ON MY WAY TO QUANTUM CON

ANNOUNCING...   
By Alex Ness
May 11, 2026

I AM GOING TO APPEAR AT A CONVENTION AND I WILL BE DEBUTING A BOOK

Here is the convention's LINK 

The site: Crowne Plaza in Plymouth, off of the northeast quadrant of I 494 and Hwy 55
When: May 15 to May 17th, 2026. 

The general vibe of the con is Sci Fi, Fantasy, gaming, cosplay, books, comics, creative guests, and group discussions and panels focused on creative hobby oriented subjects. It is still a younger con, in terms of how it runs, who goes there, the general knowledge that it exists in the media, and more. The people who volunteer and staff the event are as good as anywhere I've been, and better than some. My volunteer friend Alisha and many others want you to have a great time and are dedicated to that goal.

I will be there with my many books costing but $5 bucks a piece, and get 6 brand new signed books for $25. No I don't take credit cards. But you can always contact me here. I have a few of my rare works available, with many new and rare books as well. As well as one work I will describe more in a couple paragraphs, it also appears in the upper right hand corner of this page.

Who else will be there? Honestly I think that is a difficult question, but they are no doubt bright, interesting people, gentle, kind and literary thinkers and people devoted to knowing more about the world around them. And in addition, my friend Terrance Griep is a guest who writes well, making a living from his labors, a retired professional wrestler, and a kick ass funny bastich with whom I am proud to be friends.

Another goal to achieve, is to come see me, and my book that I wrote and published along with Michael May and Joe Hilliard. Both are long time friends and comrades in arms upon creative projects. It is about telling stories that are not horror, but lighter hearted stories about Cryptids and human society. The Quantum Con event is currently the only place that you can find copies.

MORE ABOUT EZRA POUND

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5

I've written numerous times about Ezra Pound as my favorite poet, but that he was mentally ill leading to legal issues and accusations of being a traitor against the United States in WWII. As I keep reading what he wrote, almost like letters from the past to a guy who wonders what should be kept and treasured versus what bridges and foundations should be raised to the ground with fire, I keep liking his work more and more. As someone who in the last ten years as lost family, a best friend, my beloved cat of 18 years, had a broken neck, cancer twice, and effort after effort failed, however much I tried, it lingers in memory how truly gifted and talented Pound was, and was wrong but felt so strongly about his views, that it led him to make manifestly large errors of judgement.

But his core values were about not letting money allow a person to become a person with more power, in a democracy. He believed that the wealth was controlled by banks, and they often led countries to wars, and wars where both sides in reality had little to gain from risking their lives. In reality as well, historically banks that lent money to rise of Hitler and the Nazi led government in Germany, did also lend money to the UK governments, and by doing so, gave both sides a better ability to kill each other. These issues led Pound for good reasons. It was when he moved down a less nuanced and sadly stereotypical thought that he fell from grace.

But, every word of his that I read, even those in anger towards America's rejection of his ideals against the power of money to drive countries into war, he was sincere and frustrated. When he realized which side had accepted his views, it didn't anger him that it was a fascist state, it made him frustrated beyond measure that his own countrymen didn't see his "obvious" truth.

However much I am aware of his false path, I think his words, his thoughts, his understanding of human nature, love, hope, darkness were all manifestly powerful and distinct. His work wasn't simple for many to understand, but it didn't thrive upon false premises or ideas meant to create a straw man argument. I always leave reading him knowing more, and having more questions to find the answers for.

LASTLY

I have a few remaining articles in the ready pile, and will post each, but when I reach the end, I will enter a hiatus. The loss of family, friends, my beloved cat Katya, and so much more have reduced my ability, but also, reduced my desire to write for little reward. If you like what I write, consider buying works I've done. But if you choose Amazon or Ebay, my reward would be in the pennies per dollar range of reward. I do answer emails for such and accept paypal. AlexanderNess63 AT Gmail.com.

LINKS:

MY POETRY AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com 
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com 
MY PUBLISHED WORKS 

Social Media
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry

All works shown and/or considered are copyright the respective owners, fair use is the sole means of use asserted.

