Thursday, April 19, 2012

Mark Down This Date...

This is a Neo-Victorian portrait of Wonder Man
and Bloodstone I commissioned from Michelle.
Namely May 5th.




If you're in the Piscataway, NJ area--or if you like traveling around and visiting comic book shows--you might want to visit The Wild Pig Super Show on that date.

Why?

I didn't commission this piece of Cassandra Cain,
sometimes known as Batgirl and presently known
as Black Bat dressed up as Ravager--but I
inspired it, so here it is!
My publisher for The Shadow Legion: New Roads To Hell likes to include illustrations in all their publications. The woman who is going to be providing those illustrations, and has been designing all the characters in the book, is Michelle Sciuto, who'll be a guest at the Super Show on that day. Michelle's a great artist whose work excels at infusing her characters with personality--she's also a great friend. Not only should you go to the Super Show to buy some commissions for her (I especially recommend her Neo-Victorian portraits, where she takes modern super-heroes and re-cast them in Neo-V style--I'll include one of the two portraits I commissioned from her so you can see what she's capable of!), but you should go if you're interested in this new phase of the Chimera Falls Universe because she'll be showing in public for the first time some of the character work she's been doing. Plus, there'll be a lil' teaser flyer featuring all four of our heroes, giving you a glimpse of the protectors of Nocturne, The City That Lives By Night!

I am going to be there--this'll be the first time I'll be meeting Michelle face-to-face--but please be sure to come by and check out here work. If you can't wait to see what she's capable of, go to her Deviant Art Page...and maybe you can plan what you want to pay her to draw!

I am so excited to have Michelle on board with The Shadow Legion Project, and I really hope you guys come by her table at The Wild Pig Super Show to check out her amazing work! I'll see you there.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

For Those Just Joining Us....

Here are the links to already extant stories set in the Chimera Falls Universe...

Onyx Revolver
This serial was originally conceived as part of Frontier Publishing, the pulpish concern which ultimately evolved into Pulpwork Press. It's the first thing of mine to be set in Chimera Falls and introduces both El Vengedore de Sangre and Elsa Dawn, both of whom I intend to have pop up again in some form. However, the version of the Falls you read about in this story is very different than the one you will see in later iterations of the world, so take what you read with a grain of salt.

If you're curious about the original version of this story, you can find it here.  Later on, I made an attempt to rewrite and rework it. Dino Pollard was kind enough to host my attempt on DC Omega during its orginal incarnation. Neither version, of course, was completed.

Gawain Knight and The Ungentlemanly Caller
A story featuring one of the Protectors of Chimera Falls, it's noteworthy for sketching out some of the neighborhoods of this New England city and establishing it as a major fishing center. Knight is a Rogue-With-A-Code-Of-Honor that I intended to be my tribute to one of my favorite heroic character, Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar. You can find the tale here.

Don Cuevo's Curative
This story introduced the possibly ageless, disturbingly quiet frontier exorcist Don Cuevo and his assistant Dolores. The interesting thing about Cuevo is that he originated elsewhere. A version of the character, sans Dolores and the semi-Lovecraftian motivations, showed up in my fanfic version of Birds of Prey, originally written for Bill K'Tepi's DC Year Two, and then rewritten for Vertigo: Subculture. You can still find the V:S version here if you're curious to see where Don Cuevo sprung from.

If you want to read the actual story that introduced Don Cuevo, you'll have to go to Pulpwork Press and plunk down your coin for a copy of How The West Was Weird. You also have to go to Pulpwork Press to purchase the debut of...

Doc Thunder Pursued
The steampunky inventor/secret agenty crime fighter, Doc Elias Thunder came to me literally in a dream, when I woke up one morning with the idea of a chase between cowboys astride motorcycles in my head. This was written in a rush of inspiration, and opens up a whole new world of fantastic thrills in this universe. The story within How The West Was Weird Volume Two is the character's origin, and I've already got a second adventure cooking in my brain, waiting for me to finesse it into an actual story. As with Don Cuevo, go to Pulpwork Press to purchase the book and enjoy the tale.

That's the whole extant Chimera Falls Universe at this time. You'll be learning more about the characters who make up The Shadow Legion and their city, Nocturne, here as we move closer to the release of the first book, New Roads of Hell, through Airship 27 sometime in the near future.

So go, read the stories. Have fun. Then come back here and we'll hang out some more!