Nick Davis's Blog, page 118
June 29, 2011
The Transformers Dark of the Moon Art Deco Movie Poster by Mondo Tees
I came across this online last night, an Art Deco Transformers Dark of the Moon poster it is an amazing poster and you can get it on a t-shirt over on Mondo Tees.
Sneak Peak – Pixar Brave Movie Poster, Teaser Trailer and Synopsis
Brave is Pixars first original (non-sequel) story in the last three years, I like the animation style in the teaser trailer above and its looks like we could be in for a good story. I especially like the Will 'o the Wisps that pop up in it because of their faye background they could be a force for good or bad. The movie synopsis is after the jump.
The film features Kelly Macdonald as the voice of Merida, a skilled archer and the daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it's too late.
June 28, 2011
The Rocketeer 20th Anniversary Tribute Animation to Dave Stevens – Pretty Damn Cool!
Found on Bleeding Cool and I just had to share The Rocketeer 20th Anniversay tribute animation to Dave Stevens, its pretty good and makes ya wish you could see a animated series of this retro hero.
Available now the Official Accept One Gothic novel t-shirt – Broken Wings Cover
The Official Accept One T-shirt
Is available in Black the official t-shirt of Accept One, the second book of the Tether Saga, the gritty fantasy set on the streets of Baltimore city. If you are fan of the novels you have to pick up this unique T-shirt in sizes S to XL by clicking the Paypal link below.
Sizes
Small $14.99
Medium $14.99
Large $14.99
X-Large $15.99
Two very easy peasey Indie Author promotion tips
I've been on the Indie writer train for over a year now and the one thing I don't like doing is promotion work on the internet. We as writers have an inherent problem selling ourselves and our work, even I find it uncomfortable and I've had many jobs as a salesman; literally selling sand to Arabs. Truth be told I would rather be writing than finding ways to sell my books and getting the word out about them. I also know I'm not the only Indie who has this feeling too, so today I'm going to share two easy peasey promotion tips to help ease this awkwardness. Check out these two tips after the jump.
1. Making your books easy to buy – This is purely a tip that will work with eBooks published direct on the Kindle or the Nook. You need to make your books easy to buy, the average reader may not be able to locate your novel in the mess that passes as onsite search engines and will give up looking if it becomes too difficult. The internet breeds a kind of AHDD in most people and you need to combat this.
The best way to do is at the end of your story place a hotlink or hyperlink to the store location of your next book in the series or the rest of your work. Just copy the URL and create a hyperlink; I suggest taking a gander at the Smashwords Style Guide for an easy step by step guide to how to create a live link in your book.
2. Enhancing your book blurb – You've worked and worked on your book blurb and now you can't make any more exciting or suspenseful. Simple solution is to add an extract from the book you want to promote; keep it short about 420 characters (optimal word count for status updates on Facebook) and try to find an action or tense sequence you can pull the extract from. Here is an example below from Accept One, the second book of the Tether.
"I don't know what to do," said Michael hesitating as the Praetorian's moved towards them.
"I do," said Sarah. "Pulsus tergum!"
The Tether pulsed for a second, and the air in front of Sarah pushed outwards knocking everyone in front of her off their feet and violently rocking the van too.
"Come on Hero get me out of here," said Sarah grabbing Michael and pulling him along. "Start thinking bodyguardy."
Post the extract as your status, add a link to relevant book page, most social media pages will automatically pull a preview of your link adding the blurb to the update. You now have double the hook to excite your reader, you can repeat this process on message boards or where ever else you talk about/promote your work.
Over the last six weeks I've used a combination of both techniques over Twitter, Message board, and Facebook – in turn annoyed one Facebook group (sorry Kindle Readers UK it was just an experiment). In return with these techniques in place I've seen my sales of the books I promoted double. Give it a try, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, thanks for listening.
June 27, 2011
Available now the official The Tether Novel Gothic cover t-shirt – there is none righteous no, not one
The Official The Tether T-shirt
'there is none righteous no, not one'
Is available in Black the official t-shirt of featuring the Gothic over of The Tether novel, the gritty fantasy set on the streets of Baltimore city; complete with series quote 'there is none righteous no, not one. If you are fan of the novels you have to pick up this unique T-shirt in sizes S to XL by clicking the Paypal link below.
Sizes
Small $14.99
Medium $14.99
Large $14.99
X-Large $15.99
Available now the official The Tether Gothic cover t-shirt – there is none righteous no, not one
The Official The Tether T-shirt
'there is none righteous no, not one'
Is available in Black the official t-shirt of featuring the Gothic over of The Tether novel, the gritty fantasy set on the streets of Baltimore city; complete with series quote 'there is none righteous no, not one. If you are fan of the novels you have to pick up this unique T-shirt in sizes S to XL by clicking the Paypal link below.
Sizes
Small $14.99
Medium $14.99
Large $14.99
X-Large $15.99
DC Relaunch Jim Lee full Justice League line up leaked online
This art piece has been sneaking its way online for the last couple of days, its been labeled as Jim Lee's Justice League line up for the DC relaunch, tweaked costumes, and a slightly changed line up, but beyond that nothing really that radical. Although we are missing the great green Gumby known as J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter.