COVERING COMICS

THE ARTISTS WHO DID COVERs AND MORE
By Alex Ness
JUNE 8, 2026

INTRO

Having recently lost my beloved cat Katya, I will be dealing with somehow find a way to no longer live in darkness. So, overall I am going to aim at writing about basics and important works in whatever medium I view. 

I will be attending Quantum Con in 10 or so days. Please check it out!

Anyone reading comics for decades has no doubt become aware of the power of a great comic book. Some artists were/are used almost exclusively for the power in their lines, moods, and ability to get people to buy the comic, even if they usually would not have chosen to do so. The six images of three different artists, each, are not the only artists. They are not meant to represent anything more than my opinion, and my preference. In fact I might have forgotten some.

I won't describe why I like each artists, but I would recommend clicking on each image to create a larger image to view. 

GOLDEN AGE COVERS 
Jack Kirby
Alex Schomburg
Mac Raboy

SILVER AGE AND BRONZE AGE COVERS
Dave Cockrum
Gil Kane
Jim Steranko

IN COVERS AND INTERIOR ARTS, EXCELLENT ARTISTS
Tim Bradstreet
Timothy Truman
Jean Giraud aka Moebius

COVER ARTISTS ARE ABLE TO TRIPLE THE POWER OF THE INTERIOR
Ken Steacy
Paul Gulacy
Bill Sienkiewicz

EXCELLENT COVER ARTISTS who do more than just covers
Frank Miller
Ashley Wood
Erik Larsen

COVERS AND INTERIOR ART THAT MOVE ME
Simon Bisley
Mike Grell
Dave McKean 

FINI:

There is no intention to imply a preference in the images above.  However, I do like every work shown, and prefer these artist over most any others. Thank you for reading my work.

LINKS:

MY POETRY AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com 
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com 
MY PUBLISHED WORKS 

Social Media
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry

All works shown and/or considered are copyright the respective owners, fair use is the sole means of use asserted.

Special Thanks to Erik Larsen for his work, for being kind, his manifest love for Comics

Recommendations
By Alex Ness
April 22, 2026

I am writing not for any specific reason. I didn't get paid, didn't have a greater theme. I am herein just answering a question I am rarely asked. Why do I like and appreciate Erik Larsen so much that I've covered his work, asked his opinions in interviews, and simply paid attention to him? If I have a question about a work by an artist, he'll know the answer. If I have a question about who was known for ____? He'll know the answer. Over the 24 years of knowing him, he has always been able to send me in the right direction, and that has improved my work. I am very grateful for such a thing.

In 2002 he was featured in review found on RobinGoodfellow.Net, a comic retailer site, but with an outsize reach. He had clearly read it, because something I said resulted in a mailing. And that response to an unrequested comment, meant, of all the people I ended up interacting with, he was clearly "one of us". Oh others have done kind things. Steve Niles paid for some of the postage when my signers pack came up short. Tim Truman sent me a gajillion things in trade for what wasn't even close. Paul Gulacy sent me a gorgeous Batman page. I like all those people, seriously do, but Erik was different.

I like Erik's work, in many ways not like others. My enjoyment of books comes with a past of reading many hundreds or thousands of comics, and I have my particular taste and interests. Some writers have only read comics, some artists are only moved by comic art. Some great storytellers aren't interested in what others do, how others tell a story. Erik was a person who was driven to create comics, but his mind was fed by a father who was an Academician. He had a life that experienced the cultural mix that his comic books show. He eloquently spoke to both high minded principals and did not speak to the false power fantasies that most males entertain. 

His writing is something that deserves greater praise. It tells stories that nearly never have holes in plot, nor dialogue simply to fill in the lack of noise. His interest is in telling the correct story, even if other writers would do differently, and other readers would go out of their way to stroke their own way of saying something. As the first Savage Dragon was made a cop for the special crime unit used to fight super powered or costumed, or both, super villains, you might suspect that Erik is out to tell stories without a mature edge, since he seeks by such to serve the public good. Well you'd be wrong. His characters age, they use rather spicy words, they think, they respond. Erik is excellent in aiming his dialogue for the purpose of making it sound correct. They are real, and rather than serving the public good, he serves entertainment's true demands.

