I THOUGHT THAT THE MOVIE WAS GREAT, The critics didn't

THE MESSENGER: The Story of Joan of Arc
By Alex Ness
June 16, 2026

I might begin doing single subject posts here, until I can organize my thoughts better.  I have been writing online, reviewing products, retailers, franchises, restaurants and brands since 2000. I was first writing for a yahoo review collective, and it featured anything someone might in fact buy, experience, think about buying. The point of saying this, is that I am not going to just cut the cord and say F that.

However, as much as I might want to keep the works in mind if not in body, my own mind isn't a place I can hide or stow away things. I blurt outside what I meant to keep inside. Some have said I have diarrhea of the mouth. Others say I write the same way without actually saying anything. Perhaps that is true. I wouldn't be the one who could say in a objective fashion if so.

I chose the movie of this entry for a reason I wasn't altogether expecting. During time when I otherwise would be writing for my own purposes, I did a great deal of research regarding questions that I decided didn't matter anyway. (A famous director did a substantially different movie than the book of a famous author that he was said to be adapting.) It has many MANY different entries in the collection of views different than some might even understand exist. Just like my personal outlook on all of the differences between non denominational Protestants, Catholics, with some views, it is matter of what appeals the most, and the divide isn't between moral differences, but in the end, simply just difference. As I might be able to filter the different views, some day, if not today, I am not going to get specific. 

The movie I am discussing, is THE MESSENGER: The Story of Joan of Arc. Critics thought for a movie about religious visions and guidance, it was hardly religious, more an action movie wearing religious trappings. Because the Joan of Arc of history had visions, there was also a different issue. Was the real Joan suffering schizophrenic phases or bi-polarity. Was the action portion of the movie really made possible by her mental illness? 

This movie allowed the mental issues that moved her to act. It showed her battlefield active leadership. It showed how a vision can lead someone, whatever the source. The acting is tremendous, and it is a film that doesn't ignore the events that happened, and didn't falsely portray how the English and the French of the Dauphin later King of France failed to understand what she was. She was more than a leader on the field, she was a moment of powerful emotion given a voice. She was a woman in a mostly male oriented role. She was not sexualized by the film makers, but she was almost certainly raped.  But the Dauphin failed Joan, and feared she might become more popular than the Dauphin. The English were of a mind that she must be possessed. But burning her without her recanting her account of having visions, led to Joan becoming a Martyr and a symbol of resistance.

In an century where war and adventure films focus upon nudity and violence, this movie had heart in all of its presentation. Perhaps it felt like propaganda to the critics, a movie that seemed to them exaggerated to create a greater impact. But it was subtle in ways, it was well acted and the cinematography was great. I suspect it was simply the path it followed, being aimed at how she was able to move men to fight and win victories, for more than the future king, or for Joan, but for a higher calling. Something often distrusted in the present.

Thanks for being here

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.

My Friend, Mike Baron, Writer, Music critic, Comedy writer, Comic book master

My friend Mike Baron is a great author of many forms of writing. Prose, sequential comic books, and now, in time for this, he adds another work worth reading!

"Josh Pratt has tracked killers, outrun sociopaths, and stared down the devil himself. But he’s never been hired to find a missing song. When Marissa Yeager claims the late, great rock legend Wes Magnum wrote his biggest hit about her, Josh takes the case for one simple reason: he loves the song. So does the rest of the world. And someone will kill to keep it.

From the drug-fueled clubs of Hollywood to the dark corners of a music empire built on secrets, every door Josh opens reveals another lie, and every truth he uncovers puts a target on his back. The industry that turned Wes Magnum into a legend has buried something far worse than a stolen song…and the people who profited from it will employ any means to stop Josh from digging it up.

The reformed biker has ridden into hell before and come back breathing. But this road leads somewhere even Josh Pratt isn’t prepared to go.

Grab your copy now and ride shotgun with Josh Pratt into the dark heart of rock and roll

Mike Baron knows how to write heroes, anti heroes and more. And he has written many of them.

