street from Menards. We will have a table and will be selling books and T-shirts from noon to about five or six. Bring the whole family for comics, games, movies, CD’s and toys. There will be folks in costumes allowing great photo opportunities for the kids, and food and drink as well.

I hope to see you out there!

What else is going on?

X-men Origins: Wolverine is released in theatres this Friday. I plan on checking it out despite the unfinished copy leaked to the internet several weeks ago and the poor response it seemed to receive from those the viewed it.

In anticipation of the films release Marvel has been mass-marketing Wolverine comics for the month of May. This includes a little switcheroo in the numbering sequence of the ongoing monthly titles. Issue #73 will be released on May 13^th, while issue #72 will hit the stands on May 20^th. Wolverine #73 will be written by Jason Aaron and Daniel Way, and their story wraps up in Issue #74, which is due to his shelves on May 27^th. Is everyone following me so far? Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s “Old Man Logan” arc which has currently been running through the title will be wrapped up in a spin off Giant Size Old Man Logan. The out of synch release of the titles does not bother me really especially since I am confident that the stories will be good.

I am a little bothered with the “Old Man Logan” story arc being concluded in a one shot title. One of my biggest gripes with Marvel these days is the sheer number of mini-series and one-shots. Mostly because of my very limited funds I am in the process of weeding out some titles as it is, so when I have to purchase Dead Pool and the Dead Pool mini-series it stretches my funds even thinner. I wish that more story arcs would be worked into the main title, but I also understand that Marvel makes money off of suckers like me when they do release the one-shots and mini-series!

I should also note that Wolverine changes its name to Dark Wolverine with issue #75 where Wolverine’s son, Daken appears to take the lead. The name change along with shift in focus from Wolverine to his son means that I will save an extra $4.00 a month since I plan on dropping it from that point on. I hate the idea of having to drop a book that I follow and have enjoyed, but up to this point I have not enjoyed the portrayal of wolverine’s son. I have nothing against the idea of Wolverine having a son; it’s just the way he has been written to this point seems redundant. The money saved will gladly be allocated to Jason Aaron’s new Wolverine: Weapon X series that I touted last time.

And speaking of movies, I saw 17 Again on Saturday. I was only going because I was forced to by my wife; we also took our daughter and my sister. The movie was surprisingly better than I expected, and very funny! How can you not love a character that is fluent in Elvish, sleeps in a Land Speeder bed, and seeks answers to life’s problems in an extensive collection of comics, and sci-fi literature? Much of the humor was fairly adult oriented as well; during the movie my curious daughter asked me what a douche and bastard were. All in all I thought it was very funny, and even very touching!

That’s enough rambling for this week. Before I go I do want to mention that you can follow me via Facebook, and twitter as well. I am much better at updating Facebook than I am at twittering, but both are good tools to keep in touch!

The Price is Right?

2009-04-11T10:29:00.001-07:00

This impromptu entry is based on an interesting article I read here. The article provides some insight to the rising cost of comic books from various comic book publishers. The article was primarily spurred by Marvel Comics increasing more and more monthly books a $3.99 price tag. This is compared to the typical $2.99 that fans have been accustomed to paying the past several years. As opposed to spewing everything the article references, I will let you read it for yourself.

However, I did want to provide my own thoughts as well as some explanations regarding our own price points at Antidote Comics.

Since we are not paying any freelance or contracted talent at this time, the price of our books is based simply on printing. The rate we are able to print a book for will be the deciding factor in what we charge. There is a learning curve to this whole self publishing thing and we are slowly climbing it. For example: When we first printed Bloods Own Issue 1 we assumed we would be able to move huge volumes of books at local retailers, to friends and family, and on the convention circuit. We printed four thousand copies! Yes, that was FOUR THOUSAND copies. Aside from our confidence that the book would sell like hot cakes, we also received each copy for a sensational low cost of about a dollar an issue. The general cover price on the book is $2.99, which is in line with the majority of the monthly books offered by today's larger publishers. It is also $1.00 to $2.00 cheaper than most other independent publishers of equal or greater production value.

Unfortunately we have not yet sold out of the book and it's creator, Anthony Lucia has about three thousand of them sitting in his basement. I am actually okay with this since we can continue to sell them at future shows without having to go back to the presses.

With our second book, Black Jack we initially ran a small print run of about 150 books to test the waters and see if there was a market in the for it. Due to the very small print run the books cost to us was about $5.25. I knew we would not be able to sell the books at conventions for that cost, especially with the economic recession looming overhead. I did feel that $4.99 would be an acceptable price tag, and I was right: Within a few months of the initial release we sold out.

A local retailer had purchased some copies as well and was selling them off the shelf for over $7.00 an issue.

At Minnesota's Fallcon last year, there were people that would stop by the table and check out the book. Often they would hesitate at the $5.00 price point, but once they learned we were taking a loss in order to pass the deal on the consumer they were immediately at ease and purchased a copy. That is a technique I learned in sales called framing. You "frame" the sale so that it makes sense to the buyer.

With the initial run of Black Jack selling out, it was back to the presses this spring with 1,000 more copies. Some edits were made to correct some copy errors, and a blurb from creator Phil Hester was added to the cover. Printing more copies inherently came with a larger print bill, but the cost per issue was significantly less. We are now able to sell the issues at $3.99 an issue, which is very much in the same range as both large and small press publishers these days.

To me, it isn't a matter of the cost of the book, but more a matter of the quality of it's contents. I am comfortable paying $3.99 or even $4.99 for a book as long as I feel I am getting my moneys worth out of that book. You hear on message boards and internet sites all across fandom that people intend on reducing the number of monthly books they purchase in favor of trade paperbacks, others feel that the price increase is the first step of Publishers eradicating the printed comic all together in favors of both trades and web-based comics. As a traditionalist, I hope this isn't the case. I love being able to hold the pages in my hand, I love the feel, the smell. I love being able to read them anywhere; the car, the office, the toilet ( I don't love the smell as much in those cases).

The out cry of the recent price increases across fandom can be understandable for someone on a fixed budget or with limited funds. If people actually decide to show their dismay by voting with their wallet as they so loudly proclaim then we may see the eventual demise of the printed monthly comic in favor of online digital comics and trade paperbacks.

As someone who has a fairly decent take on the inner-workings of publishing I can understand that the cover price of the book is going to increase as the cost to actually publish the book increases. Print cost, distribution, company expenses including salaries to home office people and wages to freelancers are all variables that may fluctuate.

Those "monetary conscious" fan out there who denounce Marvel, DC and other companies for the increase in price will be the same fans ones to thank when the printed comic becomes utterly extinct. And when that happens it will be those same "fans" who sprint to the message boards and comic forums bitching and moaning about it as well.

Sometimes you can't win, hopefully you can at least break even.

Life and Comics, what else is there?

2009-04-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

What’s up world?

I meant to post part of this entry last week, but have been busy at work and with the writing. I have been really good about sticking to my goal of writing four pages a day, and the result is amazing. I reworked parts of Black Jack issue five, and am nearly complete with the first full issue of Freedom Guard.
Some of you may remember Freedom Guard from a blurb in the first issue of Bloods Own or through the prints we sell at cons. This book has been through more rewrites and revamps than anything else I have ever done. I at one time had seven different word docs saved on my computer all with a different version of the first issue. One showcased only the villain while another took place fifty years ago and spotlighted a completely different team roster. The concept began simply enough as a homage to some of the classic characters from old stories like Weird War Tales with classic characters like GI Robot and the Creature Commandoes. Over the past few years it has slowly evolved and taken on a life of its own. I feel I finally have a good grasp of who these characters are, and why they are a part of this book. Along with rewriting the first issue for the last time (I swear) I have been busy plotting future issues. I have a multiple page outline consisting of about sixty issues. That’s five years worth of stories, and I haven’t even reached the end yet!
One unique aspect of Freedom Guard that I am striving for is to bring back the try monthly serial. To echo the sentiments of Grant Morrison, most comics these days have become a story board for movies. The comic book medium is completely unique and I feel a part of is becoming lost. Why make Kick Ass a comic first, when it was obviously intended to be a movie? At the rate Kick Ass hits the stands the movie will be on DVD before the first story arc is even completed. I am not trying to knock Kick Ass as a story because I am enjoying the shit out of it. I am simply trying to state that you will probably never see a Freedom Guard movie, and that is entirely the point.
For the most part Freedom Guard is good to go; all I need is an artist willing to draw that many pages. Anyone out there want to draw 1,320 pages for free?

A new JLA creative team? I read a rumor about the possibilities of a new creative team for what should be DC’s flagship title on Rich Johnston’s column, “Lying in The Gutters” at comicbookresources.com. According to Rich, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee will be an upcoming creative team on the book. This has the potential to be awesome! Geoff Johns is one of the best Super Hero writers in comics today, and Jim Lee was a major player in revolutionizing the comics industry back in the early nineties with the launch of Image Comics.
Remember Jim Lee and Chris Claremont’s X-men #1 from back in 1990. It still remains the best selling single issue of all time by selling about five million copies.
A high profile comic these days will sell about hundred-thousand copies. Last years the big seller was Marvels secret Invasion #1, which sold about two-hundred and fifty thousand copies. Of course cover prices are very different as well X-men #1 came with a cover price of $1.50 where as Secret Invasion #1 had a $3.99 cover price. Besides the variance in cover price, comics seemed to be a different beast back; it was not uncommon for hot first issue to sell a million plus copies. That bubble burst back in the mid nineties for better or worse (that’s a topic for a different day).
Do I think A JLA relaunch with Jim Lee and Geoff Johns will sell five million copies? God do, but I do think it will kick major ass. I think it will give the JLA the juice it needs to be the company’s flagship title it should be. I know I’d be in line to purchase my copy.

Look for a copy of Black Jack at a retailer near you very soon. We just reprinted about a thousand copies and are in the process of getting them into stores around the Des Moines area. I am even branching out to other retailers across the state and (hopefully) even regionally. I have put together a new order form and sending that out along with a complimentary copy of the book. I will start doing this next week. I have no idea what the response will be like, but am optimistic. If anyone stumbles across this from out there in the wide open US of A and is interested in getting a copy of the book, please drop me a line.
We are working on having them available to order through the website as well, but as with everything else regarding our website, it is a slow and tedious process.

One of my favorite days of the year is fast approaching and that is Free Comic Book Day. FCBD is the first Saturday in May, and is a great opportunity to introduce new generations to the medium as well as re-enlist older readers. Some retailers throw huge parties, with giveaways, contests, guest creators on site signing books. As far as I know the local retailers around here have never really put much effort into FCBD in the past, but hopefully that can change this year. I have been speaking at length with my friend and comic shop owner, Jason Shreve is going balls out this year with a live radio feed, discounts on merchandise, and local talent on hand signing books, and doing sketches. I will be there as well with copies of both Black Jack and Bloods Own. Aside from the comics we will have some shirts made specifically for this event. Depending on how well they sell, we may produce more with different images on the. I think the first is a Black Jack wanted poster. Anthony Lucia will be there along with his new pinup gallery he’s been working on. They look amazing and are definitely worth checking out. I may try and hit up another local retailer as well, but have not yet finalized those plans, so there will more details to follow as we get closer to the big day.

So X-men Origins: Wolverine will be hitting theatres soon, which I am quite excited for. Even more so now that Hasbro has released their new toys based on the movie. These toys have great articulation and are about the same size as the old school GI Joe figures I grew up obsessing over. So far I have picked up a Wolverine, Maverick (one of my favorite characters), and a bizarre Deadpool figure that I pretend is a new character all together. I thought about calling him X-assin.