Larsen's art is powerful, but it isn't delicate or "pretty". Some perceive this as weakness, wrongly. It is his style, however you measure it, and is used for the kind of stories he tells. I consider his penciling work to be a mix of Jack Kirby and Neal Adams, and maybe John Byrne. But even speaking to influences, it is by far his own. You may or may not like that, but I think it is something in a world where AI and swipes and people seek to ape someone else's art, that it is damn difficult to do that with Erik Larsen works. 

I believe that the greatest powers in comic book creating, that Larsen possesses, is his storytelling. His writing informs his art, and his art tells the heart of the plot and events. But the complete mastery over the page before one, where it flows, there aren't wasted pages but no rush to finish, comes from the mental cinematography in Larsen's mind. The best storytellers know that the audience is reading the story to have a new experience. Larsen challenges himself to tell works in mature ways, but also, in today's cancel culture, he takes a stand where he has beliefs, and does not back down from challenges by those who do not politically agree, nor readers who demand that their heroes reflect their own values.

Erik is someone who sought to know how my reunion with my birth family went. He was a kind listener when I struggled with doctors and cancer. He expressed condolences when my many family members and friends left this world. People rarely get such kindness in people who work 12 hours a day and produce enough work that on their own they will arrive at 300 issues of his major character Savage Dragon.

In time he and I have developed a kind of friendship. And we are very different humans, but our interests, lives, and love of comics are shared in many ways.

Thank you Erik.

Below are some images of his work. All are copyright Erik Larsen

Potential Discovered!

MORE NEEDED
By Alex Ness
April 22, 2026

I have tried over the 20 years of writing on blogs to consume products and ideas and by digesting my experience, give a reply, and do so with the ideas that are stirred by such a diet. At one time I had people who read my work from publishers of all sorts of media. I am unaware if any still do. But the sad thing is, works considered 20 years ago and considered were by and large all lesser works by me. I have learned from the time in grade. My work is therefore better than it ever was, but fewer read it now.

PROPERTIES TO DEVELOP

If you've viewed the movies Star Wars, Episode 1, Death Race 2000, to some degree Speed Racer, the concept of a race and personalities of various drivers lead to a renewable concept with new racers and serial episodes. Star Wars Podracing, captured chariot races in antiquity and movies about Rome entertained just as the races did historically. In movies and stories, for the state and for the owners of slaves, that required a death defying performance to thrill the viewer. Chuck Dixon wrote a comic book miniseries featuring wars as fought while in cars, and Steve Jackson Games features many games to play the scenarios yourself. The concept could grow, and it can be fought as a fan of races, or the feature of fiction found in a futuristic nihilist series where the world is burning, and car races fuel the drama in that world. These are modern gladiators fighting in modern chariots.

BORDERLESS TRADE, TRANSNATIONAL ECONOMY & CYBERNETICS

More seriously, but even more interesting, Alan Dean Foster has written different stories about the future of trade, diplomacy, and borderless states and stateless people all colliding. The drive for profit with few attachments for the maker, the families of the workers and profit driven ethical failures of the individuals in every scene read. Both in terms of a motion picture,or as fiction novels or comics, the setting is an amazing place of high dreams and bottom line survival. It is also less and less fiction. The world it investigates is ongoing. The neutral zone found on the border of Mexico and the US, the Maquiladora exist right now, and the Trump administration are dealing with aspects of global trade that include human trafficking, stateless money, and violence.

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN MINDS WITH LIFE IN A DIGITAL WORLD

The goals and ideas of the future often feature the power of AI, Cyberconnectiveness and modern allegiances. But Tokyo Ghost has a different and far off looking future in mind. It says, are humans already addicted to screen, do we have a chance to separate ourselves from tech, rewards based on upon non human transactions, digital currency and human body divorced existence? The deeper future isn't as pretty and the Tokyo mentioned here has segregated cyber use for areas outside of its non tech garden. City states are alive, due to the massive nation state weakening, from the addictions, and the economy that rises from it. There are not enough works that investigate consequences that will happen, not just might happen, and if this isn't a joyously happy future, it does offer hope for human agency.