His ability to write speaks to heroism, political headlines, humor, and even Godzilla.

He has written a series of event/adventure featuring a motorcycle riding individual who meets the challenge.

Mike's prose is as good as his sequential storytelling. 

Thanks for being here

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.

ARIA: The Omnibus is in Kickstarter mode and ready to read

ARIA: THE OMNIBUS: The Kickstarter awaits you  

An inteview by Alex Ness of Brian Haberlin

Readers here know that Brian Haberlin's art moves me deeply, but he is a greatly talented writer as well. In this piece we discuss ARIA. Haberlin with Brian Holguin, Jay Anacleto, created Aria with depth, interest in appearing on different dimensions, lands, times, And the term Aria alone often comes from a movement in an opera, is a work that received huge support and now is collected in all its forms.

FIND THE ARIA KICKSTARTER BY CLICKING HERE

(My words are those in italics. Brian Haberlin is answering the questions)

With Lady Kildare being from the Faeries, why would she live among us normal humans? Isn't a world of magic, of beauty of stunning higher life forms and greater volumes of knowledge be worth whatever it takes to stay there?

(The world is Faerie…not the pural:) Faries are a species) I often point to when Russell T. Davies took over Doctor Who. You had this basically immortal character with all this power but he was always so amazed at humanity and what we have the potential to be. Kildare is an ex-pat Princess who really can’t stand all the trappings, the ritual, the fucking etiquette! :) She loves a great coffee, a great drink, and a great party! I think Brian Holguin wonderfully summed it all up in the original intro page to the series.  The first part is in Kildare’s voice, the second is introduction.

Sometimes I look at this world and it moves me to tears.
The joy and terror and the mad bloody drama of it all.
And I wonder why THEY never seem to really see it.
Maybe one lifetime just isn't enough.
Or maybe it's too much. I can't say.
But the truth, to be perfectly plain, is that people are looking for MAGIC in all the wrong places...

Somewhere around the corner, just beyond the edge of perception, lies a world you never dreamed existed...

A world where creatures of ancient myth, and gods long thought dead, walk unnoticed along the crowded streets of Manhattan. Where ladies of Faerie dance lonely nights away, bathed in soft neon glare. Where every shadow holds a secret, and every secret has a price. Where danger and wonder can be found at any turn, if you only know where to look.

I know the Omnibus has over 600 pages, is there anything left out of it by accident, or editorial decision? Why is that?

No, but something has changed.  We did an Aria/Angela crossover and had to change Angela to an Angel and remove all character markings…since Todd had lost the character to Marvel.

Aria sold so well it beat all DC comics and most of Marvel, as the #2 in sales in at least one sales report. How did the team create such a great popularity from a relatively new and different character than those popular in the era?

I think there was a certain amount of excitement about Whilce and I starting Avalon. So, there was some anticipation.  Stone came out first and was Avalon alone as a publisher and we were the highest selling independent comic of the year in initial sales (Jay and Silent Bob eventually beat us with the reorders the movie brought to them. :)  We then joined Image, and got some previews out for the book and the artwork was undeniable.  That was back in the day when all you needed was an ad in Diamond and one in Wizard.

How much more interest did the omnibus draw by having new works within its pages?

:) No idea!

Placing Lady Kildare in the real time human world helped explore how a close to if not fully immortal being would see humans. But could a deeper exploration of the land of Faerie create even greater interest, as it would allow for many different looks at what immortals might create should they exist?

One of the other thousands of stories I could tell with her…though I am leaning towards an 1800 Western…Gunslinger Aria? :)

How much will the Omnibus weigh? 600 pages is dictionary or cyclopedia size. And, is there a hope that the collection will inspire new series of the same character and world?

About 12 pounds…and see previous reply.

How does one explore immortal lives? Do you limit the concept of time if you don't have to count the minutes, does immortality function as a curse as often as a benefit?

