Thursday, July 29, 2010

Comics this week

No new content for the bizarre Novel-in-not-making, but at least I can try to critique and hone my words against my comic purchases this week.

Justice League: Generation Lost #6
The most impact this comic will have on anything is if it gets thrown at your head. I hated this thing since page 4 when it started veering off towards being a flashback. You know when this book would have been great to print? Issue 2. Just after the events it references happened in issue #1.


Oh, spoiler alert, Captain Atom knows Maxwell Lord is going to cause trouble. For fuck's sake. That is the premise of the damn book. Max Lord is a bad guy and only the JLI redub can save the world. Why the hell do we need a whole issue devoted to this startling realization when the entire premise of the book is that?

Green Lantern #56
I kinda like Green Lantern. I mean as a character concept. However, Hal Jordan is a humongous dick. Way to go Geoff Johns for ruining Christmas for anyone reading this book.

The book is just fine. I really liked it. Then again, I like Larfleeze. He is a delightfully simple minded character that expresses how difficult someone unaccustomed to our forms of etiquette and behavior can have in adjusting to our world.

Franken-Castle #19
God I love this book.  If you happen to be following the crossover, though, go ahead and witness the difference in attitude and demeanor for Daken between Daniel Way and Remender. It is quite startling. If this signals anything, it is that Daken is a weak character, right now. I get that writers should put their own spin/voice in a character, but the differences between Way's version's of Daken and RR's version is too drastic to chalk up to creative license. I prefer Way's version.

The Flash #4
Oh good lord this was a fun book. For anyone that truly enjoyed the Batman 60s TV series, this book is about the closest you will get to a mainstream super-hero book emulating that style. The presentation is far from camp, sure, but the over-the-top ridiculous antics of the characters work well in the setting. I squeeled with glee upon reading the Rogue's big plan is a giant mirror from the Mirror Master engraved with the words, "In Case The Flash Returns Break Glass". It is so outrageously cheesy and in step with the way Geoff John's portrays the Rogue's as about as dangerous as a college fraternity rather than a league of super-villains.

World War Hulks: Spider-Man vs. Thor #2
Best comic of the week and I only enjoyed half the book. For the better part of half a year Kieron Gillen has written the best Thor I have ever read. He has taken the basic character flaws for both Spider-Man and Thor and shown us how the power of the Hulk kicks those character points up a few notches. Then, he shows us why these people are heroes, despite these flaws.

This book is fabulously funny, too. Favorite line, hands down, is "We must be friends and brothers. And never again let Diplodocus make us fight."

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Sigmund Treasure Horde (A new prelude?)

"It was during the dead of night, around 6:00 pm" Andersson Sigmund recalled to the reporter. "I was wrenched out of my thoughts by the appearance of light in the distance."

Andersson Sigmund deigned to live away from civilization. He is secure in his isolation in the area of Uppsala. It has been mentioned that the area shares a bond with the gods of the old Norse. Uppsala was a fabled home of Odin. Magic has the potential to be strong in this area. The winters in Scandinavia don't leave much to do but allow the imagination to wander. Brutally cold temperatures and near constant darkness throughout the day keep most people inside.

Sigmund breathes in deeply. he attempts to compose himself as he continues with his story. "There wasn't any sound. Just this shining light, like a light bulb. Except it looked purer. It is bizarre to think of light as healthy and strong."

Curiosity was better than quiet contemplation, at the moment. Sigmund dressed himself for the elements, then opened his door. The weather outside was still. The wind stopped howling across the fields, momentarily. From his front door, Andersson could tell the light was not coming from just outside his house, but into the woods where he gathered fire wood. "It was as if the light responded to how far my vision could determine its source. If I didn't look directly at it, or see down where it was coming from, the intensity of the light out the corner of my eyes was almost blinding. The light wanted me to follow its path. As long as I never strayed form it, my body felt safe from the winter environment."

Sigmund would follow the light into a clearing about 2 miles form his home. In the clearing, he felt as if he was surrounded on all sides by the light, but it was not so intense as to cause him to shut his eye. "It looked as if the light was just acting as illumination, just like a fire lamp would brighten up a room."

