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Monday, March 24, 2025
INKWELL AWARDS
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS announces book debuts at NYC MOCCA Fest 2025
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Sunday, February 23, 2025
WINTER BREAK MEANS READING BOOKS IN A BINGE
A CELEBRATION OF BOOKS & COMICS, & FRIENDS
By Alex Ness
February 17, 2025
FROM THE DISTANCE:Brief discussion of politics
Due to a political system that depends on two parties, America has had a mostly stable government over the last 250 years, nothing driving ideologies too far left or too far right. There were campaigns for office that were personal, others that were ideological. But those have come to reveal themselves both with the kind of candidates of our system create. And, this isn't a critique of the American system, it had a goal of centrism by using the ideologies within limits. That is, both sets of candidates, the two major parties, has done well, with fewer disasters than are usually discussed. But the true center has lost its meaning.
By making the winning of the office of president of the US a prize, voters have become an open door to lies, flawed choices, and greed. In new president administration, the winner will declare there to be a new enemy, and debate, fight or obfuscate the ultimate goals of our country, in the congress. The less complex minded will only perceive the need for power, rather than by clarity of moral ability, even the less honorable depth of charisma to help make an argument. The spirit of compromise and spirit of governance requires everyone accepting the rules, and jointly agreeing upon the goal we attempt to fulfill. What happens if we can no longer be able to achieve what we were able to in the past, due to the desire to have your side alone winning the debate, spitting upon the lost opportunities to change the the nation into a monolithic armed camp. I mention all of this because we just had a President's day holiday, and I had to go more than a few administrations deep to find someone I could still trust as President.
WINTER BREAK IS FOR READING:
Winter Break also includes cold air, a couch, animal companion, (in my case a purring sleeping cat), quiet, but for the purring and sound of a space heater... and a beverage. I think the best thing you can do when needing a break mentally, physically or spiritually, is use the time for pleasure reading. I think a deep dive of music works too. Anything that reminds of work, of time spent on research, or rituals or habits and/or time spent that exhausts you, needs to be forgotten and replaced by depth of writing, music or arts.
The books shown above are books mostly in the genre of fantasy, era of its creation, or works linked by the concept of imagination.
The books shown are surely not going to please everyone. I've done this for most of my life, even if I don't like the writing, the characters, there are books that are valuable even if I am not moved by the narrative story. Once a year I do a reading week to learn more what others like, to go deeper to see if I like it, and to explore how great authors and poets create with different skill sets and talents than others. I believe we might in fact assume a quality when what we are seeing and considering good or great are an artist who is different and new. And don't think I don't assume there is talent in that.
Elizabeth Moon
Juliette Marillier
Clark Ashton Smith
Robert E. Howard
Alan Dean Foster
Lord Dunsany
And Vintage books important to the genre of fantasy, weird fiction and edited by Amy H. Sturgis
MIKE BARON RULES!
Mike Baron is a friend, but far more than that, a great writer of books and comics. He also is a very funny dude.
He is a warm person, and despite not agreeing all the time, I never feel compelled to agree out of the power of his personality. He is funny and kind, but could kick my ass. He knows his Martial Arts, and I am a flabby old fart. Over time, he has offered tips, and support. Frankly, he is more trusted and beloved by other creatives than anyone I know. People from both sides of the political divide have told me talk to Baron, he is a mad genius, worthy of praise. He is writing new works, 40 year old characters, different formats, prose, comic scripts, and much more. Here are some of his most recent works...
BADGER MAD MONKEY SHOCK N ROLL #1 (OF 5)
1FIRST COMICS
NOV241567
(W) Mike Baron (A) Val Mayerik (CA) John McCrea
Mike Baron is back with more martial arts mayhem in the latest instalment of The Badger! When Badger's friend purchases an island paradise off the coast of Venezuela, it may hold the cure for cancer or the end of the world! Will Badger be able to avert this apocalyptic crisis?
BRONZE STAR A WEIRD WESTERN TALE. with Pat Broderick
NEXUS: SCOURGE
PRIVATE AMERICAN
SHERLOCK HOLMES
BADGER NOVEL
I recommend Mike's writing, but beyond the quality of grammar, imagination, character creation, dialogue, spelling, he has a way of propelling the pace without letting loose the characterization during the action, in fact, he also mixes humor with all the action going on.
The image below shows all the works I've published or wrote that someone else published since 2022. In that start date to present I had people to collaborate with, friends to share a project with, and am able to control the stock of, since the printer is local, and does excellent work, inexpensively.
