Fantasy Lantern Draft

DC Comics is having a huge crossover event right now. Without boring you with the details I'll just tell you that it focuses on the Green Lantern Corps and the other six lantern corps fighting off the Black Lantern Corps. Each corps is a different color (according to the ROYGBIV color acronym) and each color represents a different emotion (Red=Rage, Orange=Avarice, Yellow=Fear, Green=Willpower, Blue=Hope, Indigo=Compassion, and Violet=Love). There was recently an article on Comic Book Resources about a Fantasy Lantern Draft. Basically people all over the internet are picking people from all different fandoms to make the perfect lanterns. The rules are simple: for each corps you pick one person from all of comics (or in this case anywhere). Below is my draft and my reasons for why I picked them. I also hyperlinked them for your convenience.

• Red: Jakita Wagner. Jakita likes anything that keeps her from being bored. Rage is anything but boring. She throws herself into every fight with a smile on her face and song in heart. Sure that song is "Murder Train" by the Foreskins but hey, whatever. She's not necessarily an angry person but she gets caught up in the moment very easily and that would be enough to turn her into a Red Lantern. Runner Up: ALL CAPS JEFF MOREIRA.
• Orange: Jack Horner. Jack's entire motivation, through out both his series and Fables, has been money. And sex. And fame. Basically the things that any and all greedy people want. He's the quintessential orange lantern. He save the girl; it's only because he wants to get some. He helps break out a fellow prisoner; he expects him to take Jack to treasure. It never ends. That's why he's be a great Orange Lantern. Runner Up: Howard "The Weasel" Monague.
• Yellow: The Grinning Man. This one is extremely personal. I have never, never, been more afraid than the night I stumbled upon the Grinning Man. The thought of him terrifies me, the accounts only make it worse. He's a mysterious figure seen in New Jersey and Virginia who appears and terrifies people. Read the accounts, you'll be afraid too. He's the perfect Yellow Lantern. Runner Up: Angelus.
• Green: Buffy Summers. This one was hard. Originally I had her as a Blue Lantern, because she inspires hope. But then I thought "In the end all Buffy has is Buffy. And that's enough." Green Lanterns are in a similar position. Buffy has shown that she can lead and has more willpower than anyone else ever and I will fight you if you disagree. She's my hero and I get a little protective. Sorry. Runner Up: Elijah Snow.
• Blue: Gordon Freeman. This one was easy once Buffy was cemented in the Green Lantern Corps. He's known through out the entire Half-Life universe as the "One Free Man." He inspires people to resist the combine and fight back. But most of all, he gives people hope. And that's kind of a requirement for this gig. The best part is he does this without saying a single word. How's that for stoic? Runner Up: Link.
• Indigo: Doctor Who. The Doctor, more specifically the tenth doctor feels great compassion for every single creature throughout the universe and throughout time. That's a lot of people and things to care about. In one episode he has to basically put these four terrible people in a never-ending torture loop. He doesn't want to but he has to. In another episode he saves a group of monsters because he's the Doctor. And he cures people. Runner Up: John "J.D." Dorian.
• Violet: Midnighter. I know what you're saying (well, maybe not actually you but the proverbial you) "How come the gay guy is the pink lantern?" Well, over-sensitive liberal character I made up for this example, it because Midnighter is more in love with Apollo than anyone else I could think of. He's done crazy things for and because of love and I think that more than qualifies him to be a violet lantern. Runner Up: Kitty Pryde.

So there's my draft. I'll be tweeting them all tomorrow in a smaller, 140 character bursts.

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The Playlist

I do a lot of writing. Not as much as I should but a lot none the less. I've heard a lot of people say that writing to music is too distracting. I respectfully disagree. I think that some music too distracting, so I went through my admittedly smallish library of music (2000-ish) and picked out fifteen songs that I put on a shuffling repeat. The order isn't important, the songs are. These probably won't work for anyone but me but I thought it would be a good insight into my musical inspirations. They're linked for your convenience. Also, there are a few repeat artists. Some think that's unnecessary but I think shut the hell up.

01. Secrets Of The Undersea Bell - Astronautalis

02. You Were Born To Save The World - Pixelh8

03. tip eht fo mottob - Shael Riley And The Doubleice Backfire

04. Remains - Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon

05. Heads Up, Hearts Down - I Fight Dragons

06. This Must Be The Place - Miles Fisher

07. Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes - Fall Out Boy

08. Turn On Me - The Shins

09. Men's Needs - The Cribs

10. No One Sleeps When I'm Awake - The Sounds

11. How To Fire A Gun - Shael Riley And The Doubleice Backfire

12. Welcome To The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

13. Money - I Fight Dragons

14. I Will Repossess Your Heart - Marc With A C

15. Trouble Hunters - Astronautalis

So there it is. I hope you found this enlightening.