FERTILITY CRISES

During my wife and I's journey to have our child, we experienced disasters, and scientific mitigation of our tragedies. I have written about that experience many times. However, there are a variety of scholars, including people from the right and left of political divides, who argue that the human population issue is more complex than numbers, or consumption of resources. However, there are known consequences of various political states controlling the means to end or to encourage more population. Higher Taxes upon families having multiple children is one way, taxes incentives for those family building larger families of the types of population is a similar way. Oddly, both kinds of laws and edicts can exist in the same states. Singapore saw its lower birth rate of the more monied/educated classes as happening in one ethnic group. So, at the same time it limited others, it gave benefits to larger families in the highest bracket. Children of Men, by PD James and the movie adapting it, speak of how birth of children from various groups have led to economic and political crises. The fears of the wealthy, the white elite, the educated, crashing in fertility as the groups with less ability financial or educationally, rising, leads to a collision of goals and idealism. 

ART BY MOEBIUS

I was asked by someone why I love the work of Moebius, aka Jean Giraud so much. I think this is a case of trying to describe what something tastes like to a person who has no taste buds. It is much more than taste, but it is involving my taste. I see colors and humans, dreams and nightmares in forms I never saw before Moebius's work, and never since. Some try. Some try to evoke his works, others might even swipe his work. All I know when I picked a book which was 75% off a hardcover collection of Moebius, and found when I brought it to the register, it was 50% off that price to boot, I felt like I'd got away with the deal of the century.

The lines found in Moebius are original. He came of age when the arts were moving from simple story telling and service to the story, to creating art that was so large and mind blowing that people would forget about the greater story if they let themselves do that. I wrote a letter to Jean Giraud in 1990 through the services of one of his publishers forwarding his mail (I had air mail postage on my letter to be forwarded) and my letter was written in French. He responded in 45 days or so, thanked me for the letter, and sent along a sketch. It was a very good day. The images show works that reward the readers and I recommend them all.

LINKS:

MY POETRY AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com 
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com 
MY PUBLISHED WORKS 

Social Media
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry

All works shown and/or considered are copyright the respective owners, fair use is the sole means of use asserted.

Author Ian Watson passes away

Rest in Peace IAN WATSON
Author, Poet, Commentator
Warhammer and Sci Fi author
20 April 1943 – 13 April 2026
His website: IanWatson.Info

A talented editor, author and poet, Ian Watson has passed away at age 82. His contributions to speculative fantasy were esteemed and he will be missed.  Condolences are offered to his fans and family. 

Authors and Books

A BRIEF NOTE ABOUT AUTHORS (AND LOTS OF IMAGES)
By Alex Ness
March 23, 2026

TO MY READERS

I've discovered that my doctors had known way more about my health than were telling me, and only now do I also know that I've had a return of cancer without questions. It would be true to say I am in remission, but it isn't a hopeful thing. The recent clarity of the situation does explain a great deal of the last 4 years of issues. Prior that, I had a broken neck, messed up shoulders, and that was a lot to deal with. But currently with lymphoma cancer, diabetes type 2, recurrent mono, I wonder how to go forward. I also know, in the past I was told grave expectations for all the different health issues, and mostly, rather than killing me, they just suck. I appreciate that they haven't killed me, and perhaps they won't. However, I sleep little, I'm in near constant pain, and my desire to write remains great, but my mind isn't always able, as it had been in the past.

Facing delays, disappointing efforts and lack of funds, I can't go much further. If you are interested in buying copies of my work let me know. My facebook offers a look at what I have available usually, though my books for sale are many, I have to catch up with other projects before I am done sorting. Currently therefore it'll be a couple weeks before I begin sharing. My good friends have helped. My my wife and son have allowed me to endure, and my cousins and besties are responsible for giving me hope. And I am grateful to all of them.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Reasons I like Hemingway's work? His economy used words to create a canvas of light and shadow, the absence of information becomes as telling as the kind of words create detail. Whatever you choose to see, a subject covered in light casts shadow. Wherever something doesn't become illuminated, is it the narrator's decision to not express, is it a case of not knowing, is it meant to evoke isolation, quiet and absence. I like many authors, I like many genres, and I am aware that some authors, perhaps many, do exactly the opposite than Hemingway, choosing to leave no detail unconsidered. They are each writing, but the finished work is largely different.  

