ANOTHER PERIODIC UPDATE POST

Good afternoon!  As we enter into summer, I continue to be busy, and Dreamcatcher is primary in my mind.

Right now I’m doing the rewrites on ‘A Bullet For The Bride,’ a new Dreamcatcher locked room mystery for Strange And Cozy.  This story gives you a lot about Maybelle Tremens’ backstory, as we meet a number of friends from her past!  The tale also features her paramour, Colin ‘Black Talon’ Palmersdale, in his first appearance outside a Shadow Legion book.

The other major Dreamcatcher project I’m working on is ‘Jolly With A Pistol,’ a Christmas tale for the Pulpworks Christmas Annual 2014.  This is another murder mystery take, as Maybelle is asked to investigate the killing of a toy maker wrapped in tinsel and dubbed ‘Naughty.’  It wasn’t until I was deep into writing it that I realized it was something of a tribute to one of my comic book writing heroes, Steve Gerber.  You’ll have to wait until Christmas to find out how!

Now I have been asked to do one more Dreamcatcher story.  I’m not sure what it’s going to be about, but it’ll probably the last solo story for Maybelle Tremens for a bit, as I’ll start working sometime afterwards on the second novel, Machina Ex Deus.  However, she’s not the only Shadow Legionnaire about to venture out solo; I’ve been talking to an artist friend of mine about doing a Nightbreaker comic book story.  More on that as it develops.

As for Shadow Legion: The Shape of Fears To Come, an artist for the twelve illustrations has been found.  This morning I sent off costume and character notes for the four main character and Playmate (who serves as a kind of ‘guest star’ in the Dreamcatcher story).   This means that shortly after Mystery Men and Women 4, which contains ‘A Waltz In Scarlet,’ the Ferryman story that will serve as a preview of the book, you’ll be able to experience a fistful of solo Shadow Legion action!

(And wait until you see what the next Case Files book will contain.  I’ve been talking to some people, and it’s going to be insane!)

There are two non-Legion projects in the hopper.  One is still super-secret, but the other is ‘The Domino Lady Goes Mad,’ a 15000 words tale for an upcoming Airship 27 anthology.  I had so much fun doing that Domino Lady comic strip with Michelle Scuito for All Star Pulp Comics that I wanted another crack at Ellen Patrick, and this is my chance.  In it, the daredevil doll faces off against a peculiar scientist--and herself, as she falls prey to his handiwork.

So don’t worry, pals and gals.  There will be plenty of new stuff coming from me in future months.  Keep watching this space.

ALL STAR PULP COMICS #2 Is Here!

AIRSHIP‭ ‬27‭ ‬presensts

ALL STAR PULP COMICS‭ ‬#‭ ‬2

‭(‬Portion of Profits Goes to‭ ‬Boston Red Cross‭)

Airship‭ ‬27‭ ‬Productions has once again teamed with Redbud Studio comics to release the second in their on-going pulp comics anthology.‭  ‬The first giant issue in this series won the coveted Pulp Ark Award for Best Pulp Comic of‭ ‬2010.

Volume two of the series,‭ ‬co-edited by creators Ron Fortier and Rob Davis,‭ ‬is even bigger than that stellar premier issue.‭  ‬Contained here are eight stories featuring both modern and classic pulp heroes‭; ‬Ki-Gor the Jungle Lord,‭ ‬the Black Bat,‭ ‬Cain,‭ ‬Robin Hood,‭ ‬Lance Star,‭ ‬Brothers Bones,‭ ‬Dillon and Domino Lady.‭

The cover is by Will Meugniot and features Ki-Gor’s lovely mate,‭ ‬Helene,‭ ‬battling back to back with Derrick Ferguson’s modern day adventurer,‭ ‬Dillon.‭  ‬Other creators represented are Russ Anderson,‭ ‬Fortier,‭ ‬Davis,‭ ‬Ian Watson,‭ ‬Thomas Deja,‭ ‬Michelle Sciuto,‭ ‬Sean Taylor,‭ ‬Aaron Meade,‭ ‬Todd Jones,‭ ‬Lee Oaks,‭ ‬James Gaubatz,‭ ‬Van Plexico,
Andrew Salmon and Kelly Everaert.‭

The book is available from Indy Planet.com and part of the proceeds are being donated to the Boston Red Cross.‭  “‬We were the last stages of assembling the book,‭” ‬explains Editor Foriter,‭ “‬when the Patriots‭’ ‬Day bombings occurred in‭ ‬Boston.‭  ‬All of us,‭ ‬like the rest of the country,‭ ‬were in shock and felt helpless to do anything.‭”  ‬It was writer Van Plexico who contacted Fortier about possibly offering some of the sales proceeds to help those injured in the terror attack.‭  “‬The second Van brought up,‭ ‬I knew it was something we had to do,‭” ‬Fortier continues.‭  ‬He contacted Davis and all the creators and the decision was made to take all the profits earned by the book during its first six months in print and donate them to the Boston Red Cross.