Aside from the figure Marvel has released its new Wolverine series called Wolverine: Weapon X. The series is written by fan favorite, Jason Aaron (Scalped, Ghost Rider), and illustrated by the wicked talented Ron Garney. The two creators previously worked together on a very popular Wolverine Arc titled “Get Mystique” where Wolverine set out across the world to do just that. The run was chock full of intrigue, action, and awesome surprises. A beautiful variant cover by Adam Kubert was released as well, and since I couldn’t decide between the two covers I bought both despite the 3.99 price tag. Needless to say I loved it, and can’t wait for the next issue.
Aaron does a great job in this issue with setting the stage, introducing us to a new group of high-tech mercenaries with a secret, but bloody agenda. When we meet Wolverine in this issue we are quickly reminded why he is such a timeless character. Aaron reintroduces us to Maverick, one of wolverine’s old allies from his Weapon X days who sets wolverine on the path to tracking down these Mercenaries.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Garney’s art, which always impresses me. I first took notice of his work on the “Get Mystique” arc in Wolverine, and that left me simply wanting more. I guess this book is like a wish come true.
The issue itself follows a standard first issue process, though that is not a bad thing by any means. There is great set up for the story and its plot points, introduction to the players, and plenty of action. The issue is easily accessible to those looking to get into a Wolverine Book for the first time. And those that feel Wolverine is overexposed and does not need another ongoing title would truly be missing the beginning of something great by passing on this. For any fan of the character or fan of the creative team this book is well worth the cover price.

KC's Planet Comicon

2009-03-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

KC’s Planet Comicon has already come and gone. It was held this past weekend in Overland Park. Anthony, Chris, and I were in attendance along with Johnny Bananas. You don’t know Johnny Bananas, he is not a member of the antidote family, but has become somewhat of a mascot (much to his dismay).
The convention was a lot of fun despite the shitty weather. There was a blizzard on Saturday, but it didn’t stop the flow of Con-goers as there was a lot of traffic. Not a lot of sales, but a lot of traffic. Sunday had better weather and less traffic, but far better sales. As for Sunday, we more than tripled Saturday’s sales, but trust me that was no difficult feat.I spent most of my spending money on Saturday because I am impulsive and cannot help myself. I was left with a meager $10.00 to spend on Sunday, which made for a very long day. I mostly picked up some trades, which is what I typically go for, and found some great deals on them as well. I did pick up some cheap action figures – as in $.33 cheap – because, again, I am impulsive.
Along with spending all my dough on Saturday, I also sat in on a writer’s panel held by some of my favorite writers such as Jason Aaron, and Matt Fraction. The panel was very informative, and really challenged me to rethink my own battle plans as a writer. Based on what I learned at the panel as of yesterday I have created a new set of goals which involve writing at least four pages a day. By writing four pages a day I am able to write a full issue in a week. Now if I write more than four pages in a day, I can bank those pages and write less the next day. If I work on more than one series at a time, which I fully intend to do, I would need to write eight or twelve pages a day. Regardless of how many titles I work on, the key however is to write every single day. So far so good, I wrote four pages last night and plan on writing another four this evening.
Following the Panel I stopped by Jason Aaron’s table to follow up on an e-mail I had sent earlier that week. I asked Jason if he would be willing to look at a sample proposal and script for feedback on ways I can improve as a writer. The proposal is one I had created for Black Jack, and since I am self publishing it anyway, I figure that would be safe for another writer to peruse and give me some pointers. I am not looking to magically break into the business as a professional writer, but rather want to hone my craft so the breaking in comes naturally. Hopefully he has an opportunity to review it provide some feedback. If not, I won’t let it deter me and will keep chugging along, doing what I am doing.
I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos to my Facebook account, and have provided some samples here.

Though there isn’t a Con this weekend, I am still really excited for it. The wife and I have set up a spa day complete with a couples massage and pedicure…for her, not me. I would not want anyone to touch my nasty-ass feet. We will probably grab some lunch after that. Should be a great time!

Con-Spiracy Theories

2009-03-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

CON-spiracy theories

The KC Planet Comicon is about a month away, and I am totally stoked. Last year was my first time at Kanas City’s premier comic convention and it was an absolute blast. I had the opportunity to meet some of my favorite creators such as Jason Aaron, Dave Finch, Javier Saltares, and Mark Texeira. I also had the opportunity to hang out at dinner with Tyler Walpole and Ron Wagner. The folks that run the con are as nice as can be, and do a great job organizing the floor and even the panel events. Plus they fed us lunch to!
So I am definitely looking forward to the Con this year. I won’t have a lot of money to spend as I am focusing on paying off my credit card debt by June, but there isn’t anything I am really hurting for right now anyway. I am looking forward to meeting Jason Aaron again, have him sign a bunch of Ghost Rider comics, and hopefully pick his brain a little. With the baby due in June, this may be my only convention this year other than the local I-Con, which unfortunately has always been lacking.
One of the things I look forward to most about each convention and something that was in abundance at last years Planet Comicon was the opportunity to meet and chat with the local con goers. The people I met in KC last year were incredibly nice and very supportive of our endeavor. I really look forward to seeing some familiar faces as well as meet tons of cool new folks. There are a couple of guidelines I would like to suggest for those that plan on stopping by our table, or any other table for that matter.

UNLESS YOU’RE A MUTE, PLEASE TALK TO ME: There are so many times at every con where I say hello to someone passing by only to be completely ignored. There are times when someone will approach the table and peruse the books; when I try to strike a conversation with them they look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language. It’s just rude people! You are amongst your kin, your friends. No one is going to ridicule you for your love of Aquaman, or if you think Dr. Fate could be Dr. Strange in a battle of magical prowess, or if you still beat off to the old Marvel swimsuit specials (maybe that’s just me!).
Tell me what you like, what you don’t like. Tell me what books you read, and what inspires you. Don’t be afraid to talk. I promise not to judge you even if you are dressed as an Imperial Storm Trooper; I always preferred the scout troopers personally!

LEARN WHEN TO SHUT-UP: At the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the people above are the people that do not know when to stop talking and move on. These people are rare, but they exist. Case-in-point: At last years Planet Comicon, Curt Peterson met a young man on Saturday and the two discovered they shared a love for the same type of music. On Sunday that same young man stopped over with his I-pod where he stood in front of the table listening to and discussing his favorite songs with Curt for about an hour. A fucking hour! I am trying to discuss the books and generate some sales, which is proven difficult with someone standing in front of the table drumming on it with a pencil. I may not have been nearly as miffed if they were discussing something relative to the company or comics in general…or if he would have purchased something, which brings me to my next point.

SUPPORT THY NEIGHBOR: I know that what we publish is not everyone’s cup of tea. There are a surprising number of people the frequent the artist alley looking for self-published books because of their disdain for the super-hero genre, and they are shocked and dismayed when the find a self-publisher actually publishing super-hero books. I also know that when we were selling out limited number of Black Jack issues for 5.00 a pop that may have been outside some peoples price range. What I absolutely cannot stand are the people that stop by the table telling us how good the book looks, how they so badly want to start publishing their own books, and then they just walk away. A rule of thumb I always followed is that if you want to self-publish books you should support other self-publishers. In this industry there are not too many people looking out for the little guys, so we have to look out for and support one another.

DON’T PITCH THIS STORY TO ANYONE: A lot of people stop by the table to tell me about their own story idea, which to them is the best thing since Babylon 5. The truth is that most of the story ideas I hear about are more like Alien Vs. Hunter (check your local listings for time and channel if you dare). I’ve heard this particular idea more than once:

“So it’s a story about a woman who’s this half-human and half-vampire, and she goes around killing other vampires. She can like walk around in the Daylight, and can only be killed the way you would kill a regular vampire. And She’s like really hot. She looks like Angelina Jolie from Tomb Raider, but carries a sword made out of a special metal that kills vampires, and wooden stakes. She ends up falling in love with the king of the vampires who declares war on humankind forcing her to choose a side, and we don’t know which side that’ll be, cause it’s like an internal struggle she goes through. And later on she also teams up with a group of humans who hunt vampires, and they don’t know that she is half vampire, so it’ll totally change the status quo when they find out.
This story is like Tomb Raider meets Watchmen”

Tomb Raider meets Watchmen? Is that even possible? Like those of you who just read that, I was also dumber after listening to this drivel. If I had a dollar for every story involving half-human half-vampire that hunts vampires and closely resembles Angelina Jolie I could quit my day job.
And don’t ever compare your story to Watchmen, because no one will take you seriously beyond that point though they may have you strapped and sedated for being severely delusional.

I’LL TAKE YOUR ART, BUT NOT YOUR IDEAS: I am a writer, not an editor. Though Antidote Comics LLC is technically a publishing company, we are currently not in a position to bring on new creative talent and publish their work. That may change in the future, but for right now if you are someone looking to break into the biz by submitting your story proposal to me you are wasting your time and energy. I guess I should specify that I am an aspiring writer and am still trying to “break into the biz” just as you are. I am all for networking and may be able to direct you to someone else, or another company to take your submission, but as of right now we are not that company.
Now since about three people read this column I will undoubtedly receive some story proposals, and God’s honest truth is that I won’t even read them, and I will tell them that.
Now if you are an artist looking for work, you can certainly submit to me your art samples. Those I do look at, and keep for my records. With the number of stories I want to tell, I am always going to keep my eyes on potential artists. Hopefully I will someday be in a position to hire on a freelance artist, and I will delve into those samples first. So the bottom line is aspiring artists can submit your samples to me though I can’t hire you at this moment it will be held for future reference, and writers save those story proposals for Dark Horse, or Top Cow editors.

Other Bits and Pieces:

Heath Ledger won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Based on that stunning portrayal I feel this was very well deserved, and congratulate the Academy for recognizing his masterful performance. It’s about time they get something right for once.
The rest of the awards seemed like a big yawn fest as usual.

We are going to be printing about 500 more copies of Black Jack to sell during the con season as well as get some copies into local shops. These will be ready to go in time for Planet Comicon. I am also going to be sending out samples along with a letter introducing our company to some other retailers around the region and hopefully expand our distribution. A KC based publishing company has expressed interest in a cross-distribution plan to hopefully get our book into some stores there in the Kansas City area, and vice versa. I will be looking into this more closely and will hopefully have some more details in the near future.

Also in regards to Black Jack: The rest of the Antidote crew and myself are looking at some ways of bringing in new artists to assist with getting books out. One idea is to have the company retain a certain percentage of ownership, while the creator retains a percentage of ownership. That creator can then allocate portions of their ownership to other individuals for work on the book.
As an example: the company owns 50% of Black Jack, I own 50% of Black Jack. I can give 25% of the ownership I own to an artist to pencil the book. There is no money out of pocket, but that also means the artist is not paid until the book would begin to actually churn a profit. The goal would be to get more books out in a more timely fashion. If the book becomes successful and actually makes money, they the artist is paid based on their percentage of ownership.
It is a good concept in helping new, aspiring artists get work published and get them some exposure, but at the same time I do not know too many (good) artists willing to work for free, but if you do send them my way!
I will be back with more details to follow as we iron them out.

For anyone interested in learning more about the KC Planet Comicon, or if you are in the area and want to attend check out this HYPERLINK "http://www.planetcomicon.com/" site for details.

2009-03-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

The Spotlight interview with Jonah Hardenbrook

The Quarterly Cure is an online newsletter providing the fans with frequent company updates, the Quarterly Cure also wants give you the opportunity to get to know the creative forces behind the titles through candid interviews. In celebration of the release of their second title, Black Jack, we sat down with creator/writer Jonah Hardenbrook to get to find out how his journey began what he’s learned along the way.

Before getting into the details of Black Jack, let’s talk about the beginning. How did you become involved with Antidote Comics?

Chris, Curt and Anthony all know each other from college. Chris is my brother-in-law…our wives are sisters, and I met Anthony on a road trip to a Star Wars convention…because we are that cool (Laughs)!
Well, Anthony and Chris had gotten together to start work on Bloods Own, they laid out the story and completed the thumbnails, but were having trouble putting words with the pictures. Knowing I have always aspired to be a writer, especially a comic book writer, Chris approached me asking if I’d write the script. I basically said that they could either pay me up front for the script, which I knew they could not afford to do, or make me a partner! It also made sense because there are a lot of stories I personally want to tell, and this is a great opportunity to tell those stories.

Of all the stories you want to tell, why choose Black Jack as your first?

Just as Bloods Own is Anthony’s “baby”, and is something he has been planning since he was in college forty years ago, Black Jack is my “baby”. The idea is nearly a decade old, stemming back to my days when I wanted to write and direct movies. The initial idea was for a horror/western called Cursed World in which a posse of gunfighters and lawmen hunted down a werewolf. As I grew older I gave up on those less-than-realistic aspirations, but never abandoned the concept. Over the years it slowly evolved into it’s current incarnation.