FRANZ KAFKA

Kafka writes clearly about subjects that are confused, complicated, and difficult. He uses his voice to describe the emptiness mental illness can feel like. He also offers tools to consider how someone who is lonely, left alone kind of loneliness, or uncomfortable amongst many people. To live in this kind of reality is difficult, painful and hopeless. Kafka often reached into the dark heart of personal despair and gave it clear perceptions. His lucid clarity makes for tales not told for their horror, but can evoke such pain, the reader is left agreeing. Perhaps though, other than to further dig, one is not interested in revisiting those works.

ALBERT CAMUS

Albert Camus wasn't telling stories that people had an easy time interpreting the meaning. He was telling human interactions and choices in the form of story. He was explaining through them his desire to have humans rise to a level of being able to hope, be happy and struggle but overcome fears. For me his writing brought understanding and awareness, and purpose. We all labor, and all have a task, but however difficult or constant the struggle is, our purpose is found in how we go about our life's tasks. He would say, we must find in ourselves the knowledge that we can be content in our labors, and find happiness in that. It changed my life, really.

ANTOINE de SAINT-EXPÉRY

The Little Prince was such a great book that I endeavored to understand it in the original language, not the translated one, so that my brain could grow in reading it. Saint-Exupéry is able in novella or short stories to penetrate my heart and infuse it with hope. More than most anyone else.

YUKIO MISHIMA

My best friend reads Cormac McCarthy and says it is difficult but worthy of the time spent. McCarthy was seriously talented, but for me it didn't come with a reward for the effort. Mishima is my difficult writer. He constantly told stories that have beauty, but death, isolation, alienation, and sorrow mixed with patriot blood. His personal grief over being closeted in a sexually repressive society, his belief in beauty as a truth, and shedding of blood to atone for acts of violence, led him to a ritual suicide the day he sent off his final manuscript. I can't unread his work, it lingers in the palette. 

CLIVE BARKER

While I read Stephen King, and think him a great writer, he didn't pull my trigger. I find his work very much smart and able, but King is nowhere near as interesting as Clive Barker. The reasons for this comes from original ideas, beautiful darkness, and characters that bring ruin to the idea that there will be a happy ending. I never interviewed Barker, never tried to either. But I like him, his work, and find it a good time to invest in a story. Movies based on his books are less interesting to me.

MICKEY SPILLANE

I love the power and economy of Spillane's writing. It is crime, but nothing like a real detective no matter how well he details the investigation. It is a raw, violent and well told tale, and every work manages to evoke a mystery, without redoubling the themes and characters time after time.

LINKS:

MY POETRY AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com 
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com 
MY PUBLISHED WORKS 

Social Media
https://bsky.app/profile/alexanderness63.bsky.social 
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry

All works shown and/or considered are copyright the respective owners, fair use is the sole means of use asserted.

TOP SHELF RELEASES 4/7/2026

New Top Shelf Releases   Punk'n Heads— things get messy with this band!   Announced The Marsh Fellows — the graphic novel debut of beloved online cartoonist, Anna-Laura Sullivan.   Ghoul — a spooky twist on the imaginary friend arriving May.

AVAILABLE NOW

STARRED Review — "Clever pacing gives the whole book a cinematic quality, with tiny, pithy snippets of backstory giving the characters more substance and thoughtful subplots coming together in meaningful ways." — Booklist

Punk'n Heads by Dave Baker and Nicole Goux $19.99 (US) | ISBN 978-1-60309-586-0 216 pages | 6 1/4" x 10 1/4" | Mature Browse Preview Pages Available Now!

RECENTLY ANNOUNCED...

