Nick Davis's Blog, page 131

100 Word Flash Fiction – I Am Wolf

I guard the forest,

it is my realm.

By bow, sword, teeth and guile,

I draw the line against the dark.

I swore this to my Lady who dwells in the castle yonder.

Beyond my reach in the land of man.

That she would not feel dread why I walk here.

I don't break promises.

I protect the pack.

Man, Beast, Nosferatu or Spirit will learn new borders,

for I walk all the worlds.

Day, the night and the shadow that lay between,

all belong to me.

For I am the Wolf.

And those who do evil will fear me.

Nick Davis

I Am Wolf is a 100 word flash fiction story. Flash fiction is a writing exercise that helps a writer warm up the old writing muscle. I looked up the words forest, dark, castle, lady and came up with my I Am Wolf flash. Enjoy…

One on One with Erik Larsen creator of Savage Dragon

One on One with Erik Larsen

Creator of Savage Dragon and Co-Founder of Image Comics

Originally posted on PaperDragonInk.com

I've been reading Savage Dragon since the start of the Dragon Wars, and on FREE comic book day the Savage Dragon book was a primer of everything that came before. With its flash bang quick action style and brutal fight scenes Savage Dragon has a loyal following and appeals to a wide range comic book readers. Being a convert myself I decided to find a little more about its creator and man about comics Mr Erik Larsen.

To my surprise Erik Larsen was very easy to get in contact with and he was open to an interview without me jumping through any hoops to talk to him. The only problem I had was finding a question he hasn't covered in huge FAQ on his website http//www.savagedragon.com

The interview begins after the jump.

N – Hello and thank you for your time Mr Larsen, lets start with a human interest question. How is the weather in your part of the world, and what is your morning coffee?

E – Mild winters–and summers. I don't drink coffee.

N – Thank you now do you have ritual you go through before you start illustrating or working on scripts?

E – Not really. For writing I just make a list of all the plot points I want to hit and work from there. I'll type up a very basic outline and then lay out the issue roughly and script from that. The pages are lettered on the boards and once I get those back the real work begins–finishing the art and inking it. That's the most time-consuming part of the process.

N – You say in your FAQ that Savage Dragon has been with you since around 5th grade. How many times did the look of the Dragon change before we ended up with fin head we know now?

E – Oh, quite a few. Sometimes he was a different character altogether. There were four major steps in between what he was and what he is. The last revision gave him his taller fin and had him becoming a police officer. The one just before that was essentially the same as now only with a shorter fin. The two others were the William Jonson Dragon (from #55-58)and the Flash Mercury Dragon, both of which I've worked into continuity to varying degrees.

N – So are the different dragon blood Dragons permutations of Savage Dragon through his creation process?

E – Not really, no.

N – You've hung with Savage Dragon since the beginning are you going to be handing over the reins to another artist in the future?

E – Absolutely not. I'll be doing the book for the duration.

N – What made you bring back Daredevil?

E – It sprang from researching the Next Issue Project. I remember the costume fondly and having read a few stories–it just seemed to click. Of course there were slight tweaks made but I tried to keep him as true to the spirit of the Golden Age Daredevil as I could.

N – Did you run into any problems introducing Daredevil to the Savage Dragon audience?

E – Not at all.

N – Any plans for Daredevil to run as a backup strip or one shot in the future?

E – I did a Daredevil solo story for Silver Streak Comics. I expect that I'll do a lot more with him over the years.

N – What are you thoughts on the McFarlane vs Gaiman ruling?

E – It's not my battle–and I'm not well versed in the verdict and all of the particulars so I generally don't have much to say about that. I thought it was foolish on Todd's part to let another writer co-create evil twins andvariations of his character. That just seemed like a recipe for disaster and it was a disaster. It just seems really petty to me, on Neil's part, to be fighting about ownership of such derivative characters. Okay, so he has issues over money owed from comics he wrote–fine–but come on–Spawnon a horse is not your creation–that's fucking ridiculous. I'd be ashamed to argue that point–it's embarrassing.

N – Do you think this is a positive for creator owned characters in other creator's universes?

E – It can get messy if they don't all get along. In an ideal world it's awesome. It's a nightmare when it falls apart.

N – 2000AD was viewed in the UK as a genre busting comic, with gritty artwork, no nonsense mature stories would a comic like that survive in the American market?

E – It hasn't. 2000AD never took off here. I would like to think a strong anthology could fly here but that sort of book has always struggled.

N – What is you favorite title you've worked on outside the Image universe?