The first issue of Black Jack is a self-contained story, however there is quite a bit of setup for possible future stories. Is Black Jack planned as a mini series, or an ongoing?

I wanted to kick off the series with a self-contained issue because in all honesty I do not know when a second or even a third issue will be completed. That being said, Black Jack is definitely planned as an ongoing series. I have the scripts for issues two through five completed and have the first thirty-five or so issues outlined. As I said before, there are a lot of stories I want to tell!

It has been over a year since the inception of Antidote Comics, what have you learned throughout the creative process?

It’s not necessarily what I’ve learned, but what I am still learning. And the answer is…everything! Bloods Own was the first script I’d written, and even that was based on thumbnails that had already been laid out. Black Jack was the first time I had to create a script from scratch including panels and descriptive images, so the entire process from script to layouts to lettering has all been a learning experience. The most important thing I’ve learned is that praise is good, but criticism is even better. I’ve never improved by receiving praise, and am looking forward to as much constructive criticism as necessary to better hone my craft.

Any advice you can give other aspiring creators looking to self publish or break into the business?

I don’t know about the breaking into the biz part since I’m still working on that myself. I guess the best advice I can give anyone that wants to be a writer is advice actually given to me a few years back: If you want to be a writer you need to stop talking about wanting to be a writer and actually start writing.

25 Random Facts about me

2009-02-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

25 Random Facts about me

A good friend of mine had recently posted a note on Facebook with 25 random facts about herself. Seemed like a fun idea, and I am shy on other topics this week, so here it goes. Some you may already know, some you could care less about, and others may cause you to never look at me the same again.

1) I have been fired from four of my six jobs. Of those four, four of them didn’t count as real jobs.

2) I didn’t have my first kiss till I was seventeen years old, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.

3) My brother and I once made up our own form of martial arts called Kuma Te. The cool thing about that is you are automatically a black belt.

4) My soon-to-be-born son’s name is derived from one of my favorite GI Joe characters. It took some convincing to get my wife on board. And no, it is not Zartan, though I did present that as an option.

5) Rainbow Bright was the object of my first masturbatory fantasy…before I knew what masturbation even was.

6) I attended DMACC (Des Moines Area Community college) without ever completing an elected class. Yet made the Deans List after required to take a “Driver Improvement Class”.

7) I once pretended to be Jewish just to date a girl (in my defense she was really cute). She was not happy when she learned the truth. You think she would have caught on sooner since I always referred to the temple as “church”.

8) As a child I had aspirations to pursue a career as a paleontologist, zoologist, herpetologist and a marine biologist. I never once said I want to pursue a career in Insurance.

9) I plan on writing comic books for the rest of my life even if it never pays the bills or makes any sort of income. It is a true passion of mine.

10) My beautiful, talented daughter is decades ahead of her old man, she has already written her first children’s book, which is in the process of being illustrated. Once published, all net profit will go into a college fund.

11) I have yet to meet somebody from New Jersey that I actually like. I am starting to believe that person doesn’t even exist.

12) With aspirations of taking Hollywood by storm, I once made a bet with my childhood friend, Christina Calisesi, that I would win an Academy Award by age twenty-five. Needless to say I lost that bet.

13) I’d always wanted a nickname when I didn’t have one, but then when I had nicknames such as BF, NGB, Princess-Limpy-Wrist, Johann, and Goona, I wished I hadn’t had one. And those we the names given to me by my friends, I’d hate to have heard the names people had
for me that didn’t like me.

14) I enjoy reading comic books and still play with action figures, but make no mistake: I am all man.

15) Before I discovered hustler there was Penthouse. Before I discovered Penthouse there was Playboy. Before I discovered Playboy there was Victoria’s Secret. And before I discovered Victoria’s Secret there was the Newport News Catalogue.

16) I created my first superhero when I was twelve years old, it was a vigilante called Death Shadow. I used to dress up as this character wearing black sweat pants, a black t-shirt, a blue cape and a black hat. Death Shadow was armed with an Uzi and a sword…and a mullet.

17) The best advice I should have followed: “Don’t sleep with that girl.”

18) My wife, Lindsey is not just my lover but also my best friend. She has been without a doubt the best thing to ever happen to me. I often shudder at the thought of where I may be now if it wasn’t for her.

19) I didn’t eat salad or Mexican food until I was twenty. I still don’t eat chili with beans, but maybe someday that’ll change. The thought of Mushrooms make me physically ill, and I refuse to anything with them.

20) I used to say that I hate fat people, but after gaining a little weight myself I have changed my stance: I hate really fat people.

21) One of my favorite books is Sympathy for the Devil by Kent Anderson. It is a brilliant character study of one man’s transformation based on experiences during the Vietnam conflict. I have read this book multiple times and it is just as engrossing and disturbing now as it was the first time.

22) When I was in preschool the educators believed I might have needed to go into Special Ed. As it turns out I was just really bored.

23) I used to pretend that my life was a sitcom, and not the unfunny Rosanne kind. This “delusion” often dictated many of my actions and the things I said.

24) I've read the bible cover to cover.

25) Just because I do not believe in God doesn’t mean I am a man without faith.

2009-02-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

A new blog is being added to my every growing series of entries. This new one titled Jonah’s Joe’s is dedicated to my love of GI Joe. From the toys of the 80’s and 90’s to the classic cartoon and 155 issue Marvel comic book series. If it’s about GI Joe, it’ll be posted there.
I have been cleaning up my collection and selling large portions of it in order to start paying off some debt, which I hope to have cleared by the time the new baby arrives. I hope to post some pictures of the collection to share with you all. I most recently started going through some custom figures that I had made a few years back and have the intention of posting pictures along with descriptions on this blog. Several of the figures had been added to www.joecustoms.com, and can still be seen there under the handle, Jogunwarrior. I can’t really remember where that handle came from; I think it had to do with a narcissistic variation of Shogun Warriors. I have always been fascinated by feudal Japan. I remember changing it from the previous online handle Wldcrd78 after a stalker started using an all too similar variation of it (Wldcrd70) to harass my girlfriend. I never did learn the identity of the Internet stalker. But I digress…
If you want to see the work of a man who had way too much time on his hands you can find it here: http://jonahsjoes.blogspot.com/
Notice I used past tense, because I have not had that much time on my hands for quite a few years.

On to more important matters: My wife and I had our ultrasound this past Monday to determine the sex of the baby, and ensure that it has all it’s limbs. I am proud to announce that the baby is healthy and on track as far as developmental stages go. It is also a boy! People always asked if was hoping for a boy or a girl. They assumed a boy since I already have a daughter, and one day will need someone to pass along all my toys and comic books to. There is a part of me that was really hoping to have a boy to pass all my manliness along to, but most boy children I see are complete douche bags. And I’m not going to be one of those parents that says, “My kids never gonna act like that!” Because the truth is that they probably are and then I’d look like a dick. Having another girl would have been cool to, but I already have two women in the house bossing me around and another one may lead me to drink heavily on a regular basis. The truth is that I would have been totally happy regardless of the sex just as long as he/she is healthy.
Our daughter went with us, and afterwards we are all went out to lunch. We went to the Olive Garden where I ordered the seafood-pasta-stuff and had them hold the syphilis (that’s a long story for another time).

What else is going on? Not much on my end other than the exciting baby news. I got a promotion at my day job, which means more work, and less time to sit around thinking about useless shit to blog about.

Not much has changed in the Antidote world since the last update. Anthony is still drawing Bloods Own issue 2. Chris is still drawing Children of Circus. I am going back and forth on scripts for several stories in the works such as Freedom Guard and Black Jack…I’ll have the forty-plus outlined issues completely scripted by the time anyone gets around to drawing issue 2. I need to hire an artist, but that takes something I am lacking right now called – what’s the word – Oh yeah, money! I am also working on some proposals for other publishing companies on the off chance I ever pitch one of the big dogs an idea it’ll be ready. There had been some discussion at the last antidote meeting, which I unfortunately missed, to reduce the page count of each issue from twenty-two to twelve. This would hopefully reduce cost, as well as the time it takes to complete an issue. Issues could have some bonus stuff added like sketches, and maybe even script pages. The reduced page count would come with a lower price tag to the consumer, which is nice. I am not totally on board with these changes, as I enjoyed the current format with the visage of being able to go head to head with the big dogs, but I am willing to try anything to get more quality products out sooner. I also need to realize that ultimately this is just a hobby.
With Diamond’s changes in their distribution guidelines (my friend and neighbor, Matt does a good job summing it up in his own blog here: www.cupokryptonite.com we will probably not be submitting Black Jack or any other titles to them anytime soon. We will stick to the convention circuit for now and may review alternative methods of distribution when we have more books available. Once again, I need to remember that this is still just a hobby!

Hopefully I’ll have some more stuff for next week, and remember to check out the new GI Joe pages!

Because You Care

2009-01-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

Last month we (as in Antidote) received a well written, very thought out letter from a local customer with some concerns on our companies vision and output. I devised a rather lengthy response with hopes of providing some explanations as opposed to excuses, and alleviating some of those concerns. This is more than a hobby to me, which is why I truly appreciate the feedback they have provided.
I feel that many others out there may share this individual’s thoughts and concerns, so I thought I would borrow excerpts from her letter along with my own responses.

“I, and many of other readers, am very disappointed with how long it takes you to produce these quality comics. The quality of your pritings, while very nice, is really to high a quality for an upcoming company. This seemingly forwards high prices onto your consumers.”

Creating comics is something that has been a lifelong dream for us, especially myself, and our goal is to put out the best quality product that we can, using what limited resources we may have. It is because of our pursuit to provide you with the best quality product we do want to rush the process. Now are there instances where time could have best been spent putting pen to paper, but we had not done so? Yes. As someone with two other jobs, a wife and child with another on the way, what little free time I do have is spent outlining new stories, writing scripts, as well as treatments and proposals. Until I am in a position where I can write and create comics full time this endeavor has to be relegated to "free time" because my priorities are my family. Now I can't speak for everyone at Antidote Comics when I say that creating comics is a dream of mine, and ultimately I do want it to become a career.
The first print run of Black Jack was very small, and was intended for availability solely on the convention circuit. However, some additional issues had been provided to a few local retailers as a way to test the local market demand. Unfortunately Black Jack's small print run demanded a higher price point. It was approximately $5.25 per issue to print, and we were selling copies at $5.00, which means we were taking a loss. We feel this loss is acceptable at this time and expect to recapture it when Black Jack is submitted to Diamond for National Distribution.

“I also don’t see any future release dates as sequels to Bloods Own or Black Jack and instead I see ideas of producing other storey titles. This is just another head scratcher for your consumers.”

There is no future dates posted at this time for Black Jack or Bloods Own, but trust me that there additional issues are planned. Two additionally planned titles (Boot Hill and Freedom guard) have been placed on the back burner to ensure work on bloods Own and Black Jack continues. Bloods Own has been plotted as a four-issue story arc, and though it has been a long time coming, the second issue currently being penciled by artist, Anthony Lucia. I have been assured that the issue will be completed by August at the latest, and the issues will be available at conventions around the region.

“In this age of video games, cable tv, and the internet consumers are bombarded with entertainment. How do you expect consumers to remember you at all in the time they have to wait between issues, not to mention how could they possible be expected to remember a storyline”

You hit the nail on the head when you ask how can we expect a consumer to remember a particular storyline or plot point when there is a two-year span between issues, and the answer is that we can't. The fans should not have to wait that long, and as we progress I am confident we can increase the efficiency in our production process.

My response closed with the following message: We want to maintain open lines of communications with our consumers. If you have any additional questions or concerns please do not hesitate to share them with us. It is with your criticism and feedback that we can grow and mature as a small press publishing company.

If you would like to drop us a line please e-mail us at cure@antidotecomics.com

Other Notes:
Quote/Misquote: “I’m not eating out anymore.” me to my fellow co-workers enticing me to join them for lunch on Monday.