Beloved online cartoonist Anna-Laura Sullivan makes her graphic novel debut with a captivating adventure about misfits exploring the dark edges of their world! After a nuclear war plunged the world into darkness, the last beacon of hope is the island utopia called Slumber City. In this rainy, happy town, one angst-filled urchin doesn’t see what there is to smile about. But after being taken in by the elderly Marvin and Pearl, Urchin is pulled into their quest to solve the dark, damp riddles lurking outside Slumber City—and uncover the plans of its mysterious mayor. Preorder Link

ARRIVING IN MAY 2026

Be careful what you wish for! Newcomer Kasey Iris is set to release her debut graphic novel, a macabre take on the imaginary friend with Ghoul, available May 5! This 292-page full-color graphic novel centers on a lonely Filipino-American teen and her ghoulish companion putting a spooky twist on a friendship from beyond. Iris created this Spotify PLAYLIST to accompany her debut. "heartfelt graphic novel explores grief, loss, and relationships" "Eerie and poignant."  — Kirkus Reviews

Ghoul by Kasey Iris $19.99 (US) | ISBN 978-1-60309-583-9 288 pages | 6" x 8" | YA Full-color, softcover graphic novel Browse preview pages Release Date: May 5, 2026

UPDATE: Tunnels & Trolls

A NEW AGE? FOR TUNNELS & TROLLS
By Alex Ness
April 6, 2026

I've interviewed some of the people who worked on the Flying Buffalo's game Tunnels & Trolls, shared reviews and considerations of the same. In 1993 I was alone and the world was far away. My wife was with her family for the holiday and I had finished all of my course work as both a Graduate teaching assistant and a grad student at my beloved history program at North Dakota State University. Solitaire T&T was very easy to learn, flowed well and actually had such a flavor that even in the case of solitaire, it felt epic and fun. Flying Buffalo's owner Rick Loomis sadly passed away, but he and game designer and writer Ken St Andre, artists Steve Crompton and Liz Danforth all joined together and created an elevated product.

Over time since that time I've still RPGed, but less intensively. However, I have become friends or friendly acquaintances with Ken and Steve. As such I've interviewed them, enjoyed their products and saw other games and various RPG systems, but preferred T&T. Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls came out a decade ago and reading through it, game testing it led me to prefer this over most RPG systems, and easily worth the series.

REBELLION UK games purchased the game May 2023. I had hopes, but nothing of substance immediately happened. But then recently came a Kickstarter to drive the first new edition under Rebellion's hands. I didn't post the news of a kickstarter when it first appeared, as I was mostly offline. When someone shared the link with me, I was dealing with the issues regarding my health over the last five plus years. As I am doing better, more or less, I took a look and read various PR for the event. I absolutely do like the look of the new product. I am curious if it captures the original product's good points but I don't think of it as being a new edition, as a new system built upon the foundations of work that led it to still be played, 50 years later.

KEN ST ANDRE
Interview one https://poplitiko.blogspot.com/2015/06/tunnels-trolls-creator-ken-st-andre.html
Interview two https://poplitiko.blogspot.com/2022/06/ken-st-andre-answers-questions-on.html

LIZ DANFORTH
https://www.lizdanforth.com/

STEVE CROMPTON
Interview https://poplitiko.blogspot.com/2024/03/steve-crompton-artist-writer-game-maker.html

RICK LOOMIS Head of FLYING BUFFALO Games
http://rickloomispbm.com/

TUNNELS & TROLLS THE NEW AGE THE  KICKSTARTER

I look forward to seeing the game arrive after being funded, and perhaps playing it as well.  Good luck to Rebellion UK Games and thank you to Flying Buffalo for support of Tunnels & Trolls.

LINKS:

MY POETRY AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com 
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com 
My published works: https://alexnesspoetry.blogspot.com/2024/09/published-works-of-alex-ness.html

Social Media
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry

Contact email: Alexanderness63@gmail.com

All works shown and/or considered are copyright the respective owners, fair use is the sole means of use asserted.

ATLANTIS, THE OCEAN AND FALLEN KINGDOMS

THINGS TO FIND: Underwater
By Alex Ness
March 30, 2026

I taught a number of courses from 1992 to 1997, and even really enjoyed much of it. But in three separate courses, none of the students had ever heard about the ancient world, nor the myths and legends from the same.  The lost kingdom of Atlantis has always fascinated me, and the thought that the students never had the opportunity to revel in the morality plays, the possible historical existence, and the lessons for the future Atlantis offered, wounded me. In that case that I had been reminded that the modern mind thinks the past is boring, so as a creative writer I must try to give the reader more to appreciate. I've used the past as well as alternative narratives of the past. It has been addressed in many of my works, projects, and p.o.v.