‭“‬We truly hope our fans,‭ ‬when they learn of this idea,‭ ‬will want to rally around a truly good cause and help us put sales over the top,‭” ‬adds co-editor Rob Davis.‭  “‬We really want this to be the best selling title Redbud Studio has ever produced.‭”


The issue is now on sale at‭ –(http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id‭=‬8450‭)

The Cover For All-Star Pulp 2

Hey, gang--you remember me talking in the past about a Domino Lady comic book story I collaborated on with the awesome and amazing Michelle Scuito, right?  Well, the All Pulp blog released an image that showed the progression cover artist Will Meugnoit (perhaps best known for co-creating The DNAgents back in the 80's) did to come up with the cover for All-Star Pulp #2, which will feature that story, 'Bad Faith Healer.'  It depicts Dillon, the New Pulp character created by my friend Derrick Ferguson, battling alongside Helene, the ginger-haired mate of classic pulp hero Ki-Gor.

Pretty neat, huh?

Watch this space for more info as All-Star Pulp #2 nears release.

The Periodic Update Post

Sorry for the delay, guys. I know I've been away for a while. One of the things I did was take a quick trip to Philadelphia to meet with Michelle Scuito and look at the layouts for 'Bad Faith Healer,' the eight page Domino Lady comic story we've done for All Star Pulp Comics. They look fantastic, and they'll be speeding Airship 27's way by the end of the month for publication! When we get closer to release, I'll maybe tease you with a page or two!

I've been told that the release of New Roads To Hell, the first Shadow Legion novel, will occur most likely early next year.

Right now, my focus has been fully on writing the stories for what I've been tentatively been calling The Shadow Legion Casebook Volume One: Four For Danger. This will be four 15,000 word solo stories for the quartet of heroes you'll be meeting in the first novel, all taking place in the twenty-five years between the first novel and the second, The Devil's Toybox. I can reveal the names of two of them--and the first person to connect the name with the hero will get a special mention in an upcoming post--'A Waltz In Scarlet' and 'The Ascension of Indio Blaque.'

You'll notice, incidentally, that 'The Tick Tock Men' is not up there. I've decided there's a more immediate story for the Nightbreaker that needs to be told. That doesn't mean you won't see that story; I fully intend to write it, and it will see light of day. It's just that the story I realize I need to tell with our Man Who Wasn't There is an integral one that I wanted to touch on in New Roads To Hell, but didn't get a chance to!

(And yes, I promise that there will be a Shadow Legion story in an upcoming volume of Mystery Men and Women...I just won't tell you which one...yet.)

The Sinbad story is in slow mode; I want to watch some more Harryhausen and see what other people have done with the set-up before I get deep into it--but 'Sinbad And The Frozen City of Shazarehbad' should be a kick!

And there's a new thing I'm developing on the back burner...something connected to the next guest in my 'Elsewhere In The Multiverse' series....but you might learn more about that when I sit down with the writer of Yesteryear, a great story about super-heroes, legacies and conspiracies that's available right now through Pro Se Press  and one of the architects of one of New Pulp's most exciting new setting, Tommy Hancock! Check out the cover art for Yesteryear, and join me here soon for my conversation with Tommy and what he's got cooking...and I'll keep you up to date on more New Pulp goodness in the coming weeks!

Michelle Scuito's New Site!

My partner in the Shadow Legion, Michelle Scuito, just opened up a site to sell prints of her artwork.  Just go to her Big Cartel Store and check out what she has to offer!  It's beautiful stuff.

And incidentally, I just received the page layouts for 'Bad Faith Healer,' our upcoming Domino Lady story...and may I say that boy, are you guys going to enjoy this lil' ditty.

More soon....

Meet The Shadow Legion Part Four: Ferryman

So while I'm now in this strange limbo where New Roads To Hell is now delivered and being hammered into shape for release, I've started slowing getting into the mindset for the follow-up to the debut novel in The Shadow Legion series....