I’m going to say it here first. I want to write Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider is the best it has ever been, and that is thanks to “Best of 2008 award winner for Best Writer”, Jason Aaron. Jason Aaron’s run will be ending soon, and I would welcome the challenge of continuing the same kick-ass, no-holds-barred, anything goes “Grindhouse” style horror story he started. I have always been a fan of the character, and have a specific story arc in mind that I’d love to tell. Do I think that Marvel would give a “nobody” like me the reigns to the property? No. But that isn’t going to stop me from being prepared on the ever-so-slim-its-almost-non-existent chance that they actually did.

Speaking of “Best of 2008”, I hate televised awards shows such as the Emmy’s, Golden Globes, Oscars, and even those MTV movie awards. They just bore me, and the winners (especially at the Academy Awards) are usually some artsy turd that the average viewer can sit through maybe once. But it’s mostly because they bore me. They last too long, the hosts are not funny, and everyone thanks God as if God gives two shits about the Box Office Draw of In the Name of the King…Obviously a poor example because that movie being nominated for any type of award other than a Razzie is utterly impossible.

1st Cube Farm

2009-01-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone enjoyed their first week of the New Year. I have had a crazy busy week and cannot wait for it to be over. "One more Day", no that's not a reference to the controversial Spider-Man story that haunts every internet message board where Spidey's name is mentioned to this very day. "One more Day" is what I keep telling myself on the way home from work every day this week.

On to the matter at hand:

I first mentioned it a few weeks back, but am just getting around to posting it, and that's my 1^st Entry to Cube Farm. Cube Farm is my feeble attempt at humor and is very (very, very, very, very) loosely based on some corporate office experiences of my own. The names have been changed to protect the guilty and certain characters and situations have been exaggerated to obscene proportions. It’s a little long, so I wouldn’t blame you for not being able to sit through it. It is one of the first pieces of prose that I have written in a very long time. I have become so used to writing comic book scripts and rough outlines that I felt I was forgetting how to write a proper prose, so ultimately this is good practice.

I am hard at work on a second edition, which delves into the inappropriateness of peers interviewing peers. That will hopefully be up in a few weeks.

I’m also hard at work on a new comic book project. The project, which the name is unrevealed, is in the scripting stage right now. The first story arc will be told over the course of four issues, but this will not be penciled like a traditional comic. One of my partners in crime, Chris (Pruisner), wants to try a format where we take photographs and convert them into line art and …as he explains the technical details to me I begin to dose off, but the part I do understand sound really cool.

The story is about four gorgeous young women that lead an exciting life of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. They ultimately learn their debauchery comes with severe, life altering consequences.

This is unlike anything I have ever written before. It is proving a challenge to get into the head of the opposite sex, but the pillow fights in their underwear that I imagine is awesome. Just kidding, in actuality some of the images/scenes being scripted are completely surreal and very haunting. I hope the images are as effective in the script as they are on the page. I really hope to capture the essence of the young adult female trendsetter without coming off condescending and misogynistic.

That's it for now, but if anything else comes up before next week you may be hearing from me again.

Happy New Years

2008-12-31T15:11:00.000-08:00

So this is it…2009 is upon us. I am totally psyched with anticipation that 2009 will be way better than this last, which rocked in my opinion. So may 2008 was a shitty year for things like AIG, GMC and OJ Simpson, but I enjoyed it and was a great year for fans of movies and comics (as spotlighted in last weeks super duper “best of 2008” edition).
2008 was also a good year for Antidote Comics made some major strides with the release of Black Jack issue one. That may seem like a small feat, but a lot of time and effort and money had gone into getting that book finished, and Black Jack should help make 2009 a bitchin’ year as well…I’ll get to that in a minute.
This week I wanted to briefly discuss what I am looking forward to most in 2009, saving the best for last of course.

First let’s look at nine things to come from comics this year that I am most looking forward to. I chose to highlight nine because it is 2009…get it?:

Snikity-Snikt Here Comes the Stabbin’: Jason Aaron has a new Wolverine Series in the works that will be hitting the shelves in April. In last weeks edition I touted Jason Aaron as 2008’s best writer, and that is the primary reason I am looking forward to this new series. Ron Garney’s art is another. Here is a link to article about the new series HYPERLINK "http://www.newsarama.com/comics/120812-Wolverine-Weapon-X.html" \t "_blank" http://www.newsarama.com/comics/120812-Wolverine-Weapon-X.html.

A Lasting Legacy: My heart was broken when I heard that Geoff Johns was leaving the Justice Society of America with issue 25. And the announcement that Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges did nothing to mend it; not because I do not like their work, but because (1) Geoff Johns is one of my favorite writers, and (2) I am not familiar with their work. I have not yet had a chance to read Fables or Jack of Fables, nor any of their other work, and (3) the JSA is one of the few DC titles I actually collect. Now despite those three imposing factors I am really looking forward to seeing what Willingham and Sturges can do with some of my favorite DC characters.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Fables and Jack of Fables, and will hopefully be able to catch up on some trades this year as well.
King of the World: Marvels upcoming Cosmic Event, War of Kings promises to be an action packed space opera much like it’s predecessors Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest. This is especially true under the more-than-capable guidance of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (affectionately referred to by most as DnA). These two scribes currently write two of my favorite Marvel titles, Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova.

Being Can Be All He Can Be: A title spinning out of the War of Kings is Dark Hawk (image left). This is probably the single most anticipated title for me this year. Dark Hawk was one of my favorite characters growing up, and I was so excited to see him return to action in the recent pages of Nova. Dark Hawk was always one of those characters that I felt had this untapped potential to be a major player in the marvel universe, especially cosmically speaking. I did enjoy his appearance in the Lovers series, but have still been patiently waiting for the character to truly hit his stride. Based on the recent solicitation for the new miniseries, I believe that time may have come…now hopefully we can get a new ongoing out of it.

Bat-Shit Crazy: The name Azrael conjures up memories of Batman stories throughout the early to mid nineties. After Bruce Wayne’s back had been broken at the hands of Bane, Jean Paul Valley AKA Azrael, stepped into the Batman’s shoes delivering his own, unbalanced and violent form of justice to Gotham. With Bruce Wayne’s fate once again hanging in limbo a new story arc titled “Battle for the Cowl” is underway, and veteran scribe Fabian Nicieza is bringing Azrael back is a three-issue miniseries titled “Death’s Dark Knight.
As a child of the nineties, I loved Azrael, and am really looking forward to his return to the Bat Universe. Plus Fabian is a skilled writer with an uncommon tenure in this field, I grew up reading his work on Marvel’s X-Force, and loved his recently deceased Cable and Deadpool comic.

Action Packed: Action Comics is one of those titles that I pick up every once in a while when a story arc looks interesting or a cover grabs my attention. The Brainiac Saga was the last arc I picked up. This may change in 2009 when Greg Rucka takes over the title. I have always been a big fan of his work, and this year I am going to make a concerted effort to become more involved in the DC Universe, so I intend to start picking this book up with issue #875.

Battle Roayale: Deadpool vs. the Thunderbolts. A crossover between the two titles puts Marvels Merc-with-a-mouth against the most dangerous super team in the world, and the only guaranteed winners are we, the readers. Andy Diggle’s short tenure on the Thunderbolts has been phenomenal so far as he systematically dismantles the team in order to introduce us to a new, deadlier roster.
Deadpool’s new series by Daniel Way has been an unpredictable, hyper violent ride filled with knee-slapping humor. I am really looking forward to seeing Deadpool mix it up with characters in the greater Marvel Universe as opposed to being relegated to his own pocket of the X-verse.+

League of their own?: Justice League of America is re-launching with a new team roster and under the direction of a new writer, James Robinson. I had picked up a few JLA trades written by Grant Morrison, but never followed it beyond that, so I have missed Waid’s, Kelly’s, Meltzer’s and McDuffie’s run. As I strive to get more involved with the greater DCU this upcoming year, I am looking forward to this book as a great jumping on point.

Back in Action: GI Joe will be back in action in 2009 under a new Publisher (IDW), starting with a new “continuity free” story, and written by Chuck Dixon, Christos Gage and the legendary Larry Hama. The Devil’s Due run started out okay, then devolved into utter crap, but managed to bounce back nicely towards the end of the run under direction of writer Mark Powers.
GI Joe is the title that got me into collecting comics in the first place, both back in the very early nineties and again about a decade later. Anyone that knows me at all can attest to what a huge GI Joe nut I am, and am adding these three titles to the top of my pull list.

Here are nine movies I am looking forward to in 2009

Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood is old as dinosaur shit, and is still badass.

The Unborn: I love scary movies…not horror movies, but movies that are actually nightmare inducing, change your panties scary. This looks to be one of those.

Fanboys: I’ve wanted to see this film since I first saw the trailer back in 2004 (or something). This movie has been on the shelf longer than a porno starring Estelle Getty for whatever reason, and it looks like it has finally been slated for a late winter / early spring release date. Geeks of the world unite!

Watchmen: The most coveted Graphic Novel ever written comes brilliantly to life this spring courtesy of Director Zach Snyder. This movie may not live up to the impossible expectations of the most fervent Watchmen fanatics, but this has potential to rival the Dark Knight, and Spider Man 2 as one of the best comic book movies ever made.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’

Wolverine: What do you get when you take Hugh Jackman’s pitch perfect take on Wolverine but without the excess baggage of the other X-cronies and throw into an actioneer with fan favorite characters like Deadpool, Gambit and Sabertooth. I’ll wager what little soul I have that it’s going to be a kick ass summer blockbuster. Now we hopefully finally get to see the Wolverine vs. Sabertooth battle we have been waiting for since the first X-film teased us.

Star Trek: I am not a Star Trek fan. I never liked the movies and never got into the TV show. This movie may change that as it seem to have on aspect that all previous incarnations lacked: Action!

White Out: A mystery thriller based on the miniseries created by Greg Rucka and artist Steve Lieber. I really enjoyed the comic and am looking forward to seeing it adapted to the silver screen.

Terminator: Salvation: Christian Bale as John Conner fighting Terminators. ‘Nuff said!

As for the work at Antidote Comics, we plan to be very busy in 2009. Anthony is hard at work on the second issue of Bloods Own, while Chris is busy on a title of his own called Children of Circus (or COC for short). Black Jack is prepped for a new print run as well as submission to Diamond Distributors, and I will keep you posted as more details become available.
I am finishing up the fourth issue of bloods Own, and I have been continuing work on Black Jack scripts and stories. I will also help Chris with scripting his COC story. There are a number of other projects on my desk that I am not comfortable talking about yet because they do not have an artist attached and I have no idea when they may see the light of day.

There is another big announcement for 2009 that I am very excited for and dying to make, but my wife doesn’t care for me divulging too much personal or family information via this blog, so I will refrain from mentioning that we are expecting a new baby come June…Oh shit, I slipped and mentioned it anyway didn’t I?
Too late to go back and edit now!

Well that’s it for this week, I hope everyone has a great New Years and remembers to party safe! See you next week!

Best of 2008

2008-12-24T14:34:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the year, and everyone with a blog, or access to the internet has their very own "Best of 2008" list, so I feel entitled to my own. The following is of my own opinion and does not represent the opinions of Antidote Comics LLC. I don't expect you to agree with my opinions, and if you feel strongly enough to rival my own then feel free to comment. With that said let's get down to business!

Best Comic: Scalped (DC/Vertigo): It was just over a month ago when I posted an entry reviewing the third volume of Jason Aaron’s stunning vision of life and organized crime on an Indian reservation. I am not going to rehash everything here, but did want to touch on a couple of features that make this book the best of the year.
Month in and month out this is by far the best comic book being published, and always at the top of my read pile. Scalped started strong and each arc is better than the previous. Jason Aaron hasn’t just filled the book with an eccentric ensemble cast of wholly original characters, but has instilled each one with several layers of depth and complexity rarely found in a medium filled with cookie-cutter heroes and villains. And just who are the heroes, and who are the villains? Just as in the real world, with Scalped it isn’t that simple. Over the course of the run you develop an emotional attachment to these characters no matter how bad, badass, or down right despicable they may first appear. Each character infused with their own unique persona as well as a motivation, or drive that the reader can easily identify with even though the Rez is far from our own suburbanite environment. Through tight natural dialogue and smooth narration, Jason does a superb job getting us inside the characters heads.
Jason Aaron continuously weaves a tight crime drama, intricately balancing a number of ongoing sub-plots while not losing focus of the books main premise.
I simply cannot praise the book on writing alone. I must commend RM Guera whose morose artwork brilliantly, and brutally brings to life the gritty atmosphere of the tough life on the Rez for its Denizens. The artwork is not pretty, but that’s the point as it perfectly fits the tone of the book. A true cohesiveness between Aaron and Guera is unmistakable as each one’s skill perfectly complements the other resulting in a seamless fusion of storytelling.