I think you limit them to individual stories and individual time periods.  There could be some cross over with a modern day situation sparking her memories of a certain event or even still being part of that event.  I think she is guarded now with human relationships as saying goodbye is not her strong suit.

Lady Kildare is an exile. How much does that limit someone who has fewer limits upon abilities, outlook, and passion. That is, what does love mean to someone who the word "forever" is reserved for others, those from the human world especially?

She’s more of an ex-pat.  She can return whenever she wants to Faerie. She has the appreciation of what we humans can accomplish with so little. I don’t think she would allow herself to truly fall in love with a human again.

Thank you Brian, I appreciate your time and answers. And to my readers, ARIA is a work that is more than just a "comic" it is symphony of time, thought and people of substance.

All images shown are used as fair use, and all copyright is owned by the creators of such works. All rights are held by the creator.

A KICKSTARTER From the Creators of Tunnels & Trolls, Citybooks, Grimtooth's Traps, & Monsters! Monsters!

Creator of Classic Tunnels & Trolls Ken St Andre and award-winning cohorts are back with a brand-new project by the team that brought you the original Citybooks, Classic Tunnels & Trolls, Grimtooth's Traps and Monsters! Monsters! with a new Kickstarter! This time with a full-color campaign book for an ancient Egyptian city ruled over by a goddess on a world of magic. AND a book for the mythical Cthulhian city ruled over by the goddess Lamasthu.

These two books contain dozens of fully described and mapped establishments including The grand Pyramid of the Cat Goddess, mummification temple, lighthouse, library, taverns, docks, underground lairs, shops, house of healing, Lamasthu's palace, Cthulhu's temple, torture complex and even a zoo! (and more) 

City State of the Immortal Cat Goddess Campaign book

For use with any RPG, the grand Pyramid of the Cat Goddess details major locations in a mystical ancient Egyptian city including Mummification temple, lighthouse, library, taverns, docks, underground lairs, shops, house of healing, even a zoo and more! There are over 50 characters fully described for use in ANY RPG and for use in the Monsters! Monsters! RPG by Ken St Andre. Slot these locations into your existing city or use the whole city as a new location to run campaign games in!

Hidden City of Lamasthu Campaign book
This half-submerged city is inspired by HP Lovecraft's descriptions of the ruined cities where the worshippers of Cthulhu dwell and includes many strange and horrific locations including the hatchery, the Pit, Lamasthu's palace, Cthulhu's temple, torture complex, the place of transformation, the Labyrinth and other locations where the Sumerak dwell...  Slot these locations into your existing city or use the whole city as a new location to run campaign games in! 

PLUS...

 

There is also the 1st issue of Monster's Apprentice game magazine (with NO A.I.)
This Egyptos-themed magazine will contain gaming articles, a new solo adventure by Ken St Andre, a gm adventure by Debora Kerr, a trap article, a new monster article, an interview with classic T&T artist Rob Carver, a tribute to Flying Buffalo founder Rick Loomis, Egyptos-themed fiction and RPG history looking back at our fans shared past. It's meant to be a tribute to the classic magazine that Ken St Andre, Stefan Jones, Steve Crompton and Debora Kerr all worked on in the 1980s. This magazine will contain NO A.I. art or writing.

Mata Hari's Mission for Cthulhu solo & GM  - Expanded Printed Edition
This new solitaire by Ken St Andre is another break-thru adventure in a new genre for the creator of Monsters! Monsters and Tunnels & Trolls. This time it's a supernatural mystery in war torn Paris and it reads like a thrilling and dangerous scavenger hunt...

Paris in 1915 was no longer the City of Light. The war with Germany had diminished it. Mata's life had been long, hard, and in some cases strange. She knew exotic dance better than any other woman in the city, and she knew bits and pieces of magic that sometimes helped her escape from bad situations. But her life is about to change, and if you can help her accomplish a mission for ancient Babylonian gods, then Mata will escape her sordid existence on Earth, and perhaps find a better life on Zimrala. This printed edition of the book will be expanded to contain a GM adventure PLUS 20 pages of additional written material by Ken St Andre that takes Mata Hari on a mission to the city of Sekh-Atem. But which side is she on?

