Category: Jim’s Blog

Howdy, all.  It’s time for another comic pre-commentary of my purchases for this week, courtesy of our friends at Krypton Comics.  As always, they are ranked from least to best.  Crazy-heavy week this round:

Hypernaturals #12: I want to love this series.  Cool concept with a computer called the Quantinuum that runs humanity in the future.  I love DnA’s run on Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy.  The art just is not up to the task of conveying all the high concept ideas.  I like the character Thinkwell a great deal.  He writes inky equations that are basically like spells.  I’m on the fence with this series overall.  I might keep buying it, I might not.

Dark Tower: Gunslinger: Evil Ground #2: I understand this series is going to end.  It’s probably time.  They’ve pretty much mined all they can from King’s source material.  Fun ride while it lasted though.

Thanos Rising #3: I’m so glad they put Thanos back as a supreme bad ass.  Loved the Infinity Gauntlet as a teenager.  This origin series is as twisted as you would expect for a villain of his magnitude. POP! POP! (Couldn’t resist for you Community fans out there).

Earth 2 #13: Same sentiment as last week’s annual.  It’s the alternate-alternate DCU.  Green Lantern (Alan Scott) is gay.  Flash (Jay Garrick) is now a college kid after spending forever as grey-templed dude. Holds my interest.

Abe Sapien #3: Holy snikeyes I enjoy Abe Sapien.  Always have in Hellboy and BPRD.  Glad they brought him out of his coma.  Hate that Fenix chick for shooting him, but she likely did it so he’d mutate and help save humanity from the crazy shiz-nit gong down.  Yay for fish guys!

X-Factor #257: Jamie Madrox and company are very complex characters.  Looks like PAD is wrapping it up.  Sounds like it’s on his terms, so that’s cool. I’ve dug this book for years.

Archer and Armstrong #10: I like this iteration more than the original run from the 90’s.  Aram is a greater boozer character, and Archer is a good straight man.

Daredevil: End of Days #8: The last issue of this alternate future title where DD gets killed and Ben Urlich has to find out what his last words, “Mapone” mean.  Big noirish fun.

East of West #3: Hickman is setting up another epic story here.  An alternate reality where the US fragmented into several nations after the Civil War, 3 of the 4 Horsemen come back as malicious kids, and Death is mad.  I likey.

Astro City #1: Busiek describes his fun archetypal series as a chick flick with a big budget superhero movie happening in the back ground.  I’ve loved each volume of this series.  All manner of genre conventions are turned on their head, or looked at from other points of view.  Great stuff.

Avengers #13: More epic-ness from Hickman.  Looking forward to the journey on this big ass story.

All New X-Men #12: The idea of the past X-Men visiting the present continues to bear lush fruit.  Love how awkward past Cyclops is with everyone hating him.

Age of Ultron #9: This series 2nd and 3rd acts have just been plain fun to read.  Time gets bent up something fierce.

A dozen this week.  A dozen that I’ll likely read some Sunday in a four hour binge with another 30.  I love comics.  Don’t want to write ’em, though.  Though any who have read Repenter will see that I’m heavily influenced by them.  Stay tuned for another entry soon with an interview from Kent Sievers.  You will enjoy.

Starting a new feature featuring the comics I purchased on any given Wednesday.  I’m a customer of Krypton Comics in Omaha.  It’s an outstanding store staffed by friendly folks and not a sun-faded poster from the 90’s to be found.  My pile is always overflowing, so I likely won’t actually read any of these for a few weeks.This week’s purchases are ranked from least to best.    I always save the best for last.

BPRD Vampire #3: I LOVE BPRD’s regular series.  Mike Mignola is not afraid to eff up the status quo.  The artists always do a good job of conveying the off-kilter, apocalyptic world.  This mini series is about an agent running afoul of vampires.  Not expecting much.  But the dialogue is always strong and the atmosphere is always creepy, so I’m in.

Earth 2 Annual: Earth 2 is the only New 52 book I purchase.  DC just isn’t turning my crank, and it hasn’t since Final Crisis.  I get this because I enjoy James Robinson’s writing.  Check out his Starman run from the 90’s.  Opal City is a great fictional location.  Oh, yeah.  Another Batman shows up.  I shall read it with the expectation of punches being thrown.

Indestructible Hulk #8: I enjoy Mark Waid’s run on this title.  This latest arc with Thor feels a little “fillery”, but I still enjoy it.

Captain America #7: The Dimension Z Saga is going to be better in my eyes after Cap has lived through it and is haunted by it in future issues.  Crazy ride in the meantime though.

New Avengers #6: The Illuminati continue to march toward the death side of Jonathan Hickman’s massive epic.  Very dense, but worth it.