Best Writer: Jason Aaron: Jason Aaron has had an impressive year. His Vertigo title Scalped (see above) is the best monthly series hitting the stands. He signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics where his work on Ghost Rider has transformed the series from a sub-par superhero comic into a no holds barred Grindhouse horror show. His Wolverine arc “Get Mystique” was a fun hyper-violent game of cat and mouse. And the most enjoyable story to come out of the mega-event “Secret Invasion” was Jason’s few Black Panther issues. I had always been a fan of the Black Panther, though did not necessarily enjoy his portrayal the last few years.
Wizard Magazine recently named Jason best Writer of 2008 as well, which is very well deserved. He tops my list of Best Writer of 2008 for his consistent work on Scalped, returning the Black Panther to his glorious badass-ness, and giving one of my favorite characters (Ghost rider) the treatment it deserves.
I was thrilled to hear the news that Jason and artist Ron Garney are teaming up for a new Wolverine ongoing title in Spring 2009 looks to be a great year to be a Jason Aaron fan.

Best Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.: A tough category because art is all subjective, and there are a number of great artists out there including Steve Epting, Dave Finch, Steve McNiven. But if I have to only choose on artist this year as the best, I have to go with Mike Deodato Jr. Some people may be put off by his photorealistic style, but that happens to suit my interest best. And though I missed his work on the Hulk, I have always been amazed with Deodato’s pencils on titles such as New Avengers and Thunderbolts. His work in Wolverine Origins has been amazing with its cinematic scope and atmosphere, especially the flashback scenes of Wolverine battling both the Hulk and the Wendigo at the same time. Dark Avengers will be his newest title hitting stands soon, and I am completely stoked for it despite its 3.99 price tag.

Best New Title: The Invincible Iron Man (Marvel): I was never an Iron Man fan, and don’t remember buying an Iron Man Comic prior to this. I think I first garnered an interest in him when New Avengers launched a few years back. Since then he has been portrayed as both a hero and a villain, and then a hero again. I didn’t have much interest in this title at first because I felt the launch might feel forced in order to make coincide with the movie that was released about the same time. With the talented Matt Fraction at the helm I was determined to at least give the first issue a try. I instantly became engrossed in the character of Tony Stark, his relationships, his technology, and his enemies. Fraction unlocked the potential to tell stories that were accessible to new readers without ostracizing old fans. Through the first several issues Fraction introduced us to our titular hero, and his supporting cast while amp-ing up the action. He respected continuity and was not hindered by the “Secret Invasion” event running through every other title.
This has been a great title to introduce a new generation of fans to a classic character.

Best Cover: Nova (Marvel): A very tough category to narrow down, simply due to the sheer number of comic book covers I come across, and that there are so many great one’s out there to choose between. So Instead of choosing just one cover, I went with a series that consistently has the best covers…and that series has been Nova. Much like the Annihilation covers the previous year; Nova covers are strikingly beautiful paintings from talented artists like Alex Maleev, Francesco “Matt” Mattina, and Adi Granov. Less a comic cover and more like a beautiful work of art, I would love to have on of these originals hanging on the wall of my office.
Nova has become one of my favorite comics month in and month out, and was front-runner with the Invincible Iron Man for best new title. Nova is becoming a staple title in the Marvel Universe, and should definitely not be overlooked.

Best Graphic Novel: Joker (DC): Acclaimed crime fiction writer, Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and artist Lee Bermejo brought us an harrowingly intimate tale of the clown prince of crime. The Joker is just released from Arkham Asylum and intends on reclaiming what he feels is rightfully his, control of Gotham’s underworld. This rendition of the Joker, beautifully drawn by Bermejo, is eerily reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s portrayal in the Dark Knight. The Joker’s actions and dialogue are as sadistic and twisted as his smile, and the character Jonny Frost is relatable to the reader despite being a scumbag gangster wannabe.
This book has made the list because it’s a self-contained story and not reliant on knowledge of DC’s continuity, plus it is beautifully illustrated and wonderfully scripted. Plus it passed the ultimate test, the “wife test”. My wife doesn’t read comic books or have any interest in them. She did read Pride of Baghdad, which was a Christmas gift. She has started reading Wanted as well as Y: The Last Man but has yet to finish them. This was an easy read for her, and she enjoyed it. That says a lot about a book in a genre that seems constantly haunted by it’s inability to attract and keep new readers.

Best “Event”: “Brand New Day” Amazing Spiderman (Marvel Comics): Forget about the over-hyped Secret Invasion and the multiple-problem-riddled Final Crisis, the best comic book event of the year was Spider Man’s controversial reboot titled “Brand New Day”, and this is despite internet fandom’s condemnation of the previous story “One More Day”, in which our titular hero made a deal with the devil to save the life of his dying aunt May retconning decades of stories and plot points. With “Brand New Day” we were introduced to new era of the Spider Man mythos. It served as a perfect jumping on point for new readers such as myself. The rotating creative team putting out three books a month provided us with a much larger canvas for Spider Man stories to be built upon because of brand new supporting characters and new villains (some very bizarre). The risky maneuver by Marvel’s powers that be paid off in spades: Spider Man Comics are fun again; they are energetic, filled with vibrant humor and action, and mysteries that keep this reader coming back for more.
The individual story arcs are –for the most part- self-contained, so anyone off the street can grab an issue, quickly get caught up by the recap page, and then immediately get pulled into the action. They have been free of the burden of company crossovers, which had infected so many other Marvel titles this past year.
Those that stood by their laurels and haven’t picked up a Spider Man comic since “One More Day” are truly missing out. These are great stories written by some of the most talented writers out there, with amazing art.

Best Single Issue: Thunderbolts (Marvel) #126: This was a tough one to decide because I read nearly a dozen comics each week as well as a number of trade paperbacks. Because I don’t count the Trades as single issues, none of those issues comprising the books content were considered. I started reading the Thunderbolts following Marvels Civil War event under the direction of Warren Ellis. Christos Gage most recently wrote the series, and the story arc had the team embroiled in the Secret Invasion. Reading about this team of villains has become something of a guilty pleasure of mine. This particular issue marks the transition from Gage as writer to Andy Diggle. Thunderbolts #126 makes the grade for a number of reasons including the seamless transition of creative teams, accessibility to new readers, the stunning detail and atmospheric art by Roberto De La Torre, and most importantly was a cliffhanger ending that sent chills up my spine and left a lump in my throat. Songbird has become one of my favorite characters (not just female), and I would love to take a crack at writing her in a series someday.
Though the Thunderbolts title didn’t cut it as my favorite series of the year (I think the fatigue of Secret Invasion had began taking it’s toll). However, under Diggles’ vision it certainly has potential to be there next year.
My one concern is regarding the new roster; I do enjoy Ant Man, but the other characters referenced I am not too familiar with, or have my reservations about. You can read an interview with Andy Diggle here:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/120817-Diggle-ThunderboltsB.html. At this point I am putting my faith in Andy and am keeping an open mind.

Best Movie: The Dark Knight (Warner Bros): Easily my favorite movie of the year, The Dark Knight had it all, breathtaking action, special effects, and one of the most memorable onscreen performances I have ever seen…Ever! Heath Ledger’s portrayal as the Joker is at times amusing and also very haunting. It is a performance that you will be talking about long after the end credits have finished. I never once saw Heath Ledger “playing” the role of the Joker as I had seen with Jack Nicholson almost two decades earlier; I simply saw the Joker…and it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. Heath Ledger has already been nominated for a Golden Globe award for this legendary performance; I have a feeling that an Oscar nomination is not far behind, and it would be totally deserved.
Other close runners up include Iron Man and Tropic Thunder…I have a man crush on Robert Downey Jr.

Best Television Series: Lost (ABC): I caught the pilot episode of Lost way back when it originally aired on ABC, and though I was intrigued I was not blown away. I missed a few episodes then tried to catch another, but was completely lost (no pun intended) with what was happening…so I gave up. I revisited the series earlier this fall watching the first three seasons on DVD, and possibly in record time as well. With a plot that provided more questions to each answer, and an eccentric ensemble cast each with their own back-story, I was immediately hooked. It has become one of my favorite shows of all time. Each episode ends with a cliffhanger to rival that of the great comic series Y: the Last Man. Y’s creator and writer, Brian K Vaughan also served as a Producer and writer on Lost, so that may not be a coincidence.

Bits and Pieces:

Christmas is this week. It’s come so fast that it doesn’t seem real (that’s what she said).

I know someone who bought her infant child a cute little sweater complete with his name on it. Good call mom, Kids love getting clothes for Christmas as opposed to say…toys. And stick your child in a sweater with their name on it to tell all the pedophiles and kidnappers out there who he is.

I saw The Day the Earth Stood Still last night. If the Earth really had stood still it would not have been because of an impending alien invasion, but because of this terrible movie. From the opening sequence the movie was plagued by less-than-stellar acting, bad dialogue, poor editing, and lack luster special effects. Plus a rushed cop-out of an ending that left me thinking, that was it!
Save your nine bucks for comics instead…though I do not know what 9.00 will get you in the near future…

Starting this month a number of comics from Marvel have a 3.99 price tag as opposed to 2.99, which I had become accustomed to. The transition has been subtle, with some 3.99 books added to the mix over the past year. Backlash from the net indicates that fanboys will revolt and stop purchasing the single issues, and wait for the trade or conversion to online. Their bite is frequently worse than their bite so I will believe it when I see it. I myself am going to become more stringent on new titles I may pick up, and may even wait on mini-series until the release in trade, but I have no plans of dropping any current series at this time, and that is not because I am against the price increase, but rather because I live with limited fundage.
Maybe the price increase goes to help Marvel pay their talent, and as someone striving to be part of that talent pool someday I can not scold Marvel for it.

A new Judge Dredd film has been green lit through DNA films, which brought us movies like Sunshine and 28 Weeks Later, which I am a big fan of both of. The hope is that the new film will cause critics to forget the much lauded 95’ version with Sly Stallone. Much like the rest of fandom, I also hope they keep the helmet on regardless of who’s underneath it.

I’ve also seen a teaser poster of a new Robocop movie indicating a summer of 2010 release. I consider the original Robocop one of the bloodiest movies of its time, and one of my favorites. It’s a classic that doesn’t necessarily need to be remade at all.

Is anyone actually looking forward to the movie, The Spirit? The movie looks like what Sin City could have been if it hadn’t been in the capable hands of Robert Rodriguez. On the other hand, I am really looking forward to the new Eastwood movie, “Gran Torino”.

I am working on a piece next week touting what to expect from Antidote Comics in 2009. Should be an exciting year.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to post anything new, but that hasn’t been for lack of effort. I’ve gone back in forth, both in my head and one paper, trying to decide on a suitable topic. I was going to post a “best of 2008” list, and still may in a couple of weeks. Since I’ve been very busy lately getting ready for the holidays I figured that topic might be as good as any other, so let’s talk about Christmas (or any other holiday you may celebrate in lieu of). Let’s talk about your fondest Christmas memory, favorite gift, or least favorite for that matter.

