I attended our annual staff appreciation gathering at one of our local branches. As an ice-breaker game, famous names of real people and fictious characters, both alive and dead, were taped to our backs. We had to ask other people questions, and the answers could only be given as yes or no. (That rule got bent here and there.)

Here was how my conversation went;

Me: Am I a real person?

Co-Worker: No.

Me: Am I a fictious character?

Co-Worker: Yes.

Me: Am I a character in a movie?

Co-Worker: Yes.

Me: Is it a fantasy movie?

Co-Worker: Fantasy, fantasy… well, not really.

Me: Is it a science-fiction movie?

Co-Worker: No.

Me: Is it a movie set in modern times?

Co-Worker: Yes.

Me: Do I wear a costume?

Co-Worker: Yes.

Me: *ponders*

Me: Am I Spider-Man?

Co-Worker: No, but you’re on the right track.

Me (having a Marvel fanboy moment): DareDevil?

Co-Worker: No…

Me (lightbulb goes off): I’m Batman!

Co-Worker: Yes!

So there you have it. The next time someone asks, tell them.

I’m Batman.

You’re driving to work on your day off, to attend a minor morning meeting. A woman drives past you in the intersection. Is she;

• A. Driving and talking on her cell phone?
• B. Driving and eating?
• C. Driving and applying her make-up?
• D. Driving and brushing her teeth?

If you chose D,  you are correct!

After doing a double-take, I was bothered by a nagging question in my mind. Where did she plan to spit when she was finished? If she already had planned ahead, and was carring a cup/mug in her lap or on the seat beside her, what did she think was going to happen if she had to suddenly stop?

Gives new meaning to the phrase; spit-shine.

A friend I haven’t seen in several years stopped by last weekend, and as former gaming buddies, the old rapport and familiarity returned instantly. During our reminiscing, he mentioned that he and his wife used to be active members of the Society for Creative Anachronism. He knew there were some active members in our local area, and knew them to be roughly of the same age/background, and that they also likely did some pen and paper gaming from time to time. He offered to place an ad on some forums their local members use, to help me find some gaming.

He got one reply so far, inviting the interested parties to join them for some… online gaming.

Next time you look up irony in the dictionary, see if they’ve added my face yet.

An artist that William Ward and I have been working with (and waiting on) for months wrote us recently to say he has finished the revisions to a comic project we hope to submit to a publisher. However, interruptions to the internet in his part of the world have prevented him from sending us the scans. We’ll know shortly if his work is still smoking hot after all this time, or if he is just blowing smoke…

Warbreed crashed and burned in the vote-department for the 2008 Small Press Idol. There were projects that convinced their entire family to vote, and one project that recruited students at their local University to get motivated and vote for them. Kudos to them, but I sincerely hope all those voters turn into consumers in the later rounds, when the final winner is decided by sales, not solicitations. It was an interesting experiment, and I enjoyed collaborating with Ben, but I simply view the business of comics, even independantly published ones, from a different perspective than they do.

I submitted a script to a new comic anthology, and came back from Disneyland to find an e-mail from both editors confirming that my pitch was accepted, and was considered in the top ten picks for each of them. Now the process shifts to the writers submitting their scripts, and the editors matching up suitable artists to them. My script has been written (and re-written) for more than a year. Now I wait to see if they can find me an artist.

Then I find out if the wait was worth it.

Used, slightly broken Hasbro lightsaber found at a local garage sale a few months ago: $0.10

New Hasbro lightsaber found on the clearance rack at the local Zellers a few weeks ago: $3.99

New Hasbro lightsaber from the Star Tours gift shop in Disneyland: $10.00

Watching my son battle the Dark Lord of the Sith… priceless.

The voting for the 2008 Small Press Idol closes tonight at midnight.

Despite overwhelming positive support from both the judges and the community, the structure of the contest meant that it won’t be the best projects technically, nor from a storytelling aspect, that advance, but simply the creative teams who could convince the most number of people to vote, and then to vote day after day after day.

