2019 was a very busy year!

So, it occurs to me that not only have I not posted here in a bit, but that I've actually been quite busy over the past several months, and the probability exist that I have been remiss about informing all'y'all about what I've been up to during the past year or so.

So, to rectify, I’ve decided to take a few moments and bring all'y'all up to speed on what I’ve been doing.
I suppose that at the top of the list, I’ve been posting movie and comic reviews over at HubPages. You should head over there and sign up to subscribe and receive regular updates as to what I find cool enough to write about.

Some of the film reviews (those dealing with monsters and creatures of the night), tend to wind up over on the We Love Monsters Facebook page as well as in their print editions(s).

As far as comicbook writing goes, I want to start back in 2018 (actually) with the inclusion of my short story Birds of Prey in the Wunderfunders anthology Memorial, The Great War Centennial Anthology The book was published for the 100^th anniversary of the first World War (The war to end all wars).

My short story told the tale of an American who witnessed both the initial flights of Gustave Whitehead and the Wright Brothers, then went off to England to help in the war effort over there prior to the U.S. entering the war. His story (briefly) documents the use of airplanes in the war effort.

My story was penciled by Greg Kimmet, inked by Dustin Pageloff, colored by Melissa Compton, and lettered by Jason Sylvestree, with the splash page colored by Christopher Geary.

Memorial is a sequential art anthology to commemorate those who fought and fell in the course of the first world war, and to benefit the children of the world caught up in the wars still being fought. All proceeds from the book will be donated to Warchild UK.

Next up (in 20190), I was invited by Ramon Gil to participate in a Kickstarter anthology project of his, by writing a short science fiction story (which Ramon then illustrated) for this wonderful SciFies Anthology. My story had kind of a fun twist to it, one which I believe came out very well.

I had previously worked with Ramon on a one-page story for a Phrases to Pages story for Pronto Comics, as well as having contributed the introduction to his first SciFies collection.

Working with Ramon, is always a pleasure (He has also invited me to attend his FIT Diversity Con in NYC on two occasions.)

This was followed by a short Halloween story that I penned for InDELLible Comics’ Tales from the Tomb anthology (The Witch and the Wolf, illustrated by the ever amazing Carl Morgans). InDELLible is comprised of a consortium of writers and artist who have taken it upon themselves to revive the (now Public Domain) characters of the defunct publisher, Dell Comics.

InDELLible also publishes the Popular Comics anthology (which is now up to issue #3). Issue #4 (due out in 2020) will (hopefully) have short story by me included that stars The Golden Age Owl Girl. Other InDELLible comics include Cartoon Cuties by Rock Baker, The House of Spades (which will contain the third chapter of my Wülf Girlz series), and CrackerJack Funnies which carries a Chanukah story of mine (Home for the Holidays), illustrated by the wicked-talented Carl Morgans.

InDELLible also published (in 2019) an InDELLiprose edition that contained prose stories of these same Dell heroes. That initial edition contained a short story of min featuring the Golden Age Owl Girl entitled Byline. A follow-up prose story with both Owl Girl and The Owl (entitled Hate by any Other Name) will appear in the second edition, due out in 2020.

(As soon as these other stories are available, I’ll be posting links as to where folks can acquire them.) In the mean time, just to keep you interested and to whet your appetite, I'll tease you with just a taste of the amazing artwork by Carl.

While these are the most recent, works that I have penned, there is also a short prose story of mine in the Metahumans vs. the Ultimate Evil entitled Northern Lite from 2016. I do have a couple of other short stories that have been written and are slated for publication; more on those as they come to fruition.

In addition to these stories of mine, I have contributed to some other publications, including two articles in Munster Memories, then there is an old interview of mine that I conducted with Mike Grell that was added to the TwoMorrows book by Dewey Cassell — Mike Grell: Life is Drawing without an Eraser, and of course the two Stan Lee books about drawing superheroes, Stan Lee's How to Draw Superheroes and Stan Lee's Master Class in which I wrote four chapters each (allowing me to say, with no ego, and in my best Chevy Chase voice, “I'm Stan Lee and you're not.”)

Then, not only am I a fairly prolific writer, but I’m something of a one-man production company as well in that I have preform pre-press production and editorial tasks for several clients, including Main Enterprises, Stone Island Comics, Red Anvil/JGM, Glass House Graphics, Macrospasm Studios, Hippy Comix, Big Apple Convention, and others. Some of the many books and magazines on which I have worked appear in the image below.

More to follow as the year progresses...

Cracking the local scene

Hey kids, I know that I haven't posted here in quite some time, but well, I relocated from the North East to Richmond, VA and well, it has been taking some time to get acclimated to the local scene, but well, I haven't been completely dormant.

