Nick Davis's Blog, page 103
October 25, 2011
First Look – Tristan Lives!!! from A Teddy Bear's Tale
When I first wrote Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's Tale I never thought I would see Tristan beyond my mind's eye, now the story it turning into a beautiful illustrated book by Dan Nokes, and powered to launch with the help of some amazing pledges on Kickstarter.
Now we've gone one step beyond the printed page and now Tristan the Teddy Bear lives!!! as an actually Teddy Bear. Tristan is hand made in the USA with movable arms, legs and I believe head; the picture posted is a work in progress picture of Tristan, he is a little shaggy but he is getting a trim tomorrow. This is extremely exciting for me to see one of my characters take form in this way, it is a really magical experience and I cannot wait to share with you all pictures of Tristan when he is complete. Thank you all for helping to make this happen and yes you will be able to own a Tristan of your own as I will be introducing him as a pledge option so watch for updates!
Don't forget you can help Unconditional launch by making a pledge over on our Kickstarter website by clicking here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/altworld/unconditional-a-teddy-bears-tale Making a pledge is no different than placing a pre-order for a DVD box set, book or another item you want, you just get more gifts or incentives the more you pledge, again just like pre-ordering a special edition. If you can't pledge please help by spreading the word about about this whimsical tale of a Teddy Bear guarding his boy from the Monsters under the bed…
First Look – Tristan the Teddy Bear from Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's Tale
When I first wrote Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's Tale I never thought I would see Tristan beyond my mind's eye, now the story it turning into a beautiful illustrated book and Tristan the Teddy Bear is taking shape as an actually Teddy Bear.
Tristan is hand made in the USA with movable arms, legs and I believe head; if you look to the left you will see a work in progress picture of Tristan, he is a little shaggy but he is getting a trim tomorrow. This is extremely exciting for me to see one of my characters take form in this way, it is a really magical experience and I cannot wait to share with you all pictures of Tristan when he is complete.
Don't forget you can help Unconditional launch by making a pledge over on our Kickstarter website by clicking here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/altworld/unconditional-a-teddy-bears-tale Making a pledge is no different than placing a pre-order for a DVD box set, book or another item you want, you just get more gifts or incentives the more you pledge, again just like pre-ordering a special edition. If you can't pledge please help by spreading the word about about this whimsical tale of a Teddy Bear guarding his boy from the Monsters under the bed…
October 24, 2011
First color ink test for a Teddy Bear's Tale using a very surprising subject Dr Who the Teddy Bear
While this kick ass Dr Who inspired illustration is unrelated to Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's Tale; well unrelated by it not being an image from the book, but most definitely an inspired piece with it being a Dr Who as a Teddy Bear. Dan Nokes used it as his first color test with his first time out of the gate use of color inks, given his B/W ink shading skills I'm not surprised he pretty much knocked this illustration out of the park. This image also gives you a very good idea of the coloring style that will be used throughout Unconditional and I'm very excited for the upcoming Unconditional tests. I had to share this though, because its an extremely cool illustration in itself.
Dan Nokes, the artist for Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's story runs a dailyQuick Sketch challenge were you can request a sketch from him of which he will pick three and draw them! You can challenge Dan by requesting your sketch by clicking here. Dan will also be at the Virginia Comic Con this weekend and is selling prints of this amazing artwork.
Don't forget you can help Unconditional launch by making a pledge over on our Kickstarter website by clicking here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/altworld/unconditional-a-teddy-bears-tale Making a pledge is no different than placing a pre-order for a DVD box set, book or another item you want, you just get more gifts or incentives the more you pledge, again just like pre-ordering a special edition. If you can't pledge please help by spreading the word about about this whimsical tale of a Teddy Bear guarding his boy from the Monsters under the bed…
Sigmartyr Vol.3 of the Epic Stikfas action web comic – Here comes the Delta Scout!
Volume Three of Sigmartyr the Stikfas Action Web Comic continues. Click here to view this epic story. The cavalry arrives as the Delta Scouts rescues Alpha Team.
October 23, 2011
Book signing at the Annual Open House at the Dundalk Armory & an Ironbear Quick Sketch!!!
[image error]Today I was at the Annual Holiday Open House at the Dundalk Armory at a Book Signing for my Alt World books, the event itself was muted but the interest to ratio of people was very high. One of the great things about the Annual Open House is 50% of your proceeds go towards helping the families of deployed Soldiers, it gave me the chance to spread the word further about my books, with A Teddy Bear Tales getting a lot of interest; one would say it was a #winning event for me.