Sigmund's eyes adjusted to the illumination. Within seconds he could easily survey his surroundings. The light brought many features into focus. "I could see scratch markings into the ground. not fresh. But the way the light bounced off the ground, you could see that this soil was not meant to be there. I began to dig in the spot."

Within minutes he found the first golden coin. Time had tarnished it, but the mystical light in the clearing helped Andersson see what it was. Digging and looking further into the ground, he found more coins. Then iron weapons. Eventually, he was able to exhume a ship. "I couldn't feel tired. Not with the excitement building over what I had discovered."

That was 4 years ago. Andersson has parlayed his fame from discovering of the Sigmund Horde into national accolades, honorary professorship at the finest occult institutions, and personal wealth. The magic behind its discovery has yet to be explained. Recently, the Swedish government allowed the horde to go on a wolrdwide tour, allowing other institutions of alchemical science to study its metaphysical makeup.

So, What about this thing? I feel like it sound sliek it wants to be a news report, but I know I never explicitly made it into that. Should I just go all the way with out like that? Is that even a good idea? Should I fix it up to make it less of a newspaper article?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Robbery to be solved by Hannibal Moxy

Acid rain attempts to smoother the flames of Sunderville's streetside firelamps. The flames remain eternally lit. The essence of a nearby volcanoe is mined to power them. However, the glow from the magical flames shrinks as the acrid waters attempt to douse the lamps. Gaps of darkness begin to form along the city's stone roads.

Lars Ulrichson marches to the Sturm Museum. He stays in darkness where he can. When he is caught in the glow of a firelamps he is slightly obscured due to the downpour. The sight of a few empty burlap bags against his body can briefly be made out before he melts into the shadows. The darkness that slowly spreads over the city allows him to move with impunity.

Unseen, he trudges up the steps to the museum's entryway. He grabs hold of the handle to the Museum's entryway. He pulls the door off its hinges and casually tosses it to the side. He purposefully walks into the Museum's foyer, glancing around to spot any signs that can direct him to the Sigmund Treasure Horde. He is losing time. His forceful entrance has trigered a whisper message to be sent to the closest constabulary. He chooses to move straight and plows through a wall, hoping to find the Horde or someone who can lead him to it.

Louis Simon drifts through his watch round. The polished floor of the museum reflects the soft orange glow from the fire lamps inside the museum. His reflection in the floor is his silent partner during these rounds. The silence is broken by the sound of a distant cracking from beyond the left side wall. The halways begins to rumble and shake a few seconds later. The wall to Simon's left begins to break. The wall explodes and Lars emerges like a Titan birthed from the bedrock of the Earth.

Simon has little time before he is snatched by the raider's hands. A quick tug pulls Louis' face into the remaining wall. A quick flick of the wrist takes him down to the ground as the strongman steps through the hole in the wall. Lars drops to one knee, nestled against the crotch of Simon, and wraps a single hand against the scared security man's throat. Lars leans in close to Louis to ask, "Where is the Sigmund Horde?"

A shaky point of the finger is rewarded with a the snapping of bone. Lars the Vile stands and breaks into a full sprint down the hallway in the direction shown by Simon. Lars's frame crashes into another wall and he explodes into the main rom of the Sigmund Treasure Horde.

Lars manicly ransacks the place. Any object that immediately catches his attention gets shoveled into one of the several bags he brought with him. His mighty fists shatter glass cases that house golden treasures. Larger objects get casually tossed aside or kicked over. Bags leaden with ill gotten gains are thrown into the corner, far away from the theif's whirlwind of violence.

Once satisfied in excising his lust of carnage and destruction, Lars the Vile picks up the bags he tossed into the corner, makes a new exit through the wall of the room, and trots into the darkness of Sunderville's many unlit back alleys.