Thief of Thieves #14: This crime series about a pro thief who can’t escape the people in his life is awesome.  I understand AMC is developing a series based on it.  If so, it will partly fill the hole left by Breaking Bad’s passing.

That’s all for now.  Happy Wednesday!

Hey, all.  Just got word from my publisher that Repenter will be on Amazon tomorrow.  It will be on B/N, Kobo, and the Apple store in a few weeks.  I’ll have links to it soon.  It has a comparable level of violence as Game of Thrones or Walking Dead, so if that’s your bag, you’re in for a treat, and if it’s not for you, I’m betting you know someone who just might dig it. 

Or to summarize: YAY!

This is the fruit of a younger brother who used to doodle a lot as a kid.  Always encourage creativity.

Howdy, one and all.  I attended the NWG writers conference this past weekend.  I got some very cool information about blogging from Jonathan Maberry during his presentation.  It’s not about me, it’s about others.  And that’s outstanding to know.

But one brief thing about me, just to be contradictory, I’m going to be working on the “gallies” for my ebook novel with my editor, Sally, very soon.  So it’s a last getting closer to being published.  Yay!  I’ll be working on getting links to purchase the book through various venues when the zero hour approaches.

Random plugs:

I started watching “House of Cards” on Netflix.  I enjoy it so far.  Well done.  Kevin Spacey plays bastards so well.  The wife character is also horribly fascinating too, especially what she makes a co-worker do in advance of doing the same to that same co-worker.

Read Saga by Brian K Vaughn through Image.  An outstanding sci-fi fantasy comic book with well-drawn characters (in both senses).  Lying Cat is one of the best fictional animals ever.

Play Mass Effect 3.  The ending is poignant and haunting in my opinion.  If you can handle a bittersweet finale, its well worth your time.  Joker is always fun.  Seth Green walks the line between comedy and drama well.

Read Star Carrier: Earth Strike by Ian Douglas.  “Zorch” is my favorite new, made up word.  It means to fly very fast.

Keep on believing.

-Jim

Just got done proof reading parts of The Bloody Empress with my wife.  She enjoyed it and wants to read the rest.  She may be a little biased.  But I don’t care.  She’s my favorite fan. 🙂

Repenter is still on track to appear on major ebook retailers in the near future.  I’m still hard at work on the Bloody Empress too.

Also feel free to jump in on the conversation on my facebook page regarding violence in fiction.

Come on feel the noise.  Girls rock your boys.

Repenter is getting closer to publication.  Expect sometime in October on e-book format.  Print is still up in the air, but hopefully will occur sometime in 2013.  I’ll through out more info as I know it.

I need to be much better about blogging and putting web content out there.  Anyone have any favorite sci fi/fantasy/horror authors who have a good web presence?  Or any bloggers or podcasters in general who love all things super and natural?

Also, I’ll be reading at the Ralston Library this coming Sunday sometime between 2 and 5 pm.  It was a fun time last year.  Hope some can make it.

The Bloody Empress is plugging right along.  I hope to have it finished in a few months.  I’ll also get more web short story content out there too.

Plugs for others:

• Check out Paranorman if you’re looking for something quirky, creepy, and sweet.  A very well done movie.
• The new Valiant comic book line is off to a good start.  The new X-O Manowar series is the stand out best in class.
• I recently discovered Community.  Hilarious.  The stop motion Christmas episode is right up there with the Multiple Santa Tick episode

That’s all for now.  Stay so fine.  So fine, you blow my mind.

-Jim

Got the newly updated copyright in the mail yesterday.  So, things are on track for a fall release.  Woo Hoo!!

Also got the latest part of the Bloody Empress done and am fleshing out parts that need it before moving on to the books third act.

I’m considering releasing a Players of the Game Book 2.5 showing what other major characters that will be introduced in Book 3 were doing in Books 2 and 1.  Ping me on Twitter as @Stelfire to let me know if you’d be interested in such a novel (or possibly novella).

The rain is Spain falls mainly on your brain.

I’ll likely put this info in some place a bit more formal in the compendium tab at some point, but for now I thought I’d share some places on the web that I enjoy over the course of the next few entries:

Screenrant:  My brother turned me on to this site.  It kinda reminds me of the defunct Premiere magazine by way of geek press.  They are an excellent source of all news of geek entertainment, without being over the top about it.

PBS Newshour: Sick of too much opinion and not enough fact with the news corporations?  Try out PBS.  They are largely objective and refreshingly free of the clutter of crawl lines and excessive graphics.  Straight news.  I always look forward to Shields and Brooks’s analysis on Fridays.

Gotta fly.  I’ll put up more later.