Two highlights from the event; first I listened to a story from a little girl about the Bogeyman and I attempted to do a bit of grass roots of selling by asking if she had a Teddy Bear. Which she said she did, so I told her the secret of a Teddy Bear is they protect her from the Monsters under the bed. All seemed well I settled a little girls fear and planted the idea for my upcoming book Unconditional, then it all came crashing down when she said she doesn't have a Teddy Bear at her fathers and there are Monsters there… Eek..! I hurriedly backed away saying ask your Father for a Teddy Bear, I think I scarred the kid for life!
The second highlight was just plain odd, a woman comes up to my table, I start my pitch and she outright says to me I don't believe in fantasy – something just popped in my head and I couldn't find a comeback. How can you not believe in fantasy? How you can you live a life without dreams, or fantasy, or just plain imagination. Doesn't she watch TV, or just she sit at home on a spike while reading text books of stereo instructions. Freaking odd!
[image error]Also meet Ironbear by Dan Nokes, the artist for Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's story runs a daily Quick Sketch challenge were you can request a sketch from him of which he will pick three and draw them? You can challenge Dan by requesting your sketch by clicking here. This also means I'm three more Teddy Avengers away from finishing my movie collection.
Don't forget you can help Unconditional launch by making a pledge over on our Kickstarter website by clicking here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/altworld/unconditional-a-teddy-bears-tale Making a pledge is no different than placing a pre-order for a DVD box set, book or another item you want, you just get more gifts or incentives the more you pledge, again just like pre-ordering a special edition. If you can't pledge please help by spreading the word about about this whimsical tale of a Teddy Bear guarding his boy from the Monsters under the bed…
October 22, 2011
Reminder Book Signing at the Annual Holiday Open House at the Dundalk Armory
Just a quick reminder on October 23rd (Sunday) I am doing a book signing at the Dundalk National Guard Armory for their Annual Holiday Open House, the Armory is located on 2101 North Point Blvd, Dundalk MD 21222.
I will be bringing the Tether Saga novels, The Wonder Tales, Fabula Exposition and Sigmartyr – an Action Figure Graphic novel. 50% of all proceeds made will be donated to help the families of deployed soldiers. The Holiday Open House starts at 1pm and finishes at 5pm – so come over and meet me, pick up a copy of one of my novels and do some thing good too.
October 21, 2011
From Unconditional – A Teddy Bear's Tale meet a Boggle
There is one Monster under the Bed we've not looked at yet and Unconditional artist Dan Nokes has done a quick sketch of it. In fact it might be a bit unfair to refer to this one as a Monster at all. Ever wondered what happened to those toys when you were a kid, the incomplete, half broken ones that you put down for a second? Or put away to fix and play with another day? I would like you too meet a Boggle, they are collectors and fixers of discarded and broken toys. They are Nomadic Tinkerers who redistribute toys to deserving children and wouldn't harm a fly.
You can help Unconditional launch by making a pledge over on our Kickstarter website by clicking here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/altworld/unconditional-a-teddy-bears-tale Making a pledge is no different than placing a pre-order for a DVD box set, book or another item you want, you just get more gifts or incentives the more you pledge, again just like pre-ordering a special edition. If you can't pledge please help by spreading the word about about this whimsical tale of a Teddy Bear guarding his boy from the Monsters under the bed.
Rapture time and it's the End of the World!!! Oh hang on… I must of missed it again…
Did you feel it yet? Anyone? Anyone..? Today Friday October 21st 2011 is the time of the actually Family Radio predicted rapture, not to be confused with the false practice rapture on May 21st. Now I've been very busy at work and with my A Teddy Bear Tale project to notice anything happen, so I am asking… Anything happen to you? Any celestial events? Angels descending? Earth opening up, dead rising etc… No? Are you actually surprised that nothing happened again?
Family Radio Owner Harold Camping again predicted that October 21st was the going to be the real rapture this time and it was totally guaranteed, honest. I guess it gave him time to sucker more people out of money or find excuses to not give it back what he took with his lies. After all if its the end of the world why would you concern yourself with material possessions? You know practice what your preach, set and lead by an example by showing you have faith in your prophecies; I honestly do not know how this Huckster keeps pulling this off and ruining peoples lives.
I am sure no one who reads my blog has been sucked by this man, but there are those that have been and ruined their lives because of his false prophecies. Please don't be a sheep, think for yourself, live you life and try to be excellent to one another, that is the greatest gift and praise you can give God.
October 20, 2011
Quick Sketch Fun – the Bear Widow (aka the Black Widow) Teddy Avengers Assembled!
Teddy's Assemble!!! As I add another Teddy Bear themed character to my movie Avengers set, this time the Bear Widow (aka the Black Widow). This image was drawn by Dan Nokes, the artist for A Teddy Bear's Tale as part of his daily Quick Sketch Challenge, all you need to do is look for the announcement on his Facebook page and be one of the first three to make a suggestion. You can check out the rest of the Teddy Avengers in my Quick Sketch gallery here.