Now I've not said anything about the DC relaunch coming in September and admittedly I'm not a DC fan. I feel over the last few years they've actively done everything they could to kill any interest I had as a fan of their books. Just how many universe retcon/reboots do you need in one decade? Frankly they should of stayed with the Hypertime concept, which neatly explained every continuity error ever! And stayed as far away from the Superboy Prime punching the universe as they could. Then we wouldn't have had the Final Crisis of the Crisis, that is the 52 week Crisis featuring the biggest Final Crisis ever! Really boxed themselves into a crisis corner with that deal.
However I am very interested in seeing what is happening with their relaunched Justice League book. Rumor has it, its going to be as much about seven superheroes living together, as it is going to be about super heroics (if we are allowed to use that term with the new DC books). For me this signals a return to the Keith Giffen era when the Justice League was comic book gold and one of the best picks on the rack. So yes I will be getting Justice League #1 in September, with any comic brand its always best to start with the team books and go from there. I hope I wont be disappointed, even though a part of me is speculating that this is just a warmed over Heroes Reborn storyline and wont matter in a years time as DC reboots (again), and returns to legacy numbering.
DC Relaunch Jim Lee's full Justice League line up leaked online
This piece has been sneaking its way online for the last couple of days, its a Jim Lee Justice League line up for the DC relaunch, tweaked costumes, slightly changed line up, but beyond that nothing really that radical.
Now I've not said anything about the DC relaunch coming in September and admittedly I'm not a DC fan. I feel over the last few years they've actively done everything they could to kill any interest a fan could have in their books. Just how many universe retcon/reboots do you need in one decade? However I am very interested in seeing what is happening with their relaunched Justice League book. Rumor has it, its going to be much about seven superheroes living together, as it is going to be about super heroics. For me this signals a return to the Keith Giffen era when the Justice League was comic book gold and one of the best picks on the rack. So yes I will be getting Justice League #1 in September, with any comic brand its always best to start with the team books and go from there. I hope I wont be disappointed.
June 26, 2011
The Green Lantern movie, how can something so easy go so wrong?
Green Lantern, wow what a movie, what a huge disappointment. Before I get started I have to say this. I understand movie adaptations do not always stay faithful to the book or canon it's based on, I understand entertainment and the purpose of telling a story within a time limitation. Almost always if the spirit of book is in the movie, then the movie works.
Now take Ryan Reynolds a charismatic actor with good comedic timing. Insert him into the role of Hal Jordon a cocky test pilot and then give him a Lantern ring that manifests his imagination powered by his will, and you have the makings of a fairly easy to put together Super-Hero movie. Given the early character of Hal Jordon in the books you actually have mini-Stark on your hands. All the ingredients for a fun comic book movie romp, so what went wrong?
First off it was like watching three different movies, the Earth stuff was okay it clicked just not really expanded. Our villain Hector Hammond felt very throw away, almost an excuse for Hal to have a conflict and confidence crisis. Given Hector's mental prowess and problems he actually has caused for the GL's in the past, it could of easily been a movie with Hal dealing with him, then learning he is part of a much bigger picture with all the cosmic stuff at the end of the movie.
Next we flip back and forth to Oa, as Hal first visits it and gets a slap dash training session from Kilowog, before facing off against Sinestro and getting his butt kicked, then being declared weak. Am I the only one who thought Mark Strong stole his scenes and gave us a much different movie everytime he appeared.
To finish off we have the showdown between Hal and Parallax, who now has the award for BS movie villain of the year, after giving a speech to the Guardians about not giving into fear and asking to defend his planet (which is his job anyway), he flies off to confront Parallax and without any real effort on Hal's part stops him. Up to this point the best of the GL Corps got their butt's kicked in a badly cut scene as they rushed to confront this monster.
Here was the problem the movie bounced around without any direction, or connection between the plot points as it half the movie that told the actually story was left on the cutting room floor.
The movie was about not giving into your fear, or finding the courage to move past it, so we are treated to an ending scene that is supposed to set us up for the next movie that just baffled me. I will warn you now there is a spoiler ahead.
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After agreeing with Hal, and then giving the GL Corps a huge speech about Hal's victory, Sinestro then slips on the yellow ring powered by fear itself with no motivation to do this. In the books there is a huge fall from grace for Sinestro and this fall was the underlining force in his motivation to take up the yellow ring. This just felt like, well just try this on despite all my speeches about how great the Corp is. Sums up everything that is wrong with this movie, no motivation, and complete lack of direction.
Graphically all the Oa stuff felt like I was watching cut scenes from a game made about five years ago, the product placement was actually amusing and I laughed at the blatant Hot Wheels stuff. Blake Lively is really easy on the eyes, but she isn't really given anything to work with, Mark Strong has an amazing voice and they could of done a movie with Sinestro and I think it would of been better. I guess though with seven screen writers we should be happy something appeared at all.
Plus did you feel that Ryan was practically gooning at us to suspend our disbelief? I mean it we had that nod and wink thing in Ironman and it worked because it was subtle. Here it felt like Ryan was saying come on guys just follow me and don't worry it will be alright in every scene he was dressed up as Green Lantern… Ugh… So much could of been done better.
In short this movie is a sad mess and a huge missed opportunity by DC. They needed a movie as fun and fast paced as Ironman to really start stamping out their franchise for the rumored Justice League movie. I really didn't expect too much, but I expected better than what we got.
2 thumbs up out of 5