No, it's not The Devil's Toybox, the second part of my initial trilogy set in the City of Nocturne. It's something I'm thinking of as the first Shadow Legion 'Casebook', a quartet of short stories focusing on the individual heroes who are sworn to protect The City That Lives By Night. Each of our four heroes will get a tale all their own, each set at key points in the twenty five years between the two novels. I'm hoping that reading these tales won't be necessary...but if you do read them, you'll have a better insight into who these guys are and what makes them tick.

Of the four, the one that I'm finding the most intriguing to write is 'A Waltz In Scarlet,' the story showcasing the next member of The Shadow Legion I'd like to introduce to you....Alan Dennings, the mysterious Ferryman!

This is a preliminary sketch my wonderful partner in this venture, Michelle Scuito, made while we were talking about the characters. She's hard at work on, among other things, our Domino Lady story for All Star Pulp Comics #2, but we'll have more new artwork soon!

Ferryman, like Nightbreaker (who we met here), is the other hero whose origin takes place in New Roads To Hell. He also has a connection with Nightbreaker even before the fateful Halloween night you're going to witness in the first novel. Alan is a friend and patron to Isaiah Copper, a man whose position in Nocturne society allows him to do so much good....until he loses his sight.

There are tons of literature about how the shutting down of one sense opens up access to other ones. One of my favorite comic book characters, Daredevil, uses this concept as the basis for his super-power. Many films, like Blink and both the Asian and American version of The Eye, posit that the restoration of sight attracts the attention of the other side. Ferryman represents my take on this concept.

When Alan's eyes are burned out as a result of an act of courage, he finds himself blind, but with the ability to perceive magical energies....and it has not gone unnoticed by a certain type of denizen of the other side. He finds himself a receptacle for the newly dead, and is compelled to act as their agent in the real world to gain them the rest they deserve. Of course, as his transformation continues, Alan Dennings may find there's something else he lost...

Ferryman is shaping up to be the darkest of the founding members of The Shadow Legion. He may be the one hero in the first novel who may not end up being on the side of virtue when we get to the third. And I hope that the readers may be repelled by him and his actions, but will find him too compelling to abandon.

(Oh, and one other thing....remember how I mentioned that all four of the heroes started out as DC characters I reworked as part of a fanfic 'DC New 52' event? Of all of them, this is the character closest to the DC character I started out with. A clue for when I announce the upcoming contest!)

As always, please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about Alan or any of the other denizens of Nocturne...and join me next week for another episode of 'Elsewhere In The Multiverse'!

Meet The Domino Lady

Hey, gang...this week I figured I'd like to share another piece of great Michelle Scuito artwork from another project we're doing for Airship 27.

Based on Michelle's amazing sketches, we were asked to contribute an eight page Domino Lady adventure, "Bad Faith Healer," for Airship 27's All Star Pulp Comics. The Domino Lady was a masked crimefighter created by someone writing under the pseudonym of Lars Anderson--the big mystery as to who Lars Anderson was remains unsolved--who fought corruption and evil in pre World War II Los Angeles with a gun, a vial of knockout drops and a slinky evening gown.

The Domino Lady is not part of the Chimera Falls Universe...although if you read some of the Shadow Legion stories you will see a little nod of the cap to this great character.

Here's Michelle character sketches for The Domino Lady. Be sure to visit her deviant art page and check out her wonderful work!

And join me in the coming weeks as I have some conversations with other writers working in super-hero prose fiction, beginning with the creator of The Sentinels series of novels, Van Allen Plaxico!

Meet The Shadow Legion Part Three: Dreamcatcher

It's time to once again take a look at some of the great character designs Michelle Sciuto came up with when I started working on New Roads To Hell...and we're focusing now on what may very well be the most powerful character.

Meet Dreamcatcher.

If you read my last essay, you'll recall that all of the initial heroes in The Shadow Legion derived from extant characters in the DC Universe. Of all of these, Dreamcatcher has moved away from her inspiration the most; the truth is, there's pretty much nothing left of that character in the lovely Ms. Maybelle Tremens.

Dreamcatcher is the first of the Tremens women to exist in the Age Of The Mystery Men that serves as New Roads To Hell's backdrop....but she's not the first Tremens woman to defend this reality. For some reason, the women in the Tremens family line are mystical mutants who absorb ambient mystic energy and reshape and refocus it for their own purposes. Luckily for us, the Tremens have chosen to protect Earth from intrusions by the supernatural stretching back to the dark ages. Not all of them have lived full lives, but the world has been safer for their presence.

This is not the first Tremens woman I have written about--somewhere in my files is a fragment of a short story featuring Meredith Tremens, who served as the unofficial protector of Chimera Falls for a time. I'd had the idea for the Tremens family for some time; when Dreamcatcher began to take fuller shape, it made sense to transplant her into that extant character's backstory. Hell, there's even a small reference to Meredith in New Roads!

