Michael May's Blog, page 126
October 13, 2015
If you'd like to financially support the blog
It doesn't take a lot of money to run a blog, but it does take some and it certainly takes time. In the past, I was able to recover some of that through ads and Amazon's Associates program, but Minnesota tax law now prevents me from participating with Amazon Associates and the ads... Well, the ads were cluttering up the place and I couldn't control which ones showed up as closely as I wanted, so I've removed those.
None of this is meant to be read accompanied by the sound of a sad violin. I blog for love, not money, and the Adventureblog will always be free to read. But it occurred to me that there may be some who want to support the blog with a small, monthly financial donation, so I've created a Patreon page to make that possible. No pressure; it's just there if you want it.
31 Witches | Old Witch
"Toil and trouble for Old Witch. I hope they all get wild oak itch." -- Old Witch, Old Witch and the Polka-Dot Ribbon
October 12, 2015
Fall ComiCon was fantastic
The Midwest Comic Book Association's Fall ComiCon was Saturday and it went great. As always. Those folks put on a wonderful convention and it's always nice to see friends that I don't usually see more than a couple of times a year at MCBA shows.
Kill All Monsters did well, but in a different way than I'd predicted. I sold a little over half of the Dark Horse Presents bundles, which was less than I expected (though Jason Copland will tell you that anthologies are difficult sells and he's right). Because the graphic novel didn't sell super well at MSP ComiCon last spring, I thought that maybe I'd already reached my local market for that book. I figured that people who already had the graphic novel though would be interested in the all-new, color tale.
What actually happened was that I ran into a bunch of people who weren't familiar with KAM and wanted to try it out. They went for the graphic novel, though several of them did the whole shebang and picked up DHP, too. The result is that I'm down to a little over a dozen copies of the graphic novel. If the spring show goes like this one, I'll be sold out.
Because I had a hard time getting my act together, David didn't have a lot to sell at the show. We left a whole box of stuff at the house, so all he had was the comic he'd made for the spring show. He sold a few of those though and spent the day drawing robots and monsters and robots fighting monsters. I'm amazed by the imagination on that kid and love the inventiveness and humor of his drawings. He's got ideas for a new comic, but we're also going to put together a sketch book with the stuff he drew on Saturday.
Diane did great as well. She's made a reputation for herself as a nerd-friendly face-painter who can reproduce anything on your head. If she can look up a reference on her phone, she can put it on you. And she's got a following now of people who come to her first thing so that she can complete their costumes with make-up. She does an awesome Two-Face, for example.
I spent most of the day at my table, but did get around for a little shopping in the afternoon. Found an awesome General Ursus figure for an even more awesome price and also got caught up with Kaijumax , Zander Cannon's inspired mash-up of kaiju and prison stories, signed by the author of course.
It was also cool to talk to people about non-comics things. I got to visit with a reader of this blog and geek out about A Christmas Carol a little, and also had a conversation with a buddy about the Starmageddon podcast. My dad even showed up for a while and I walked around with him and got to hear him interact with a creator about their mutual interest in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. That's what's great about this show and others like it: People finding all sorts of things to connect over and to be nerdy about. It's fun on the Internet, but it's even more fun in person.
31 Witches | Broom Hilda
"I had a date with the Invisible Man last night, Irwin! Dinner, movie, dancing. It was great! Of course, I'm not actually sure he showed up..." -- Broom Hilda
October 11, 2015
31 Witches | Agatha Harkness
"I have been trying to reach you for several days, Susan. I'm afraid it was I who caused your son to have his fit. My efforts to contact you became too... unrestrained." -- Fantastic Four #140 (1973)
October 10, 2015
31 Witches | "But she has got a wart!"
"They dressed me up like this!" -- The Witch, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
October 9, 2015
Royal Doulton's Jack the Bulldog Bond replica
I don't do a lot of advertising here (in fact, you may have noticed that I've taken out all the ads from the site), but this is pretty cool and I haven't quite left Bond behind for October. English ceramics manufacturer Royal Doulton is celebrating the release of SPECTRE with a Jack the Bulldog figure that not only replicates the one M gave Bond in Skyfall, but also includes "a few cracks to his face and some charring to the union Jack flag draped over his back."
Here's the full press release:
Models of Bulldogs were first made by Royal Doulton in the 1940s and by this decade the breed had come to symbolise the steely determination of the British character. The ceramic versions created during the Second World War, featuring flags and hats representing the army, navy and air force, honoured the bravery and determination of military personnel and the UK’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Royal Doulton’s Jack the Bulldog, famous for his cameo role in Skyfall, returns to the screen once more.
Jack survived a traumatic explosion with little more than a few cracks to his face and some charring to the union Jack flag draped over his back. Bequeathed to Bond by ‘M’, he now makes an appearance in the new James Bond movie SPECTRE.
To mark his role in the film, Jack has the reference number DD 007M.Totally want one of these.
31 Witches | The Hyborian Witch
"There's warmth and fire... Do you not wish to warm yourself? By my fire?" -- The Witch, Conan the Barbarian (1982)
October 8, 2015
Get your Kill All Monsters at Fall ComiCon!
This weekend is Fall ComiCon here in Minnesota and I'll be there with Kill All Monsters. In addition to the graphic novel, I also have bundles of the three issues of Dark Horse Presents with the new Kill All Monsters story in them. These issues are the only way to get the story in color (it'll be in black-and-white when it's collected in the omnibus), so if you don't already have it, come on down and see me. Supplies are limited though, so swing by early!
Hope to see you there!
31 Witches (Bonus) | The Grand Wizard
"Has anybody seen my tambourine?" -- The Grand Wizard, The Worst Witch (1986)
[Suggested by the Awesome Paxton Holley, who's Awesome-tober-fest on the Invisible Man is going on right now and you should totally be checking it out every day.]