I have a feeling i could do a few things to change this up.
1-I just feel like I should have a stonger opening. I don't know whether I should open with the robbery in progress or use the scene I set initially, and just spice it up
2-I'm thinking that i should, perhaps, go into the history of the SIgmund Treasure Horde. Perhaps using the dicovery of a treasure horde and the excitement around it as a more solid opening than this?
3-I really feel like I did not go into enough detail of the robbery itself. I feel like I just wrote the most boring theft in literature.

What do all you party people think?

Friday, July 23, 2010

The Exploits of Hannibal Moxy

What follows here is some writing I have been attempting to refine. Let me know how it sounds and what i can do to really make it stand out. Critique away!

The light at the head of the steam rail pierces through the night. The contraption moves with a low rumble over the tracks guiding it. Inside the 19th car Hannibal Moxy sips tea, looking through the window as the line crests the Florentine ridge.


The cabin would be decribed as ostentacious by any regular traveler. Hannibal has nary a word of complaint for its decor, though. He reclines into the ornate couch's arm rest, turning to his left and laying his legs across the second seat so that he may get a good view of the outside of the approaching Metropolis of Sunderton.


From his window Sunderton glows like an ember in the fireplace. The red lights along the streets provide the visible illumination of the city this night. The glow does not extend into the blackened sky, though. Sunderton is reknowned for the chokeable haze that hangs over it, casting the brightest of days in the gloom of twilight.


Hannibal can tell that a forest wraps the city from behind. The outlines of the trees are evident thanks to the glow from a geothermal power dome in the distance. The Purgatorio dome is another of the famous features of Sunderton. The dome is an engineering miracle that encapsules the active Volcano located close to the city. It is the source of all power for Sunderton.



Now, What follows is entirely new content that I have not attempted to refine. This is more of an exercise on relevancy and if this is at all necessary/interesting enough to put into the story, at this time.

Hannibal comforts his thoughts on his looming arrival into the city with a reminder that his mentor is a warp missive away. The ease of connection gives Hannibal confidence going into his first investigative foray. His mentor, Damon Lark, is a carnosseiur of some of the world's most esoteric histories. When a priceless collection of artifacts dating back to the Viking age were stolen from the Suderton museum, Damon Lark volunteered the services of his newest protege to help in locating these items.

So I am torn on how to present this information. I just feel like I cut to the chase entirely too quickly. I dont know if, perhaps, i should tell the story of the break in, instead of just relaing its events second hand. I'm leaning towards actually doing that as a new opening, since I view the robbery as a non-essential element of the story. I, particularly, have no desire to keep the events of the theft hidden from the reader. The thief, maybe, but the actual theft, i think i can enjoy writing that, especially if I can throw in some ninja prostittues and empty kegs of mead.

A NEW Jane Eyre! For the 2000s!

When I got this email, I immediately thought of that horrid book:

Dear Beloved,

I am sure this mail would be coming to you as a surprise since we have never met before and you would also be asking why I have decided to chose you amongst the numerous internet users in the world, precisely I cannot say why I have choosen you but do not be worried for I come in peace and want you to me to help me accomplish my last wish . As the island of Haiti experience a major earthquake struck, I will like to use this last chance to help as a philanthropist .

Before I move further, permit me to give you a little of my biography, I am Lady Rita Ratnavale, 78 Years old woman and the wife of Sir Ratnavale, Victor, dual citizen of Switzerland and Britain who died in a Plane crash on Monday the 7th of September 1998 GMT 14:22 UK alongside with my daughter while they were flying from New York to Geneva. Please see site below for more information. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html

After the death of my husband I became the Head of his investment and now that I am old and weak I have decided to spend the rest of my life in my Ranch before i finally leave the world, but before the death of my husband we had a plan to use the last days of our lives to donate half of what we have worked for to the less privileged and charity homes and the other half for ourselves, family members and close friends, and it is so unfortunate that my husband is not alive today to do this with me and I am very weak and old now, hence I have decided to do this philanthropic work on behalf of my late husband.