To be sure, I do spend most of my time these days on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but, That's not all I've been doing. I'm still assembling books for both Jim Main (Main Enterprises), and Roger Keel (Stone Island Comics), as well as writing and editing comics for Red Anvil (Cyberines, Unit 5). I also did the layout and production for Joe Martino’s prose novel, The Way of the Gray. So, you know I've been keeping busy.

Needless to say, if there is anyone out there who is looking for a reasonably talented, nearly famous writer for writing, editing, and/or production, hit me up.

Meanwhile here are a couple of articles that I've written over the past couple of years.

The first one was while I was the Deputy Registrar of Voters in Norwalk, CT where I discussed how we introduced technology to improve voting and decrease costs to the city (several of which were adopted by the the state to be used in other municipalities)

Norwalk, Conn., Uses Technology to Better Run Elections

 The second article was for RVA Magazine here in Richmond, and talks about the growing comicbook community here. (Oh, and I just recently learned that RVA is the 5^th hippest city in the good ol‘ U.S. of A.! How cool is that?)

Comic Books and Creators Come to Richmond, Unite in Local Online Community

OK, that’s about it for now. I promis to (try) and come back here a tad more often, but now I have to go back and finish writing a Golden Age Owl Girl script or InDELLable Comics new title, (Popular Comics).

Ciao!

Unit 5 has landed in Comicbook Stores

September 11^th 2001 it wasn’t just the U.S., but all of the citizens of world that experienced an ominous day. However, it also became the turning point in the fight against global terror. Founded by the United States Government and born out of the personal tragedies of five extraordinary individuals each of whom suffered personal losses due to the 9/11 attacks and all of whom have deep ties to the Ground Zero attacks. Now these five have joined together to fight global terror and are collectively known as Unit 5. These five extraordinary individuals now work for the U.S. Government.

With a cast of characters that is as diverse professionally as they are ethnically, there is something for everyone. Like most great heroes, these characters were born out of tragedy. It was the intense tragedy of the terror attacks on 9/11 that form the real-life backstory which has enabled many fans of the book to form a deep, personal connection to the storyline and characters. As we first join the story we meet each of the members of the team Drift, Tech, Ollie, Box, Brain, as well as their (non-costumed) leader, Dom Dugan. We are brought up to speed by a couple of reporters before jumping right into the story where Drift and Tech take down a terrorist before joining up with the rest of their team, and then going out to engage with a terrorist cell.

Unit 5 is published by Red Anvil (The Mighty Titan, and the upcoming Cyberines). The book was created and written by Skip Winter, President of Link Marketing (which owns the property itself). The book itself is wonderfully illustrated by Red Anvil co-Publisher, Joe Martino (Shadowflame, The Mighty Titan), whose layout, design, and illustrations add a deeper dimension to the story. While the root of the story (the 9/11 attack) gives no small amount of depth to the tale, the characters themselves are something of cyphers — which is only to be expected in the first issue of a team book — but which we forward to improving as the series progresses.

All-in-all, this is a fine initial effort, and we do recommend the title to folks who are interested in supporting well-made, creator-owned, indie comics. 

Owlgirls: A quick snapshot

OK folks here we are in the final stretch of the Owlgirls Kickstarter campaign, and we are almost there.

With just 4 days to go we are $670.00 shy of our goal. We so totally don't want to miss out on producing this wonderfully eclectic comic for what amounts to just a few bucks.

Please dig down deep and help us reach our goal!

Thanks!

Owlgirls are coming

So, after some three decades of promoting other people's project (a friend and fellow journalist pointed out to me that makes me one of the longest-running journalists in the field of comics) I’m here now promoting one of my own projects. Owlgirls. 

On this kickstarter project I’m the writer which was conceived by Italian artist Rachele Aragno. Rachele was introduced to me by my good friend, Dave Ryan (mastermind behind the War of the Independents), who is also acting as Art Director on the project. Again, I'm the writer, and I built the story of the Owlgirls on Rachele’s wholly original concept, and have crafted a five-story arc to introduce them to the world.

Well, the first issue is completed, the second issue has been written and is now being illustrated, and I’m currently working on crafting the third story now. We have until September 1, 2013 to raise $3,463.00 to get the first issue into print, and are offering up all sorts of very cool rewards for people who assist us in getting this project to market.

For those of you who might not be familiar with the Kickstarter paradigm, it is a crowd-sourcing, fund-raising venue that allows Independent creators to seek backing from numerous friends and family in small amounts — which is actually easier than attempting to seek larger sums of money from individual backers. The way this works is that we have "X" amount of time to raise "Y" amount of money to fund our project. If we do that, it is off to market. If, however, we fail to raise the required amount of money, then the project is over and no one who pledged money has to come up with that funding.

Needless to say, we are highly confident that we will raise that money and we will get the Owlgirls published.So click over to the link ad start your pledging!

Oh, and thanks a bunch for helping us with this endeavor!