If you are a fan of the classic RPG books like T&T, Traps, Citybooks, Sorcerer's Apprentice and Monsters! Monsters!, but sure to check out their latest Kickstarter which includes dozens of add-on books and dice you can also add to your RPG collection! Link below.

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevecrompton/city-state-of-the-immortal-goddesses-rpg-campaign

Comics comics COMICS!!

MY BIG LIST OF MY FAVORITE COMICS 
By Alex Ness   alexeiness63@gmail.com 
May 27, 2026

I have often given versions of a small list of my favorite comics that I've enjoyed, read or collected. This entry today is an image that took me a month to create. Some comics are forgotten, some were unable to be made to fit. It is version one, and you can see for yourself, there are obvious favorites from over the time here alone, let alone the 50 years prior. The big names are Jack Kirby, Mike Grell, Frank Miller, Timothy Truman, Mike Baron, Erik Larsen, Stan Sakai, David Hine, Brian Haberlin, and Ted McKeever all provided excellent works.

I am not suggesting this is all that I will ever list in this form. But it is mostly my entrance into a final sort of posting here. I will do interviews, I will write commentaries, but without product to review or discuss, I have little more I can do. I am so tired from life's pains, it makes more than this a far off hope, rather than reality.

Please Click on all of the image for a larger version. The reason for this celebration of comics, is for the reason that I will be doing mostly once per month rather than 2-3 per week. I very much appreciate your support in reading, sharing, and sending me comments upon each entry. All the people who did very kind acts of sharing time, when I interviewed them. Over time I had many great products sent my way for review. It made long hours feel worth it.

Each time I have a kind person send me emails or letters even, and they send me a kind check or well done hiding cash, or a book or product, it was a moment of happiness, when mostly I was just too tired to feel anything. As such I am very grateful for all my readers, comic and publishing professionals, and others.

Thanks for being here

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.

For me: How about you

OK How About This
By Alex Ness
May 18, 2026

I will be back soon, but the convention I mentioned went well. The conversations across the nation are swell. But I am, for my neck isssues and back, heavily medicated. I'll return when less medicated.

How about a contest. I created an image of 8 of my favorite comic book horror writers, and one of my favorite of their works to give an idea of what to seek out for yourself if you are so inclined.

Send me a similar formatted version yours, and I'll try to pick from one (by random) and one person will be chosen winner.  They'll get something in the mail in return. 

AlexeiNess63@Gmail.com is my contest based email. 
Give it a shot, who knows what might happen.

Contest ends by next Monday, May 24.

Joe Lansdale  000 Joseph M. Monks
Grant Morrison 000 Garth Ennis
Jamie Delano 000 Steve Niles
Alan Moore 000 Marv Wolfman

If it goes well, I'll do a similar one with Horror prose authors.

MUSIC FOR BROKEN HEARTS

MUSIC upon the Loss of an animal companion
By Alex Ness
May 8, 2026

I HAVE EXPERIENCED LOSS 

I lost my Katya who was my darling for almost 18 years. Below the image please check out the songs and videos about loss of an animal companion.

THE VIDEO 

SARAH MCLACHLAN, I Will Remember You

A woman with a beautiful voice speaks to the call in our heart towards having the one we love in our arms again.

THE VIDEO

MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY, Wildfire

From the 1970s, a song that held meaning for everyone attached to a creature, who was lost, without resolution or comfort. Wildfire still runs across the high plateaus.

GOYTE Bronte 

For years I shared this song with those friends and family who had lost loved pets, animal companions. It is purely innocent and apt.

THE VIDEO

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

ALL Works on this page are © their respective owners. No use other than my own go beyond fair use and no assertions of ownership are made.

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 

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