Presently, I have willed out almost half of our assets to several charity homes and to some of the less privilege in different countries. Despite the agreement between my late husband and I to give aid to the deprived, we also agreed to render support to an individual we have not meet before in life due to the fact when we were still young in life we received an anonymous help from an individual we did not know and which we were never able to identify,the impact we got from such a gesture made us to do same.

I am sorry to inform you that you will never have the chance to know me because I have just concluded the assignment which my husband and I have agreed upon before his sudden death and you happened to be the beneficiary of our last will. hence I need you to do me a favour by accepting our offer and using it to help the poor in Haiti.

I deposited a check in the sum of ?2.400,000.00 (Two Million Four Hundred Thousand British Pounds) with DHL UK one week ago to deliver to you, but i was very ill so i could not send you an email until today. what you have to do now is to contact the assigned dispatch officer Mr Jim Brown as soon as possible to know when they will deliver your package to you.

For your information, I have paid for the delivering Charge, Insurance Premium and Clearance Certificate Fee of the Cheque showing that it is not a Drug Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country all you have to send to him is the payment for the security keeping fee of 250Great British Pounds ($389USD)

So what to do with this? Did Sir Ratnavale get his money through Nazi Gold? Why did their plane crash (don't cheat and read the news aricle!) Has Lady Rita attempted to prolong her life through siritual means, and if she has not, would she begin to reclaim her money if she decided to? What of the path of the money? Suppose I write a story where it is real  money, who would follow along the trail of money to YOUR house? Terrorists? The Real Owners of the Money? Nazis? Just what sort of demonic pact would you be signing if you took Lady Rita's illicit gains? This demands to be done!

So seriously. What kind of story would anyonoe here write about this?

Would you like it?

The spirit of Leonardo daVinci lives in a volcano.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

I belong to the Red Lantern Corps

I have great anger in my heart. It is time I begin to rise. I am propelled by the horror I feel for what has befallen me. My double has left me to rot in this jail, shackled to the wall of this island cave. But no longer will I bemoan my current state. Instead, my form wracks itself against the floor and upon the wall. I tug at the bindings, spasming my body with such violence that I break a link in the chains.

I emerge triumphant into the night. Before the glimmer of light from above I resolve I will conquer my current state of ennui, and, after speaking a few prayers to my personal divinity, cast what remains into the watery abyss of my cavernous imagination. I begin to fashion a raft out of my sloughed, slothful carapace. Taking the broken anxietal chains that once bound me to this Platonic prison I lash logs from my clear cut mental forest to the body of my vessel and set sail into the void.

I summon forth my anger, with which I will temper my thoughts into their actions. I distaste acting on my bloodlust physically. I have no qualms letting forth the pent up reservoir of bile sloshing in my head and putting those words down on paper. This is the mindset with which I scribe out these words that fill this page and communicate my ideas with all of you.

My journey brings me to a new land where I have hounded the meek into a killing field and slaughter it. I will cook its meat upon the flame of my rage, and start to venture forth into the primeval jungle hoping to return to my camp with nuggets of inspiration.

Deadpool #25

This week was chock-a-block full of comics to buy. I could go on about how boring X-Factor #207 was or how excited I was to read a Taskmaster story by Fred van Lente that mentions a Taskmaster ongoing (Coming in September) in Age of Heroes #3. However, there was only one book on my mind and its not even because I thought it was great (it was servicable).

My odyssey to find a .jpg of this week's cover to Deadpool #25 led me down memory road to the last time a "Deadpool" comic reached #25, which was the end of the 25 issue "Mithras" arc of Joe Kelly's, and becoming the last great thing Joe Kelly has written until "I Kill Giants"

Anyone who has read Deadpool over the past 9 months may recognize this plot. Deadpool is attempting to be a hero. He finally gets a chance to, but those plans go south as Deadpool finds out he has to sacrifice his reputation, and all he has built up towards being a hero, in order to truly be one.

I have no idea if Daniel Way was trying to sum up the greatest Deadpool arc with his own twist of limon (the active ingredient in Sprite), but the fact that we may have capped the quest by Deadpool to becoming a hero on the same issue number as the end of the "Mithras" arc is a hell of a coincidence.