E – Nova. It was a dream book for me–something I'd always wanted to do. I gave it my best shot. It didn't fly–but it was a fun book to work on. I love the characters.

N – Any thoughts of returning Savage Dragon to TV or even direct to DVD?

E – We're working on all kinds of Savage Dragon stuff. We want to get the cartoon released on DVD and I'd like to see more.

N – Is Emperor Dragon just another facet of Savage Dragons dysfunctional personality, or is the real Dragon finally standing up?

E – That's the real guy. The other was an identity that developed after his mind had been wiped clean.

N – What is your greatest unfulfilled job in comics?

E – I always wanted to do a run on the Hulk and on the Fantastic Four. It would be fun to work on Kamandi or on Captain Marvel–I'd like to try and make that worked–Shazam, I mean, not Marvel's version. I have a lot of things that I'd like to do–most of them not terribly realistic given my workload. I wouldn't want to give up working on Savage Dragon. That's my biggest dream–to do this book for the rest of my life.

N – Will Image United ever be complete and will it have any effect on the Image universe?

E – Yes and yes.

N- If you were not working on comics what would you think you be doing now?

E – Bumming quarters and pushing a grocery cart full of filthy rags around.

N- Any advice for upcoming talent on how to break into the mainstream comic book industry?

E – There are no secrets. If you want to create–create. Just do it. Get good and then network. The Internet has made all of this easy. Guys post stuff on sites and they take off as others link to their work. If you're talented and you get your name out there you WILL get work. It's inevitable. If you're not getting work–maybe you're not as good as you think you are.

N – List one your own major influences that moved you into comic books

E – Herb Trimpe was the guy that got me interested and once I was buying stuff–Jack Kirby showed me what could be done.Thank you Mr Larsen, and I look forward to see the direction Savage Dragon is going in and seeing where it leads too. Oh, and thank you very much forgiving my misspelling of your name on my initial contact with you.

To learn more about Erik Larsen and Savage Dragon go here http://savagedragon.com

Review – Fear Itself Book One of Seven by Matt Fraction

Fear Itself

Book One of Seven

Written by Matt Fraction

Art by Stuart Immonen

Cover by Steve Immonen

Welcome to the start of Marvel's next big event Fear Itself, which promises to shake up the Marvel universe and it will never be the same again, again, again, again. How many times have we heard this? Okay, I will stop now.

The last big Marvel event was Siege which ended Dark Reign with a bang, and brought us into the Heroic Age. Almost straight after that we had Shadowlands and Curse of the Mutants. I didn't get Curse of the Mutants as I'm not a huge X fan, but I did pick up Shadowlands  which I renamed One Shot Land, and it left me with event fatigue. Oh, hey did anyone even register Chaos War?

Now, we have Fear Itself and I'm not too sure what to make of it. We have some great social commentary at the beginning with a riot at Ground Zero, that sees Steve's crisis of identity get larger. We shift to see what Sin has been up too and she has got her hands on some serious god like power that just seems to be laying around Earth616 as common as a Mocha Latte. Then we follow the Avengers to Asgard to announce Stark's rebuilding plan.

Here I got a little confused, when did Odin come back? Needed to see a reference point so I at least know where to find that out. And he seems just as brash and arrogant as Thor was once accused of.  Spoilers after the jump.

Odin and Thor have a fight, then they have another fight and then the Asgard Gods take the rainbow bridge to rebuild Asgard back in Asgard? Leaving our Heroes to pick up the pieces of ruined Asgard. In the meantime Sin has turned into Skadi and become her Avatar. Then searches out the Serpent who looks like a withered Odin.

With this first book everything is being pushed into place to start the event off. It all looks interesting, nothing has made me go wow yet, but I am sure we will have moments of that to come. With luck we wont get one shotted to death with this event and the core of the story will be in the Fear Itself books.

Nice artwork, story looks good, you will just have to forgive my event fatigue I am sure it will pass.

3.5 thumbs up out of 5

Oh, I dare anyone keep a straight face at Brian Michael Bendis profile picture in the Marvel Architects special in this book. Worth the cover price alone. Ahem… A fine pair of arched eyebrows you have there Sir!

Long rumored, much promised, now The Fabula is a coming

The Fabula is a coming and the picture above will give a clue at some of the contents of the first issue of what I hope will become a quarterly publication. Watch for more details, more clues, hints and sneak peaks of what is to come in this exciting new quarterly series of tales that will explore the world of mine and other writers imagination.