My fondest Christmas memory isn’t so much a single isolated event, but the memory of a grand tradition. This was a tradition that began before I can remember, and lasted up until my early twenties. This tradition was centered on family, great food, fun games, and of course gifts.
Each year Christmas began with a drive to my aunt’s house to celebrate with my father’s extended family. We spent our time in the basement, where the dark wood paneling, crackling fire in the fireplace, and large deer head mounted on the wall conveyed sense of warmth. There was a large brightly decorated tree in the corner of the room surrounded by a mountain of presents. Another room in the basement served as a buffet station with a plethora or tasty treats ranging from little smokies and various types of jerky to seasonal cookies and cupcakes. This room also contained a fully stocked bar though I was much to young to partake, but they had a variety of soda (pop) and juices to choose from as well.
After we our tummies were stuffed, it was time for presents. My uncle dressed up as Santa Claus and came down into the basement to hand out gifts. Each child received one present that had been pre-selected by our respective parents. After Santa handed out his gifts he headed off to deliver presents to the rest of the children across the world. While the kids tore into their packages and played with their toys, the adults played a grab bag game. Grab bag was something I grasped the concept of until much later, and to this day it is one of my favorite things about gathering together with the family. I always remember it being late, or at least very dark when it came time to leave my aunt’s house and head home. I was both eager to get to sleep yet completely restless at the same time. I was unable to shake the excitement of Christmas, and my parents always warned me that Santa wouldn’t come to the house until we were all asleep. Though I would fight it eventually I did fall asleep.
There was one rule Christmas morning; we all went downstairs together as a family. My brother and I would wake up earlier that day than any other day of the year, and would excitedly barge into our parent’s bedroom to share the joy with them. After a giving my parents a few minutes to wake up, we tore downstairs eager to see what Santa Clause had brought. This aspect of the tradition had changed when I was thirteen and had moved into a new house where my parent’s room was upstairs while my brother’s room and mine were on the main level, but I digress. I always remember the excitement and awe of tearing into the wrapping paper to discover a new and exotic GI Joe vehicle that I had never seen before. Our stockings were stuffed with trinkets, candy, and a few new GI Joe figures to command our new vehicles. Of course after opening our gifts it was up to our father to assemble the vehicles, so we could play for a bit before heading off to our next Christmas destination…Grandma’s house.
What kid wasn’t excited about going to the Grandparents house for Christmas? I can’t speak for anyone else out there, but the Grandparents spoiled my cousins, brother and me rotten. Aside from the video game systems, GI Joe toys and board games, the best gift was the one that my grandfather made. He made everything from games to wooden GI Joe bases, all of which I still have in my possession. One game was comprised of small wooden gun (working trigger mechanism and all) shot rubber bands at little targets that pivoted on clothespins, eventually my brother and I began targeting each other instead.
I would spend all day at my Grandparents house eating, watching movies, playing with my new toys, or playing games with my cousins. One of my fondest memories is of my Grandfather teaching my cousin and I how to play cribbage, and though he schooled us every time (still does actually) it was always a lot of fun. Just as with my aunt’s house it was always late when we left my grandparents house, and though I was always exhausted I already couldn’t wait for next year in anticipation of doing it all over again.

Over a decade later I am no longer the child I once was (though I do still play with toys), and a new tradition has begun. I have my own family now, and a daughter that is just as excited for Christmas morning as I always was. This Christmas Eve we will be going to my parent’s house (well, it’s my mom’s house now, but my dad will be there…but that’s a story for another time). My mom, with the help of my brother’s fiancé, will prepare a generous Christmas dinner. We will eat, play games, and the kids will open presents. I expect my daughter, Zoe, to be both tired and excited when we leave my mom’s house, and fall asleep on our drive back into town.
Christmas morning Zoe will wake up earlier than any other day of the year, and rush into our bedroom to wake us up. We will all head downstairs together where we will open presents, and I will stoke a fire in the fireplace. After we open presents, Zoe will play with her toys. I won’t have a chance to play with my new toys (I know I am getting toys because I helped Santa Claus pick them out and even pay for them) because I will be busy making breakfast.
After breakfast, we will head over to my wife’s parents house to spend the day. Just as when I was child Santa Clause also visits there leaving a number of toys for the children, and yes, the children are just as spoiled as I was if not more so. Throughout the day we will eat and play games, which includes a grab bag game. Every year I try to out do the year before with a gift that is both farcical yet truly rewarding. A few years ago it was a photo of mew wearing a Santa Claus hat, flipping the camera the bird, and the words “Merry fucking Christmas” outlining the frame. Last year I picked up a movie from Wal-Mart’s Hispanic video rack, using an Exacto knife I slit the plastic covering and slipped in a couple of lottery tickets, and then resealed the plastic so that it appeared that it had not been tampered with. This year my wife’s idea was to steal her mothers favorite green sweater then wrap it up as a gag gift. As for my own gift idea I am thinking gay porn!

So as one great tradition had ended a new one has begun, and this tradition will carry on until Zoe has a family of her own (decades from now hopefully), and my wife and I become the Grandparents with the means (I should start saving now) of spoiling the grandchildren. The circle of life continues, right Simba?
Though there have been some changes in regards to the Holiday tradition one important aspect of this most joyous of holiday seasons remains constant…the presents! Just kidding. It’s actually the love and warmth that comes from spending time with friends and family. The food, liquor, and laughs are all part of the festivities, and I know I could enjoy those items on my own, but it’s much more fun to share with those I love.

I know I joke about presents as being an important part of the Christmas tradition, and to a certain extent it is. Not so much the receiving per say, but the giving. A big part of Christmas is giving, and the mass consumerism our great nation is built upon has ingrained that aspect of the holiday into our head. Black Friday is damning evidence of this. So among all the presents you have both given or received, is there one particular gift that stands out among all the rest? Maybe you were the lucky recipient of a brand new Lexus like in those Oh so realistic commercials on television. I’m waiting for a debt consolidation firm to have a commercial showing that same vehicle getting repo’d six months later. Or perhaps you’ve given a special loved one a beautiful cubic zirconium necklace from Gordman’s.
One gift I remember receiving in particular was from just a couple of years ago. There was a Punisher statue I had a complete hard-on for, but it’s steep price point made it an unrealistic purchase. I had hinted at it to my wife, and even showed her some pictures I’d taken via cell-phone, but again had no expectations of ever getting it. Low and behold on Christmas morning my wife sends me downstairs to start a pot of coffee, and guess what is sitting on the kitchen counter staring right back at me. It was the highly coveted Punisher statue of course! If it weren’t then this story would have been completely pointless. He was even wearing a pink Santa hat! That statue has a very special place in my heart for a few reasons: The Punisher is my favorite comic book character, and it was a complete surprise, which is epic if you know my wife’s ability to keep a secret. The Punisher has his own place in my office on a glass table where he can watch me work.

Now what about a bad Christmas gift? Is there such a thing, or is it always the thought that counts? Regardless of the thought a gift can still suck. Why else would the return department at stores be so insanely busy the day after? Now I am not even going to mention the phallic shaped piece of driftwood I received one year because that was touted as “a family heir-loom. One of my worst gifts is categorized as such because of both the actual item and the thought (or lack there of). One year an ex-girlfriend gave me boxer shorts. Not just one pair, but four or five pairs. Old Navy must’ve had a sale on X-mas themed boxers where you buy one you get four free or something. We weren’t dating at the time and she was seeing someone else, but none-the-less I loved her and actually put a lot of thought and consideration into her gift (I can’t remember what it was, but I’m sure it was thoughtful), and she got me boxer shorts with Christmas trees, snowmen and even reindeer! I wonder if her douche-bag boyfriend would’ve liked the idea of her giving me underwear as a gift. And what does it say about the quality of Old Navy products that the boxers didn’t last as long as our painfully contrived relationship.
I don’t know if I have ever given a gift to which someone said, “thanks for the shitty gift.” I suppose that is what Christmas lists are for, but you can ask my wife about it. This year I picked her up a…I better not spill the beans here. She typically doesn’t bother to read these blogs, but with my luck this would be the one time she does!

I hope everyone has a great holiday, and would love to hear your own stories about an unforgettable Christmas memory. Till next time!

Lights, Camera, Action

2008-12-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

So the title may be a little misleading…okay, very misleading. And that first sentence is a complete lie. This entry isn’t about Black Jack being optioned for a film, or even an actual film. This entry is a “what if” style look at my own life being made into a film. What would the title be? Who would be cast as the title and supporting characters? What’s the basic premise? Is it a three-film deal like a trilogy, or done in one?

One possibility for a Major Motion picture about yours truly would be a dramedy titled Highway To Hell, which seems appropriate since the majority of those close to me seem to think that’s where I will be spending eternity. As one of the years best films, and nominated for six Academy Awards, the movie’s basic plot would be follow my downward spiral into a life of debauchery including alcoholism and womanizing…and that’s just the first act. The second act would be my inevitable self-discovery thanks in part to the love of a good woman, and then my steady rise to success as business mogul, husband and father. The third and final act has yet to be determined, but may include a close call with death where my life flashes before my eyes either via a horrific skydiving accident or testicular cancer. This close call reaffirms my love of life and my family. To encapsulate, this particular film would be a dramedy in the same vein as American Beauty (except I hopefully live to see the end credits), or Boys Don’t Cry (except, once again, I hopefully live to see the end credits)

Another concept is a bit more comical, and would be more like Grandma’s Boy, or Super Bad. This film titled Fanboy For Life would follow the life of a genius slacker content with a life debauchery (a similarity in the various story ideas), living in his parent’s basement, and simply dreaming of being a comic book writer without actually writing anything. Instead our ignoble hero reads comics, plays with toys, drinks too much, smokes too little, and shirks of responsibility. This all changes when he falls for a beautiful woman totally out of his league, and is forced to take responsibility and grow up or risk losing the girl of his dreams. It is through a series of life changing events such as getting a real job, getting married and starting a family does our hero decide to pursue his dream as a comic book writer. Once again the third act has yet to be determined, but would involve a long tenure creating and writing some of pop-cultures most iconic figures, but always remembering that his family comes first.

A third and final concept titled Saving the World One Dame At A Time, which would take many more liberties with the subject matter would be an action comedy produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and direct by Michael Bay. This version of my story would feature a hapless “everyman” type protagonist that discovers he holds the key to stopping a vast left wing conspiracy to bring about a socialist-totalitarian government in the United States. Once again our hero meets the girl of his dreams who decides to tag along assisting him in his quest to protect his freedom of speech and his Capitalistic ideologies. After a submarine chase, an aerial dogfight, and a car chase between a 09 Dodge Challenger and a dozen black BMW 5 series sedans, our two heroes confront the true villains of the story…Alternate reality versions of themselves!! The third act would include a series of assassination attempts, a time machine and alien sidekick named P’Nus. By the time the end credits roll the audience is left pondering which versions of the two characters survived the deadly escapade the true version, or the bizarre-esque doppelganger.

As you can tell, each of the above ideas takes some liberties with the source material, but that’s because my life would be as exciting to watch as an episode of HGTV’s “Watching Paint Dry”, or the Oxygen Networks new show “It’s that time of the month”. I could develop a show based on my somewhat dysfunctional family (whom I love dearly by the way), but that would be more awkward to watch than funny, and shows like Rosanne already beat me to the punch.

Let’s now focus on the most critical detail of bringing my story to the big screen…the cast!

Playing the role of me would be legendary television and film star, Jason Bateman. People have often said we even look alike sharing a similar smirk and schnoz. People have also said I look like Clay Aiken, and I would really like to karate chop those people in the jugular.
The role of Lindsey Hardenbrook would be the lovely and talented Rashida Jones. As seen in television series The Office, Rashida exudes a very cute, flirtatious vibe, while still having a commanding screen presence…very similar to my own, real leading lady.
The role of Jonah and Lindsey’s daughter could be played by Dakota Fanning simply because she seems to play every other child age role for a major Hollywood motion picture.
Vincent D’Onofrio would play the role of my brother-in-law, Chris Pruisner. This is mostly because Chris Farley and John Candy are dead.
Playing the role of Anthony Lucia would be Skeet Ulrich. Johnny Depp would be ideal, but I can’t give Anthony that satisfaction, so we’ll go with the poor man’s Depp.
Sigourney Weaver will play the role of my mother.
Ethan Embry and Paulo Costanzo would be cast as close friends Austin and Jubal. Brian Posehn from HBO’s Mr. Show and The Sarah Silverman Program would play by close friend Josh as well.
My Alien Sidekick, P’Nus would be CGI to save on the cost of hiring a real alien.

So tell me who would play you in a big screen adaptation of your life.

Happy Bathroom sex...er, I mean happy thanksgiving

2008-11-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

So they called him Lord Vader, but I wonder if any peon within the ranks of the Empire was ever dimwitted enough, or perhaps actually had the cojones to refer to Darth Vader as Master Vader…Think about it…Okay, so maybe I am the only one that finds humor in this.