In fact, Tales of Lost Kingdoms is a work illustrated by some wonderful past artists, with poems and essays by myself and Peter Urkowitz, a bright man with some fine talents. The cover was my doing for arranging/designing it, with use of art by Josh Howard, and images from Pixabay. I had asked Josh to do the image as a book was being created 4 years prior to my first book being published. But the publisher refused to pay for the image. As such I traded a very limited book about Ray Harryhausen, and other works for it and Josh said, it is all yours. It is available through me, Peter or Amazon. 

In a way, all of the books shown above are fiction, and speculation. Some shown are better than others explaining the narrative and some are better at storytelling, if not necessarily seriously. However, I definitely believe that there was a model for Atlantis in a historic subject. However, we haven't enough evidence to point to it at this point. Prince Namor of Marvel Comics, and Aquaman of DC Comics both refer to Atlantis as being a sunken kingdom, where the inhabitants breathe in water. Along with Aquarius Mission by Martin Caidin all these fictional works are worth reading, but they aren't addressing the subject from the perspective of a fictional and fantasy outlook. 

KULL by Robert E. Howard

The character Kull, King of Atlantis came from the mind of Robert E. Howard. He wrote of heroes in a lost age of steel, each being a paragon of leadership, power, and ability to fight. Kull is different than Conan, the modern era's preferred character by Howard. But, Kull is more about the cost of leadership, with sorrow and desire to overcome the kingdom's issues. He was not seeking romance, sex, or carnal desires. Unlike Conan, Kull was motivated by elevated ideals. (I like Conan, this is an attempt to compare, not a vote for one character or the other). What I like about Kull specifically, is that it displays the cost of leadership, and in contrast to, say, Elric by Michael Moorcock, that facing the depths of darkness, he isn't one who practices the darkness. Howard's version of Atlantis is thoughtful, and interesting not retreading paths walked upon before.

ALAN DEAN FOSTER: Oshenerth, Cachalot and more...

The people who read science fiction often demand a story to be exotic, complicated, logical and more. People who read fantasy seem to want emotive stories, with action and ideals of living in a world that can be changed, saved, or engaged. Alan Dean Foster often speaks to the aspects of the future with a means of emotional connection.  In Cachalot an ocean planet is used to grant reparations to ocean mammals, for the misuse of them over human history. The concept is similar to demands for racial reparations from invaders, dominant populations to assist the damaged people for what was done. As such, the book plays differently for people. I am moved by it, and I am aware that it is more space fantasy than science fiction. All of the story, which utilizes orcas and humans collaborating to solve a recent trend of disastrous events.

Oshenerth is set within the oceans of another world. Two ocean dwellers, Glint and Chachel find an unconscious being, described as a demon and help save their life. They learn of a massive approaching invasion, leading them to a fight for survival. The world is distinct in  with the ocean life having specific behaviors and sorts of thought. Somewhat similar to how various human species lived on the same planet at the same time... (Neanderthal, Denisovan, Cro-Magnon) Merpeople and other intelligent life forms exist. The Mer people use blue magic and are an analogue for humans in the setting explored.

FANTASY PAINTER JEFFREY JONES Jeffrey Catherine Jones was a painter who Frank Frazetta considered the next great painter. That is high praise. I was able to both interview JCJ, but more importantly, become a friend in time to her. She had a spirit that was more kind than almost any I have encountered, and with her great amount of talent, of skills, that is almost unique. She struggled a great deal with her gender, being transgender and by the time she had surgery, it had been a difficult run. Depression led to more issues. But somehow, she maintained a sense of kindness that I've never truly encountered before.  Her art did not die when she did, but the books are expensive, and rare. I have two of these books and do recommend them for any others to seek and find.

LASTLY

LINKS:

MY POETRY AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com 
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com 
MY PUBLISHED WORKS 

Social Media
https://bsky.app/profile/alexanderness63.bsky.social 
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry

Contact email: Alexanderness63@gmail.com

All works shown and/or considered are copyright the respective owners, fair use is the sole means of use asserted.