First section comprised of Chapbooks and then according to subject
Cthulhu: Madness Awakens, Cthulhu and the Dreamlands, Crash with Paul Ewert
Sasquatch: Sasquatch Encounters with Nate Barlow The World Remains Wild with Joe Hilliard and John Morgan Neal Rave Massacre: Glencoe MN, Blizzard 1997 with Joe Monks
Mary Shelley Considered: Biography with Michael Harmon
Skinwalker versus Berserkers, and Wrestler faces Devil's Night wrestler with Joe Hilliard
AI: AI/Cybernetics Humans with John Morgan Neal and Joe Hilliard
TWO BOOK Length works
TALES OF LOST KINGDOMS with Peter Urkowitz
SIGR Poems of the Viking era
All chap books are available starting in March, for $5 a piece and if you order more than one, I'll give a discount. I charge $10 for the two books.
I mentioned my numerous Hiatuses, and since 2020 I've had, a broken neck, frozen left shoulder, right shoulder separation or possibly frozen, possible cancer, many kidney stones, back arthritis and broken ribs, tailbone and more. I think to have put these works out, I've done well considering.
Contact me at AlexanderNess63@gmail.com All my works done can be found here, not all are available due to being out of print. Feel free to inquire at my email address.
Published Works AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
ERIK LARSEN SHARES A CELEBRATION OF WORKS
Savage Dragon's formative years collected at last!
This
MASSIVE hardcover continues the deluxe re-presentation of the Savage
Dragon's greatest adventures! Featuring team-ups with Spawn! Hellboy!
WildStar! The Maxx! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Plus: Dragon gets
engaged! Rapture has a baby! And the classic showdown between God and
the Devil! SAVAGE DRAGON: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL. 3 is a must-have
for any fearless Fin-Addict in search of an easy entry point into one of
Image Comics’ longest-running series! Introduction by GEOFF JOHNS.
Collects SAVAGE DRAGON #22-35
Art and story by Erik Larsen
CONCLUSION
I'll be back in a couple weeks. I have much going on. In the meantime, for all your printing needs, Matt at Speed Print Inc. is amazing.
My Poetry AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
This place Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com
Personal: AlexNessFiction.Blogspot.Com/
Social Media
https://bsky.app/profile/alexanderness63.bsky.social
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry
Sunday, December 29, 2024
THE RIDE SO FAR: Savage Dragon
ERIK LARSEN
CREATES COMICS
Specifically, Savage Dragon
By Alex Ness
May 6, 2024
First off, I am writing this because I've given many suggestions to readers that Savage Dragon is a complete comic experience. And, Erik Larsen both writes and illustrates it.
It features the story of a world and group of people who are unique, and have an impact upon the world they live in in a different way than most comics show.
It is a comic story with an experience where the characters, scenarios, and worlds, all grow and mature as time moves forward. That is, the comic book paradox that characters never age, so 400 issues happen in the same year, doesn't occur here. I appreciate that, in a format and genre where there is little or no attention to the passage of time. In Savage Dragon Larsen takes a beginning point and follows some rules making a wild tale, and makes it conform to his own set of rules.
I like the risk taking of that concept, the bold action oriented stories, the great writing, and the art that reminds anyone within 20 years of my old age, of Jack Kirby, and in a positive way. Other artists might claim the mantle of Jack Kirby but Erik Larsen lives it in every story. Jack Kirby is easily my favorite story teller and one of my favorite purely artist. So, in the prevention of anyone assuming bias, hell yeah I dig the work of Erik Larsen.
Frankly, over the time of my working in the world of comic book journalism. Larsen, Jamie Delano, Mike Oeming, and Alan Dean Foster were my most common interview subjects, and there is a reason more than their classic good looks for that. They were people who shared their joy of comics and books, the love of creativity, and ability to share that. Along with my best friends in comics, Mike Grell, Mike Baron, Jamie Delano, Erik Larsen joined them with support and advice, and mostly, kindness, when my life was shattered by recurring cancer, a recurring virus, mono, that most people get once, I have it constantly, and my bones have a disorder, that will end my career due to pain and more. He is someone I gratefully call a friend.
My favorite story is a wasteland in the style of Jack Kirby called The Savage World. I tried to buy all the singles, but ended up missing significant periods due to health eras of my own, and money crises, as an author of a lot of works, but rarely compensated works. So I am now trying to acquire the TPBs of the series.
The beginning point of Savage Dragon was a work from a teenager who is self taught in his art, and obvious has read many comics, but also books, and common culture. The comic itself might be called crude, but what first work is born without signs of youth, or with the experience learned style and craft marks of excellence? And yet, whatever comprises the story, and revelation of a fair amount of intelligent design.
Graphic Fantasy #1 (June 1982) and first appeared as the "Savage Dragon" in Megaton #3 (February 1986). Called Dragon, a green alien with super strength, healing abilities and a finned head, who performs the duty of a police officer, serves the public good, has a sense of mystery about his purpose, origins, and motivations. It is worth reading for the simple enjoyment of the medium, but it shares a moment that will be added upon for almost 40 years.
There are many eras in the adventures of the now Savage Dragon, are substantial, and aim to reach 300 in the run, as a hallmark of an independent creator's achievement.