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November 22, 2010

That's the day I'll be published. At the latest. I have a story being published at Incubator Press's third volume of their third anthology entitled Never Look Back: Jubilee. My story's about a guy who cleans up other people's illegal messes. It's a gritty crime noir with some pretty cool dialogue. It'll be very fun.

Another thing I'll be doing in the future is going home to NH. I get all sentimental when I think about so, see you later.

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Almost forgot I had a famous visitor on the blag today. He's an amazing musician named Pixelh8. I tweeted him saying home much I like his album "And The Revolution" and he checked out my site. That's pretty cool.

Let's Give It Up For The New Year

It's been a month since I've last blogged and not much has changed. Still working on breaking into comics. It's difficult and frustrating and time consuming. But it's also a little fun. You know, in a very unfunny way. If that makes a lick of sense. I spend a lot of time on websites that cater to the up and comers. Mostly looking for work or a good artist for free. No luck on that front yet but hey. I do have Juan, who sort of spoiled me by being so good. I look at people that I may have asked to collaborate with before I found him and realize that they really aren't that good. Oh well. It'll happen sooner or later.

That's all I really have for now. Oh yeah, IT FREAKING SNOWED IN FLORIDA TODAY! What the hell is up with that, right?

For Those About To Rock...

I hope the title doesn't conjure too many images of AC/DC. That really wasn't my intent. I'm actually going to talk about the last month and a half or so. Including some music I've been listening to, but we'll get there later.

So first of all, I've had the most hectic week of my life. Maybe not my whole life. But top five, easy. We filmed our 16mm shoot. It was three twelve-hour days that started at six but I was there by five-thirty. I had probably the second easiest job on set but I was still running around like a crazy person with his head cut off. For purposes of this last simile, assume that this crazy person is half chicken. that way he can still move without his head. I was the 2nd Assistant Director, which basically means talent wrangler. I had to keep the actors happy which is a very easy job, comparatively. It was really fun. Some of the actors and a few other crew members had a nice little bonding experience over what our porn names would be. To find your porn name, it's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on (Mine's Junker Country by the way). On the last day of shooting I got home and fell asleep for an hour. Then I fell asleep again at nine. It was nice.

On the comic front, I have half the pages from Juan. That means it's time to pay him half the money. I just need to find a western union, which despite their advertisements are surprisingly hard to find. I'm excited because it means a almost half way done with the first issue. I plan on having it on the shelves by June. But that's a different problem for a different post. I'll have something for you to look at.

Remember when I said I would talk about bands. Well, you're wait is over. You can exhale. It's no secret that I'm a nerd. The reason it's no secret is because I talk about it all the time. Well in july I started getting into Nerd Music. It's not a genre so much as it's a movement. It's people singing about things like pirates and ninjas and cats that can't spell. But it's also people using Nintendo sound cards to enhance their music. I can't believe I didn't get into it sooner. Anyway, I saw I Fight Dragons, who uses the aforementioned NES sound cards, and they were amazing. I even talked to them after the show and got them to sign a copy of their CD for me. It was cool. Other bands that rock pretty hard are Shael Riley and The Double Ice Backfire, Marc With a C, and The Protomen. None of which sound like each other. But that's the point of Nerdcore. It's a little bit of everything.

I ran out of things to talk about so I guess I'll be off. I'd also like to mention that I'm going home in eleven days. Oh sweet New Hampshire, I can almost feel your snow in my boots. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Scrubs premiered last tuesday. Watch that. I didn't realize how long this post was. Hope I don't come off as long winded. I just have a lot to say.

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Cover by Rob Jones

Here's the cover. It's done by a different artist than the one who's drawing the comic proper. His name is Rob Jones and I found him on Penciljack.com, which is probably one of the best website there is for aspiring comic writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers. It how I found both the artists on my comic. I just wish that there was an easier way to pitch to publishers. All of their submission guidelines are really tough. i understand that they want to scare away anyone who doesn't really want to do this and isn't willing to put in the effort but man, some of them just sound mean-spirited. But you gotta do what you gotta do to make it in any business and the comic industry is no different.

Thank god for that little voice in my head that keeps yelling ideas at me when I try to sleep or watch TV or generally do anything. If I could turn my brain off for even a minute I would have a nice moment of quiet non-reflection. I envy the unimaginative sometimes. Only sometimes though. The rest of the times I go "Wow, I thought of that? Awesome. I'm going places." It sounds conceded but I don't believe in me how can I expect anyone else to?

Look! It's got a name!

NUCLEAR_FAMILY. That's the title of my comic. It was the title of the first arc but I didn't have a name for the series proper and decided that it needed one. Nuclear Family worked better as the first arc. It made sense because a nuclear family is defined as the immediate members of one's family. See the irony? Because they aren't related at all? And they live in a post nuclear war torn america? Either way it was clever. It's still clever. But I digress.

Here's page six. Enjoy!