Warbreed is on the verge of not advancing to Round 3. I strongly believe in the project, and have enjoyed my collaboration with Ben Jones, but I cannot compete in a popularity contest. I simply do not have enough people who follow my Blog or my writing who can commit time to vote on a message board every day. The judges retain final veto power. They could choose to eliminate another project ahead of us on a technicality, and thus advance us to the next round. I won’t be around to find out.

Tomorrow I head off to The Happiest Place On Earth.

I’ve sent Ben my page breakdowns for the twelve page 0-issue we are expected to have ready. From those twelve pages, if we do advance to Round 3, Ben will choose three sequential pages from anywhere in that story to draw and submit. If we do not advance, we are still expected to submit our completed twelve page sequential story for inclusion in the Honorable Mentions anthology that Dimestore Productions publishes. According to Ben, some of the projects who failed to advance in the contest last year still haven’t submitted their Honorable Mentions anthology story.

The perils and pitfalls of independant comics community…

Ben and I have already discussed our options, and between his job and school courses this summer, he won’t have time for another project, so we won’t collaborate on another submission package right away. I sincerely hope to hear from him again in the future.

All the best Ben.

For now, I have one or two other irons in the fire, but the embers have cooled for the moment, so I am hoping to hear some good news to stoke the coals with. When I know, you’ll know.

If you are interested in supporting small press independant comics creators, please take the time to visit the links I have posted under the Warbreed header here on my site, and vote for any of the projects you would like to see earn a chance at being published. You can vote for as many projects as you like, but can only vote for each one once a day, and you must remember to type the word YES in your reply.

Kameron M. Franklin has graciously lent the Warbreed project his assistance, and created for us a promotional trailer to help spread the word.

Ben Jones and J.L. Collins want to formally invite you to check out Warbreed, our entry in the 2008 Small Press Idol sponsored by Dime Store Productions

Warbreed has already won unanimous Yes votes from all three judges to advance through Round 1 of this independant comic creators contest. Round 2 is decided by the comics community at large, and we are requesting your support.

Visit the Warbreed Round 2 thread to cast your Yes vote and comment on the entry if you wish. Please remember the following when voting;

• You must register at Dime Store Productions to vote.
• Voting will begin on April 21, 2008 and expire May 4, 2008 at 11:59 PM.
• You can vote for your favorite project once a day, every day, until the deadline expires on May 4.
• The judges will only count your vote if you type the word Yes in your reply in support of the project.

After, visit the Warbreed Round 1 thread to read the judges comments that were overwhelmingly supportive in advancing Warbreed to the next round.

About the creators:

Artist Ben Jones contributed a Bomb Queen pin-up that was published in Bomb Queen #4 from Shadowline Books.

Visit Ben Jones ComicSpace

  *  *  *

Writer J.L. Collins was featured in the Realms of the Dragons II anthology published by Wizards of the Coast. He has also written articles appearing in Dragon magazine, and online.

Visit J.L. Collins homepage
Visit J.L. Collins ComicSpace

There’s something to be said for listening to the Gladiator soundtrack while working on an eleventh hour re-write for our Warbreed submission (it was just past 10:00 PM when I finished, so nearly!) on the eve of the second to last day of the deadline for Round 2.

Ben had to make some last minute changes to the art he wants to use, and when he requested a re-write of one of the biography pieces to make the entire entry more seamless, I partially missed the mark of what he needed. So he took the time to write a rough draft of his most energized ideas, and that just fuelled my imagination. It allowed me to throw out what I had, and start cherry-picking all the best ideas from the last several drafts. Nothing like some deadline pressure to bring out the big guns. I am writing about a dark elf after all, and in classic fantasy terms, they are supposed to revel in a little chaos from time to time. 

Now if only I could say the white in my hair was me getting into character…

This is a snippet from a post I wrote on the Hollow Relic Studios developer forums for an unannounced project we’re currently working on. Truer words have never been written…

I knew the storm cellar was what you originally had in mind Jay. I wanted to offer an alternative to give us a realistic reason to have a subterreanean creature encounter, but getting them in the shed may be harder than we think.

I suppose we can always leave it in anyway, because as Rogues, someone might get the itch to search EVERY POSSIBLE AREA, after all, CRPG’s have trained us to know that even random water barrels have gold necklaces lying in them…