Digging deeper into my fantasy realm, I would love to pick Way's brain on whether this three issue story has been his attempt to put his own spin on the past 7 years of Marvel books. Deadpool apes "Secret Invasion" by pretending to be Weasel in his power armor. Way channels "Dark Reign" by using his opportunity as Wild Card/The House to team up with The Grizzly in order to rob the money vaults of Las Vegas. "Siege" gets a nod as Weasel must charge headlong into Las Vegas in order to defend it from the titular character and reclaim his glory.

As I wrote earlier, this is not a particularly great book. However, it was one which I felt I could talk about and not just be excited and pee on the carpet for like I did over DV8 #4.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

DND Adventure Idea : The Art of War

PCs must stop a conquering horde and their leader from destroying a good kingdom. The PCs must bring down an advanced force led by an Elite General.

Their foe has wrote the book on warfare, however. The adversary has spies and saboteurs spread throughout the good kingdom, ready to begin a shadow campaign that could cause the good kingdom to crumble before it has time to mobilize.

Soon, heroes begin to learn their enemy knows more about them than they could believe. Now, they must do the same against this awesome rival. The heroes must unearthe everything they can on this unseen master of war.

Once they know their enemy, the heroes must begin planning for war. Understanding their enemy allows them to plan to defend against his best strategems. The heroes organize the good kingdoms defense, and wait for an opening.

Once an opening presents itself, the heroes must attack, and rain down fury against the Master of War.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Hooray for Second Coming

It is bizarre given that I'm writing praise for an event title that I have consciously chosen not to spend money on. I refuse to endorse, monetarily, any more X-Men books that feature Sentinels, or allusions to Days of Future Past/Present/etc. That last time I enjoyed a story featuring these over used mechanoid fun suckers was Operation: Zero Tolerance, only because it assumed the rest of the world of Marvel does, in fact, exist in the same world as the X-Men. Other heroes (okay, just Spider-Man) were drawn into such an inherently unfair conflict as U.S. Government sanctioning of genocide.

I give Second Coming praise for only a few reasons. I praise it for acknowledging this, in its own way. Bastion HAD to isolate San Francisco from the rest of the world because, yeah, the rest of the Marvel Heroes would be forced to deal with this issue. X-Factor covered it perfectly, too. I want to desperately believe that with the end of Second Coming that the stories of Sentinels and futures where robots hunt mutants are finished. In fact, I want to believe that with the end of Second COming most of Claremont's influence on the team has begun to fizzle out.

I honestly want to see the new adjectiveless X-Men succeed, and not just because I consider Victor Gischler a friend of the now dead show. I am not going to pretend that the X-Men shouldn't serve the niche they have for themselves, and that's as representations of minorities and discrimination in this country. However, I would like to see variety in the stories, and the upcoming vampire arc is certainly headed in the right direction. Instead of the minority fighting against the majority, lets go ahead and two dfferent minorities fight each other.

Since Claremont's "Days of Future..." the X-Men have been stuck in a world with pre-WWII sensibilities towards minorities. I hope that we can at least move them into the civil rights era, in terms of the problems mutants in Marvel will have to face. Then again, with Utopia being what it is, a tiny nation off of the bay in San Francisco, perhaps we'll get some stories that are allegories for African Genocide/Yugoslavia. That'll at least get their problems coinciding with the times.

You Wouldn't Expect It...

But I am still quite alive. However, The Popmedia Primecast is not. So, Me and Dusty have decided to part ways creatively. If you would think about it, though, getting 6 months out of a hour and a half long commercial radio show with 45-60 minutes of content devoted to the comic book medium on AM radio in South louisiana is a hell of a feat. Hooray for me.

Now, It is on to othr things. Writing more, specifically. I'm making a check list right now.
1-Write on this damn blog
2-Go to Lafayette "Drink and Draws" and mingle with the artists.
3-Get adventures published for D&D 4th Edition
4-Write a novel
5-Write for Marvel