Sigmartyr Vol 2 – A post apocalyptic Stikfas Action Webcomic Updated

Sigmartyr the Stikfas Action Web Comic has been updated, and the epic story continues here - click here to view

Are our Xbox raised Children missing out on our fundamental wasted youth skills?

Yesterday I took my two Boys to play Lasertag, the wasted youth sport of walking really fast in a black light, dry ice covered maze while shooting the other person in their pack with your Laser. Lots of fun, and chance for the boys to show up their Old Man in a game of skill, daring and perhaps a little accuracy.

Ultrazone  is a nice little Lasertag arena in one of our local Malls, and features an arcade so you can burn quarters while waiting for your games. It is here we hit upon the first fundamental problem, the boys had no idea how to operate an Arcade machine. Flummoxed because much of my youth was spent attached to various Arcade machines, (I became an Outrun specialist), I found myself explaining how to put quarters in and how to select two players, then how to play the games. It just felt very wrong on deep level.

Then after several quarter burning games we were off into the arena, and I was on the receiving end of  much trash talking how they were both going to own me. How I'm going to spend the entire game deactivated because I am an Old Man and can't keep up with them. Three games later both Boys, not only lost very badly to his Old Man, but this Old Man under the guise of Red 6 came 2nd, 1st and then 2nd again as the games VIP.

I then got talking to one of the other Fathers who was there with their Boys and was shocked to find that the highest scorers in all games were us, the Old Men (that is Yellow 9 & Red 10). We were all amazed that the Xbox generation couldn't shoot straight, and it was suggested maybe they need the consoles autoaim features to do anything.

Are our children missing out on our fundamental wasted youth skills? Did our experiences of wasting days at the local arcade somehow give us a more practical skill set our children are fundamentally lacking? Do we have skills in a craft that is now doomed to die?

You would think two kids who if given the chance would attach themselves to the Xbox and never leave it would be able to at least shoot straight? Perhaps we should give our kids special goggles that simulate the Heads Up Display of a console game?

Giving their reaction speed and better hand eye coordination there is no way three Old Men should of got the scores that we did. Unless old age and treachery really does win out over youth and enthusiasm every time?

Me thinks the time to break out more Lego kits, the bat and the ball, and introduce themselves to a new reality game. V1.0 real sport and life, that doesn't involve a rumble control and has real time forced feedback.

As fathers we have to get out there and give to our children our very own wasted youth skill sets before it is to late! Onwards…

The Wonder Tales #6 – The Archer, the Horse and the Forgotten Quest out now on the #Kindle #Nook @Kobo & @Smashwords

The Archer, the Horse and the Forgotten Quest

by Nick Davis - The Wonder Tale #6

Koshchey the Deathless is abroad in the Ninth Kingdom sowing havoc and destruction. The King sends the Archer on a quest to find a way to stop the unstoppable. A perilous journey that takes the Archer and Keshi his Horse to the house of Baba Yaga, and face to face with her three deathless Knights…

The Archer, the Horse and the Forgotten Quest available for $0.99 in eBook format on the Apple iBookstore, Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Smashwords Multi eReader Formats.

You can also follow all the news and updates to The Wonder Tales series by joining (Like) our Facebook Page by clicking on the link here.

Why the Nolan Batman movies suck… Hard to disagree with some of these…

This list was posted over on the Superman World Blogspot and then it appeared in the Comic Book Resource Twitter feed.

Its the Top Ten Reasons why the Nolon Batman movies suck, its hard not disagree with some of them. After all both Batman movies are very good movies, just in my opinion not very good comic book movies. An example of a good comic book movie was Ironman that was also released this year.

Click here to read the article.

 

April Fool… Not True that The Tether has been optioned or that Megan Fox is to play Sarah…

April Fool!!! Got ya… Right? Okay I didn't fool anymore than a couple of ya for perhaps longer than a couple of hours, but it was a harmless last minute prank thought up last night.

I am sorry to say that The Tether has not been optioned by a major Hollywood studio, (just yet), and Megan Fox has not been chosen to be Sarah Taylor. Still if a major Hollywood studio wants to contact me about making The Tether Saga into a movie… You know, just drop me a line…

The Tether Paranormal Action Adventure Optioned by Fox Studios… Megan Fox to play Sarah Taylor!!!

You heard it first, 10 minutes ago I got off the phone with an Acquisition Exec for Fox Studioes, a Mr Donald Douglas who wants to option The Tether as a new vehicle for Megan Fox, who will play Sarah Taylor…

Freakin Amazing!!! Goodbye to Baltimore… Hello Hollywood!!!

Wonder if I will get my own trailer?