October 19, 2011
Review – Fear Itself Book Seven of Seven – Thor's Day by Matt Fraction
[image error]Fear Itself – Book Seven of Seven
Publisher: Marvel
By Matt Fraction
It has been a long, long journey from Book One of this Summer event to Book Seven, a little too long with too little happening and nothing but a little badly done stunt shock along the way. I've talked to a lot of people who've read this event and the general consensus is nice artwork, story played a flat note, which sums up my thoughts too. Which is a shame because the first book of this event actually was very well done, there was a palpable sense of unease in that one. It was just after that the event book turned into a three panel adverts for the Fear Itself tie-in books and you just stopped caring about what happened. There are spoilers after the jump, so you've been warned.
So now we are here at the end of all things and the final book in what has been at best a very flat event is done, so how do I feel now? To be honest I don't feel any different, just a sense of relief it is over and just to rub salt into the wound Marvel charged $4.99 for the last book in the series. I guess it makes sense because the last five books weren't really worth the $3.99 cover price, so hats off for consistency at least (if you really want to get this event wait until all the books are inhabiting the $0.50 bins next year).
Everything is tied up in this book, the Serpent is defeated and just like the rest of event you can't help thinking why didn't they just do that three issues ago? I will give them the due the fight between Thor and the Serpent was drawn beautifully, although the Serpent was more dangerous when he was man shaped, not serpent. My guess taking the form of a Dragon fits into the whole Ragnorak Norse legend.
For some reason normal guns in the hand of Captain America have the ability to take down those Battle Mech's (then again Daredevil took down three by himself in the last Avengers book) and sudden the Avengers actually remember how to fight. Once the low-powered hero's have received an Asgard Day Glo upgrade, they kicked the Worthy butts; oh I also forgot to mention that Cap picked up Thor's hammer (I didn't know he could do that and the image of this should of excited me more than it did) and went Hammer Time with Sin. Here is a thought, where was the Military response? At least in Siege we saw the regular forces fighting and given the breadth of this event we didn't see any military personnel, apart from the dumb suicide charge by Shield Special Op's in the Secret Avengers book.
Another thought why was Sin's hammer taken away when it was the only one located on Earth in the first place? And if Odin could of done that with a wave of his hand why couldn't he of done that at the beginning when the Serpent was at his weakest?
After six books of build up it has all been a bit of a disappointment to say the least, there is nothing here that couldn't of been done in four books and it would of been more exciting for it. The end battle was anti-climatic, we had a tonne of bad dialog (Wolverine's screw Cap line made no sense) and then we are treated to four epilogues that are just glorified adverts for the spin-off titles; none of which excite me at all and were probably responsible for pushing the book up another buck. So now we are paying Marvel for previews and I ask you can you name one spin-off title lasting past their sixth issue?
Yeah, also Cap's shield is now fixed with an Asgard enchantment of unbreaking… That was easy, eh?
Just to let us know how epic this event was Cap does one of his speeches and vows the Avengers will rebuild Asgard, Manhattan and the World (in this order or was the world thrown in to make us think this event was worldwide). Glad to see Asgard was thrown in there first for a moment I was worried where all those newly arrived Asgardians were going to live.
One nice touch was the panel breaks featuring News reports of people recovering from the onslaught of the Worthy, this was done to signify the world (sorry the USA) recovering from the effects of the Serpent. I feel this would been much more effective running as a image ticker at the bottom of the page and actually featured news reports from around the world.
I am sorry I have to say this because collectively the event was a superhero yarn that would be fun to read in the 90′s, like in an image book where story was second place to the art. But after a series of four years of good summer events from Marvel this one was just not up to par. Now I know most events are there to get you buy other books, but this one was too blatant, with the main book not actually telling any part of the story itself, instead the book for five issues was three panel adverts for tie-ins and the story suffered for it – It is interesting to note that the first and last book of this event were better reads because they were more self contained, which makes you wonder how much better this could of been. I just don't know what happened here. I know it isn't just me feeling this and if this is the shape of events to come from the Marvel Architects, then events will become something I will just pass up and that is not what I should be feeling. I should be cheering and wanting to grab all the titles to find out what happens next like I did with Siege, not dreading what Marvel will do next to spin this story out. I guess at least my wallet will thank Marvel for this.
Two Thumbs up out of Five
PS – Question for Marvel, I do understand one-shots, I understand launching mini-series under the umbrella of an event, but made you think that shite Deadpool event special would work without insulting the reader – it was so bad even Deadpool fans were turned off? What was with the Fearsome Four? Did you have to release a Howard the Duck book every couple of years to keep him as a franchise character? Ugh… So many why's and could of been's…