The first Savage Dragon was a unique sort of character, awakening upon earth, in the ruins of a city block in Chicago. Upon gathering his wits, he realizes, he has only the most basic perceptions of what is going on, where he is, and why he is where he is. Even less, in fact, who he is. This amnesia is not short lived either. His name is a reference to his appearance. But he longs to fit in this world, and sets out as a police officer for Chicago, because this world has costumed villains and heroes. He is a talented and thorough officer. But as with most costumed or super heroes experience, a number of the mutants and costumed bad guys are recurring villains. Many good guys interact with Savage Dragon and become allies.
All of the previous stories reveal little of his true origins, until the Image Comics Hardcover with a story from Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, and the bomb dropped... reprinted in SAVAGE DRAGON O. He is the former evil dictator KURR of a great nomadic space empire. When the ships of Kurr near Earth, some of his former assistants and servants act upon their desire to rid the empire of Kurr so they maroon him, unconscious upon Earth. Eventually, made to remember his memory, he surrenders his role as cop and realizes he must face galactic justice. But as mentioned, his story is one going forward in time.
He is a character who has family. He has friends. And he has romantic partners, and as a result he has a son. Forced by circumstances of the past, Savage Dragon ends his ongoing role as a police officer, while his son Malcolm Dragon takes over the role SD had played. With Malcolm the path of the hero, an epic telling of how one enters a role of honor and justice is on view, and his life behind the scenes of a hero are as much the story now as the adventures. The stories are just as broad, just as fun as the first Dragon but truly even more so. Larsen took advantage of the evolution of the story, and characters, and has created homage issues to newspaper and cartoon characters, and tells stories using different and rather new manners. I would argue, this is a superhero tale. But it is also a work that travels through time, space, and through different dimensions in depth. This is science fiction and fantasy, with a side of humor, a personal work for Larsen who has a broad career, but this is his story, and it shows. He was comfortable in his creator role enough to allow other writers and artists to write stories and smaller series featuring his characters and universe.
I would suggest buying the single issues, get a taste first, but find a tpb collecting a story arc, and dive in. And I'd like to say, I meant to go through and detail each era, but found myself worrying about spoilers, and only added the big twist of his true identity because if anyone reads the current Dragon, it will be obvious. Also, as much as I wanted to do a fully detailed love letter to the series, with my memory issues from health events, I don't remember some of those periods well. However, I can say, there isn't an issue that I didn't enjoy, and there are precious few comics I can say that about. If not every issue was the greatest ever, that's reality, not an insult. His work is excellent overall, and I am grateful to have read his concepts and his creative legacy of one powerful being with a past of evil, fighting instead for good, and the twisting path that takes him, and eventually his son and others upon.
Well done Erik. And thank you.
Find Erik's Voluminous List of Works on the Comic Book Data Base
Visit him at his site Savage Dragon
All images are copyright per the respective owners, Erik Larsen © and others and are used in fair use, no rights are assumed transferred or shared.
Saturday, December 7, 2024
MATT BUSCH: CREATIVE JEDI, USER OF THE CREATIVE FORCE: INTERVIEWED!!!!
INTERVIEWING MATT BUSCH
By Alex Ness
12/09/24
My first encounter with Matt Busch's work was fun, random, and less important than most events later, but it definitely caught my eye. And with each interaction with his work, I gained more interest and the more I saw his work, the more he had gained prominence. I came to really appreciate him because, of all the people in entertainment who asked me to run PR, or interviews or reviews, he thanked me personally for each one. Few do that.
Alex: I've been pretty amazed at your work, your personal kindness to me, a measly little fan press dude, and how you've created a huge amount of work, from art, to teaching to creating a family and brand new creation, your adorable child.
Since we are chatting at least to begin with due to your new movie, for the purpose of letting readers of this know, could you please give them a brief publisher's blurb or movie teaser description of your work, Aladdin 3477?
ALADDIN 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom
As someone involved with one of the largest fiction franchises, does it liberate your imagination of images, by working upon an established work, or does it constrain you? Like writers debate a locked room mystery, do your talents determine, or do editors and producers determine how much you are allowed to "create"?
Aladdin 3477 is real Earth linked, is it a great jump to relate real Earth's future, or is that a subject that the Star Wars franchise has always thought the case, or are you breaking new ground with that? Forgive me for not otherwise knowing, my son is the keeper of all SW knowledge. I am a historian by degrees, and a political scientist who loves art and film. Would the acceptance of your work as part of that universe mean that the force goes deep in the ancient real Earth, and does that cross dimensions meaning, our world is only real in SW future, but not prior or beyond?
I've deeply enjoyed running PR for you, (I think for five years or so, if I am remembering right) and while I get asked questions about the subject of PR, the story and all kinds of wonder you are creating, I often don't know the answer. So I'd like to ask quick questions that I've been asked so those readers have a correct answer since not only is my memory poor, I might just be dumb.
Is this film going to be the start of a trilogy?
All images, words, quotes are copyright © their respective owner and no ownership or anything free use of such images is asserted.