All last week I had been fighting a head cold, which has sucked the energy from me. I think I am finally beating it though as this is the first day all week where I haven’t felt like a stepped on turd.

I was up at the IA/MN football game on Saturday evening and had a great time. It was great fun getting to hangout with friends that I do not get to see very often, and even better because the Hawks stomped the ever living piss out of the Gophers.
Though I had fun, I clearly did not have as much fun as these two geniuses, but you can read their story here: www.kcci.com/news/18150815/detail.html
So Iowa fans may be drunken sluts with a penchant for bathroom exhibitionism, but what’s up with Gopher fans? Before the end of the third quarter they had tucked their tails between their legs (I don’t know if gophers even have tails, but it serves its purpose for dramatic effect) and slid back into their holes…no pun intended towards our spotlighted Iowa fans.
I am not one to judge the above-mentioned Hawkeye fans, the last Iowa game I attended I ended up more drunk than I had ever been in my entire life, and felt as though I wanted to die for the two days that followed. Though I don’t remember driving from the train station to my hotel ten miles away, I am pretty sure I didn’t get laid in a stadium bathroom, and if I had I sure as hell wouldn’t be embarrassed by it.
This time around for me was a different story: I had a couple of beers before the game and only one during the game. Charging “state fair” prices it would have cost me my soul to get drunk at the game…though that may not actually be saying much. After the game we visited a couple of Minneapolis’ local watering holes, though I spent most of the evening trying to navigate my way from Matty B’s to Brothers, which I was instructed was near 4th and 1st. At one point in my journey I found myself at the intersection of 4th Avenue and 4th Street, with a 25% chance of going in the right direction. Luckily I found it, just in time to leave.
I stayed in the small, quaint town of Jordan, and was introduced to Rock Band by my gracious hosts. Rock Band was a lot of fun, and though I sucked hard at the guitar, bass, and vocals, it was a great time. I didn’t even attempt the drums.
I want to thank my friend Jubal for accompanying me to the game in lieu of my wife, and also thank my friends Andy and Kindra for their hospitality.

Last week I began scripting Bloods Own issue three. The full four-issue story arc has been plotted since July of 07, and issue two was written back around that same time (it was actually the second full script I had ever written with Black Jack issue 1 being the first). I had to go back and reread the second script to remember what the hell I was even doing with it. I should have the script finished by next week (taking into account the busy holiday/shopping weekend), and am planning on immediately starting on the fourth issue.
Though Bloods Own is now planned as a four-issue story arc, I am leaving the door open to the possibility of telling other stories, and even have an outline for a total of twelve issues. That decision ultimately rests on Anthony’s shoulders as well as how well the story is received by the general public.

That’s it for now. I guess I do want to mention one other thing and I do not mean to end on a somber note, but I want to mention that this week marks the 1st anniversary of my cousin David’s passing. I want to give thanks to all the friends and family for their prayers and support of David’s family in their time of grieving. David is not only special to all those who had the good fortune of meeting him, but is irreplaceable as well. One thing I am thankful for this year is that David will continue to live on forever in our hearts and memories and in music, which was his passion. I hope everyone is able to find one or many things that he or she are thankful for this holiday season, whether it be friends and family, their freedom, their success, or even bathroom sex. Please have a safe Thanksgiving, and a great weekend!

Life is good

2008-11-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday, which means the weekend is half over. Well, I do have Monday off from work so technically it's only a third of the way over. This weekend had potential to be one of the best of it's kind in a very long time for the simple fact that I had absolutely nothing planned, and that's just the way I like it. But did it live up to those expectations? Read on and find out.

Some people's weekend begins at 5:00 pm Friday evening, or even earlier for lucky others. However, I typically work about thirteen hours any given Friday, so my weekend does not begin until Saturday morning about 8:00.

Yesterday I rolled out of bed a little after 8:00, and fixed my daughter and I each a bowl of Coco Crunch for breakfast. I offered to take her to breakfast, but she insisted on cereal. After breakfast we watched back to back episodes of Sponge Bob Squarepants, and I stoked up the a fire in the stove.
10:00 am hit and I had an errand to run: There was a comic I missed earlier in the week, and had to go pick it up. My daughter and I headed up to Jay's CD and Hobby, where I browsed the racks of comic books for anything else of interest that I may have previously missed. My daughter picked out a couple of Star Wars toys. From there we headed back home where we resumed watching Sponge Bob, I read some comics and my daughter played with her new action figures.
My wife returned home from getting her hair done a little after noon; I had just fixed Macaroni and Cheese for lunch, but she wanted Subway. When I returned with lunch in tow it was time for my baby girl to lay down for a nap while my wife and I ate lunch. She wanted to watch John Carpenters The Thing, which is one of my all time favorite horror movies.
After lunch and the movie had ended, I was ready for a nap as well. I woke up an hour later refreshed and ready to complete the second half of the day. We had talked about going to the theatre; I wanted to check out the new Bond film while the wife and daughter were going to see the Madagascar sequel.
On our way to the movie, we stopped at Target for some snacks, and I picked up the new DVD release of Sukiyaki Western Django.
The new Bond movie rocked. I had some reservations after reading a number of reviews that berated the film for Daniel Craig's portrayal as characterization as less like Bond. In my opinion, Daniel Craig deftly added new layers of personality that had been missing from the character since...well, ever. The Bond girls were their usual one-note selves, and the action was intense, and kinetic. This is the first true sequel to a Bond movie, and is worthy of it's Predecessor, Casino Royale, which I still insist is the best Bond movie ever. I can't wait for Quantum of Solace to be released on BluRay to watch with Casino Royale back-to-back.
After the movies had ended we stopped by my In-laws place to visit. I hadn't seen my father-in-law since before he had an operation on his shoulder and wrist, and it was nice to catch up. My brother-in-law stopped by as well along with his wife and two kids. While the women chatted it up in the house, the guys sat outside in a large outdoor kitchen (plywood walls were added as a means of winterizing the area) smoking cigars, drinking beer and watching World Series of Poker on television. It was cold as hell outside, but a large gal/electric heater quickly warmed the outdoor kitchen. A few hours later it was time to go home.
Upon arriving home it was time to put my daughter to bed, and I read a bed time story before tucking her in. I stoked up the stove again, threw in a Party Pizza and sat down to watch Sukiyaki Western Django. My wife gave up on the movie less than half way threw and headed up to bed letting me know how stupid I was for wasting my money on that terrible movie. to each their own I guess because I really enjoyed the movie. It was corny, over-the-top, and exploitative, but very enjoyable non-the-less.
After the movie ended I crawled into bed. It was only 11:00 pm, but being old now, I was tried. And as you could tell I had a very full day!

So that was my Saturday, and Sunday is shaping up to be just as good. I woke up this morning, played with my rabbit...that's not code for anything perverse; I really do have a bunny rabbit! My daughter and I sat in the hot tub for a bit having a cup of coffee (or Apple Juice in her case), and discussed our favorite parts to the movies we had seen the previous day.
After I finish with this post it will be time to head back over to the in-laws house for homemade chicken and noodles and mashed potatoes.

Hanging out with nothing to do, but still spending time with ones I love. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Life is good!

Reading Material

2008-11-12T21:38:00.000-08:00

Today I want to talk about two books in particular. Neither of them mine. One is a book on my Christmas wish list, and the other is one that everyone should be reading. I’ll start with the latter…

Scalped vol. 3: Dead Mothers is available now from Vertigo (a DC Comics imprint). Scalped is written by Jason Aaron with art by RM Guera. Both John Paul Leon and Davide Furno contribute to this volume as well.
I picked up a copy this weekend, and I simply cannot praise this book enough. Here’s a brief synopsis: Scalped follows Dashiell Bad Horse, an ex-con that reluctantly returns to his Native American reservation working undercover for the FBI in order to build a case against organized crime kingpin and tribal chief, Red Crow.
Month in and month out this is by far the best comic book being published, and always at the top of my read pile. Scalped started strong and each arc is better than the previous. Scalped is filled with panels that make you chuckle (or maybe you are a giggler, I am not one to judge) immediately followed by a page that kicks you in the emotional scrotum (I love that word).
Creator, Jason Aaron hasn’t just filled the book with an eccentric ensemble cast of wholly original characters, but has instilled each one with several layers of depth and complexity rarely found in a medium filled with cookie-cutter heroes and villains. And just who are the heroes, and who are the villains? Just as in the real world, with Scalped it isn’t that simple. Over the course of the run you develop an emotional attachment to these characters no matter how bad, badass, or down right despicable they may first appear. Each character is infused with his or her own unique persona as well as a motivation, or drive that the reader can easily identify with even though the Rez is far from our own suburbanite environment. Through tight natural dialogue and smooth narration, Jason does a superb job getting us inside the characters heads.
Jason Aaron continuously weaves a tight crime drama, intricately balancing a number of ongoing sub-plots while not losing focus of the books main premise.
I simply cannot praise the book on writing alone. I must commend RM Guera whose morose artwork brilliantly, and brutally brings to life the gritty atmosphere of the tough life on the Rez for its Denizens. The artwork is not pretty, but that’s the point as it perfectly fits the tone of the book. A true cohesiveness between Aaron and Guera is unmistakable as each one’s skill perfectly complements the other resulting in a seamless fusion of storytelling.
Jason Aaron has quickly become one of my favorite writers, with excellent work on Marvel’s Ghost Rider and Wolverine, but Scalped is his one book that I recommend to everyone…friends, family, and even complete strangers.
Shame on you if you are not reading this book, ladies and gentlemen…shame on you.

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum is a book rife with controversy, but still worth mentioning…

The Youngblood Hardcover Vol. 1 hits stands next week, and this is one of the few items on my Christmas wish list. Yes, even though I am a grown man I still make out a Christmas wish list, except this gets e-mailed to my wife as opposed to mailed to Santa Claus. The new Hardcover will feature new script by Joe Casey, new colors, lettering and even layout changes. The intention is to improve upon some of the original series’ shortcomings, and attempt to tell a more cohesive story with the hope of revitalizing old fans and new readers alike.
This isn’t a review of the book itself since I have yet to read it, this is just a quick jaunt down memory lane as to why I am looking forward to it.
Say what you will creator Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood series, whether you bash its overall execution, tear apart Rob’s perception of anatomy (tiny heads and even smaller feet), ridicule the layouts, or curse the expository filled dialogue. When the first issue of Youngblood hit the stands back in 1992 it sold over a million copies…A million copies!! It also set a trend (for better or worse) that would shape the look of the comic medium for the next decade.
As a youngster who would visit the local comic book shop with my dad, I was one of millions of people snatching up anything with the Image label. Spawn, Maxx, Pitt, Wild CATs, Cyber Force…I couldn’t get enough. However, my favorite of the bunch was Youngblood. The basic premise was about a team of government-sponsored superheroes dealing with enemies both at home and abroad as well as sensationalism by the media. The latter of which was rarely if ever showcased. As a twelve year old, I didn’t pay much attention to the actual structure of the story itself or even the dialogue; instead the larger than life characters, dynamic action poses and stylish splash pages blew me away. Rob’s artwork possessed a kinetic, in-your-face style that was frequently imitated for years after.
After I graduated high school, and lost an interest in collecting comics, most of my comics were lost, or left behind for my younger brother to pawn off or roll up and smoke. This included a large portion of my Image collection including Youngblood. After getting back into comics and forming Antidote Comics LLC, I sought out those old Image comics, and was lucky enough to find most of them for a dollar or less in various bargain bins at the local shops. Even to this day I love to rummage through my box of Image comics, flipping though each issue to admire the exuberant artwork that made comics fun…and admittedly still do.
Rob Liefeld is a polarizing figure in the comic book world, and takes a lot of flak from fan-boys the world over, but he impressively takes it in stride. Even to the harshest critics Rob remains courteous, and respectful. He also possesses an interminable sense of optimism and indomitable spirit, which is inspiring. As someone looking to “break in” to the business, these are traits that I not only respect Rob Liefeld for, but hope to emulate as well.

Well, that is it for today. It is late (for an old timer like me anyway), and I am tired. I did not make it to the comic shop today, so it looks like tomorrow is 'New Comic Thursday', which is the best day of the week. If you would like to learn more about Jason Aaron visit http://www.standardattrition.com/, and http://jasoneaaron.blogspot.com/. To learn more about Rob Liefeld visit http://robliefeld.net/.

Good Night!

Election Fallout and Antidote Update

2008-11-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

So the election is finally over, the American people have spoken, and Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. I wonder if Microsoft Word will finally recognize his name and not insist it’s a typo…Fuck you Paperclip man, I know how to spell!
But I digress. I am both astonished and proud at the record turn out for voting this year. I don’t care whom you voted for; all I care is that you actually voted. And I can’t speak for anyone else when I exclaim how glad I am that the entire process is behind us for at least another two years. I have become so sick and tired of being inundated with political ad campaigns besieging all facets of the media from radio and television, to magazines and even comic books for Christ sakes…Needless to say I am ready for a break from it.

Enough about that shit, on to more important matters ;-)

Here are some fall updates for you:

Last Sunday the Iowa Comic Book Collectors Club was having their mini-con out the Stoney Creek Point in Johnston. Anthony had a table, where he was hocking some new prints he has been working on. The prints are of scantily clad hotties posing with famous Hollywood monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and even King Kong. Anthony sold all of our copies of Black Jack issue one, which means we are officially sold-out! He also had a chance to establish some networking relationships with other artists/creators, which is more important to me at this point than sales.
Chris and I visited the Mini-con for a few hours chatting with other local creators, and rummaging through the bargain bins. I did score a few cheap Transformers Comics from the ill-dated Dreamwave era, as well as set of Marvel Masterpiece Trading Cards that my collection was missing.

As I mentioned above, (unless Chris or Anthony have a couple stuffed under their mattresses) we are currently sold out of copies of Black Jack issue one this past weekend! Our initial print run was only about 200 copies, and that was primarily for selling on the convention circuit. A couple of local retailers had a few copies for sale; one of which may still have copies available. I know the other shop sold out rather quickly, which was exciting. So far the reaction from both fans and fellow creators alike has been very positive. During some of the conventions I had attended, I received several questions on the $5.00 price point on Black Jack compared to only $3.00 for Bloods Own issue one. The truth is that we only 200 copies of Black Jack were printed as opposed to 4000 copies of Bloods Own. Printing significantly less came at a higher cost per issue, which if I recall correctly was about $5.25. So even by selling copies at $5.00 apiece the cost of printing was not recovered; there was no profit made. Compared to $5.25, I felt that $5.00 a copy was not an unreasonable threshold, which has been corroborated by the book selling out.
So what’s the next step? We are currently pricing various printers around the world for the most competitive rate. As of now we have found a good rate based on a 32-page book, and currently Black Jack is only 28-pages. Talks are underway in deciding how to quickly fill those four additional pages with ideas ranging from new ad-space (which could help cover some cost of printing as well) to original concept art/sketches. Anthony and I also discussed penciling the cover to Black Jack issue 2 to be added as well.
Along with beefing the book up to 32 pages, we are once again discussing plans on submitting Black Jack to Diamond for national distribution. We have gone back and forth the past several months on when and if we were going to submit to Diamond. I initially wanted to submit to a company such as Image (www.imagecomics.com), but decided it’d be best to wait since I do not know when the second issue will ever see print. At our current speed it could be at least a year before the second issue sees print, and it did not seem beneficial to either Image or ourselves to have issue one solicited for sale without a second, third, and fourth issue read to go. At least if we submit to Diamond ourselves we are not tying up resources or funds from an interested third party that will obviously have their own expectations. It is kind of a double-edged sword, however, in that by submitting the book ourselves we will be lacking the promotional/marketing services of a company like Image who possess a very visible presence in the market. Not just some, but all the promoting of the book would rest solely in our inexperienced hands. The response Black Jack receives via Diamond orders will more than likely not just dictate when, but if we see an issue 2. I am currently in the process of putting together a comprehensive marketing plan to enact once Black Jack is submitted and approved by Diamond for solicitation. I am going to do everything in my power to ensure that the book becomes both a critical and financial success.

What else is in the works? Chris is hard at work on his own title called Children of Circus, referred to in print by me as COC, or also called “Cock” for short. COC is a creepy little tale about a group of circus freaks endowed with freakish abilities that they use to hunt down evil. What I have seen of the art is creepily moody. I believe I will be assisting with the script, but have not yet received an outline. Look for COC next spring.
A number of people are anticipating the second installment of Bloods Own, and I do wish that it were available right now, but unfortunately it is not. Anthony is working on it and we are also shooting for a spring release date. You can blame me for its tardiness; I persuaded Anthony to pencil and design Black Jack issue 1, following the completion of Bloods Own issue 1. But I digress; rest assured that I am on the case to ensure that Bloods Own issue two will be ready for a spring release.
As for myself, I am working on a bevy of projects as usual. Most are in their very early stages, and I am going to refrain from going into details about them. One project I would like to tout is a comic titled, Torque. Torque is a throwback to the exploitation films of the 60’s and 70’s, and is chock full of gratuitous obscenities, nudity, and senseless violence. Based on the subject matter I understand that this comic will not be for everyone, and am not expecting to win any Eisner Awards for it, but as a fan of those craptacular exploitation films it is something I’ve always wanted to do. I expect people to find Torque violent, distasteful, and maybe even offensive…but that’s kind of the point. Consider yourself warned.

I have been really digging DC’s epic Final Crisis written by Grant Morrison. It is touted as a “big event” and actually reads like one. Morrison is a very polarizing figure in the comic book community, but his skill and talent are without question. It was back in 1996 when I first heard his name as the one revamping the Justice League of America, which was a team book featuring all of DC’s A-list, heavy-hitters. I never actually read his JLA run till very recently, when I picked up the first couple of volumes at a recent convention. I really enjoyed the solid, consistent characterizations, and epic scope of the story arcs, which should be a given in a book featuring the likes of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The only aspect of the run I have not been sold on was the Red and Blue electric Supermen.
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s I had gotten out of comics all together to focus on my constant drinking and womanizing, so I missed his controversial run on Marvel’s X-men, which was renamed New X-men. As with his Justice League series I picked up his entire New X-men run via trade paperback a couple of years ago. The New X-men was my introduction into the mind and imagination of Grant Morrison, and I was immediately hooked. I sought out more of his work picking up DC’s Seven Soldiers of Victory “megaseries” and the entire run of DC’s first weekly series, 52 (Grant was one of four writers on that book). Both of those series failed to disappoint. Most recently my neighbor, who coincidentally owns a comic book shop loaned me Grant’s Animal Man run. I have not yet completed the read, but am really enjoying it so far. I am also looking forward to checking out his other works including Doom Patrol and the Invisibles.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on Grant’s currently running Batman R.I.P. arc, and have yet to read any of the single issues. As with most of his work, I will probably end up picking it up in Trades. Let me know if there are any other Grant Morrison Titles that you would recommend, I would be more than happy to check them out.

Intro: Finding the Cure

2008-11-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

“Because I Care” is a creative outlet for sharing my own personal thoughts and ideas, as well as updates on progress from the publishing side. This column was originally only accessible through Myspace.com, and for about month I consistently tried to provide weekly updates. Unfortunately, between the busy summer and the sad fact that on average only three people read what I was writing the column unfortunately fell by the wayside. I once again want to thank my good friend, Sarah Mentele for helping me coin the title “Because I Care”. Her actual suggestion was “Jonah Talks About Shit No One Cares About”, I felt the title would flow better if shortened.

By Utilizing this site, I will be able to provide links to this blog from both Myspace and facebook, as well as various message boards and forums I belong to such as www.comicbookresources.com, www.newsarama.com, www.pulpsecret.com, and my new favorite www.standardattrition.com. I will hopefully have a link to this blog available through our own site, http://www.antidotecomics.com/ as well. The idea is to increase traffic, which would in turn increase awareness. This column will be a key tool in marketing and promoting our own products, which will be vital when our first book is available for mass distribution in the very near future...At least this is its intention. I also encourage anyone reading this to leave any questions or comments they may have as well.

For the first of many installments, I decided to open with an excerpt from a personal project of mine in the works, which chronicles behind the scenes details of our venture into self-publishing. Though subject to change, my working title for this series of recollections is Antidote Comics: Finding the Cure.

Enjoy…

“You want to write a comic book?” Chris Pruisner, my brother in-law and best friend asked me, grinning as if he already knew my answer.
Immediately intrigued, I asked about the terms of his proposal. Chris informed me that Anthony Lucia, a friend of his from college, whom I had met a few times before, was seriously interested in delving into the world of self publishing and that Chris was going to help him do it. Anthony was already busy at work on his title, Bloods Own, and had completed a rough outline of the first issue using thumbnail sketches. Chris assisted Anthony by providing photo references from which to draw from, as well as layouts. Everything was going according to plan for the dynamic duo until they attempted to incorporate words with the pictures. I am fairly certain that, to this day, Anthony Lucia has never actually “read” a comic book before. Sure he has a large collection of comic books sitting in his basement, but unlike myself, he buys them strictly for the pictures without regards to the actual story…not that there is anything wrong with that; to each his own I guess. It is something I constantly give Anthony flak about and has become a running joke to this day that I insist that Anthony can’t actually read. However, we’ll save that topic for an another installment.
Upon realizing that adding the text was not going to be a simple task, they decided to enlist the aid of a professional. Unfortunately for them, they had to settle for me instead. As I pondered Chris’s question dozens of ideas for my own stories flooded my head, and I knew this might be my only opportunity to share those stories with the world…and by “world”, I am referring to those few people that actually pick up and read a copy of the book. I countered Chris’ offer with one of my own: Knowing they had no capital or ability to pay my posh page rate, I offered my services to them for free as a partner. I knew that Chris would not be able to accept my proposal without first concurring with Anthony, and in the meantime all I could do was wait. While I waited I dug through old folders and notebooks reacquainting myself with some old characters, and ideas that I had created as far back as junior high school.
I eagerly anticipated the response from Chris, and luckily didn’t have to wait long. Within a few days I received an answer indicating that Anthony was okay with offering me a position as a partner in this new endeavor, and needless to say, I didn’t hesitate to accept the terms.
I immediately started brewing ideas for a company name in my head. I admit that I underestimated Anthony in Chris in their preparedness. They informed me that they had already decided on a name, and that name was Antidote Comics. Antidote Comics? At first I was not to keen on the name, but that may have just been because I hadn’t thought of it first.
“What about Anecdote comics?” I proposed.
“What’s an anecdote?”
“It’s kind of like a story…you know, like a story you tell.” I explained, educating my new partners.
“Ohhh…No, we like Antidote,” they insisted.
“Well, what’s it mean?” I asked waiting for a vacant look, or an impulsive excuse.
“Antidote is like a cure. See?” clearly, it was my turn to be educated. “Antidote Comics: Finding the Cure.”
It took a moment to wrap my feeble brain around such a bold claim. It is certainly audacious to believe that three men with no experience creating comic books let alone have any experience in the field of publishing could possibly put out a product to rival those of the infamous “Big Two”. As the meaning behind our company name began to penetrate my thick skull, a number of questions arose: What are we trying to cure? Does anything need cured? Are we the cure for fans of small press books looking for the highest in production quality, art and storytelling? Are we the cure for disenfranchised fans of the “Big Two” seeking a new universe not convoluted down by half a century of continuity? And more importantly, is it pompous of us to assume that we even are that cure? The answer is that there are no answers to these questions (except maybe the last one), and that the cure Antidote Comics can provide will be different for everyone involved.
I can’t speak for my esteemed colleagues, but I found a cure in Antidote Comics: As work progressed (albeit slowly) on our first title I began to truly realize why the name Antidote Comics was so appropriate, and why our unofficial tagline was so clever. All my life I have wanted to tell stories, and Antidote Comics has cured me of that life long passion. I felt that cure holding that first copy of the first issue of Bloods Own in my woman-like hands. So finding “the cure” do I have to stop working for it? Absolutely false! I found it in Bloods Own, and again in Black Jack. The simple fact is that it has become an unquenchable thirst.