One thing else....this won't become apparent in the first book, but Dreamcatcher is one of two Legacy Characters that will patrol the City of Nocturne. Comic book fans may be nodding right now....but if you're not familiar with the term, you'll soon find out.

As always, feel free to leave questions about our beauteous crusader in the comments section below!

Meet The Shadow Legion Part Two: The Nightbreaker

It's time to look at another one of Michelle Scuito's excellent character designs, and learn a little more about the heroes of the first book in The Shadow Legion series, New Roads To Hell.

This week we're going to look at this bust of The Striker From The Shadows, The Nightbreaker!

The Nightbreaker is one of two characters whose origin we'll experience in the pages of this novel....and he starts out as a fictitious character! The Nightbreaker is the hero of Nocturne, fighting crime and inspiring children once a week on WDSK...and Isaiah Copper, the actor who portrays The Daredevil In Darkness, knows a thing or two about hiding behind masks. But on a fateful Halloween night, Isaiah and the hero he portrays will merge into one...and Isaiah will find himself fighting to be the man he always hid from the public.

The Nightbreaker on the radio is a talented athlete and fighter with a number of high-tech gadgets. The Nightbreaker who haunts the streets of Nocturne isn't just so quick he looks like he appears and disappears at will--he literally seems to melt into the shadows to strike out at his enemies from nowhere. He is a man who dwells in the space between days, allowing him to move silently through our world to get the job done. As we'll see, Isaiah becomes The Nightbreaker and uses his fame as this character to re-assert his existence in a world that has forgotten him...and ends up becoming the protector of a world he tried to forget.

The other thing that's interesting about The Nightbreaker is that he's going to be the hero of a short story for an upcoming volume of Mystery Men and Women, an anthology series from Airship 27.  I'm using that story, called 'The Tick Tock Men,' as a way to bridge between Books One and Two.  While I'm writing it as a stand-alone, the goal is to show how Isaiah (and the city of Nocturne itself) goes from where it is in 1941 to where it is in 1966, when The Devil's Toybox takes place. I'll be writing stories featuring individual Shadow Legion characters as a way to filling in the details between the larger novels.

Feel free to ask any questions about this dashing hero--or the dastardly baddie you met last week. And come back soon to see another of the Defenders of The City That Lives By Night!

Meet The Shadow Legion Part One: Rose Red

I'm presently finishing up the final polish/rewrite to The Shadow Legion: New Roads To Hell before handing it over to Captain Ron Fortier at Airship 27 (and also working on 'The Tick Tock Men,' a short story featuring The Nightbreaker that will serve as a linking story between this novel and the next one, The Shadow Legion: The Devil's Toybox). As I'm doing this, I'm going to start sharing with you some of the excellent character designs my partner on this project, Michelle Scuito, came up with. It'll also be an excuse to tell you a little about the people you're about to meet...

Yep, it's teaser time.

We're going to begin with Michelle's favorite character...who happens to be the biggest, baddest (she) wolf in this woods....Rose Red.

And the fairy tale references is very much intended. After all, our sexy lil' Red Killing Hood wished upon an evil star--and got her wish. Unfortunately, her wish was to rise above her terminal illness and live forever as a princess who can draw the eyes of every man in the room. And the inhuman creature who grants her wish does so by giving her a mystical incentive to murder.

Our little Rose lives on the blood of others. She feeds on death, converting her victim's life force into her own...and not only can she use it to exist forever, she can channel it to enhance her own phyiscal abilities. Utilizing that surplus energy makes her faster, or stronger, or nigh invulnerable. Is it any wonder that Rose Red thirsts for the kind of grand gesture of gore that will turn the streets of Nocturne crimson?

Why with that sort of massive event, a girl could live forever, couldn't she?

Rose is front and center in New Roads To Hell, as we follow her rise from a sickly, wallflower wasting away from the inside to the leader of a veritable army, ready to tear apart Nocturne's underworld in an effort to make The City That Lives By Night her own private slaughterhouse.

It's fortunate that Nocturne its own band of protectors to stop her...and we'll learn about them in the coming months.

Be sure to check out more of Michelle's art at her deviant art page!

Thanks!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the people who swung by Michelle's booth at The Wild Pig Super Show this Saturday to say hello, buy some of her art, check out the character designs for The Nightbreaker, Dreamcatcher, Rose Red and pick up the first promotional advert for The Shadow Legion.

Perhaps the biggest surprises were the visits we got from legendary peciller of E-Man and Green Lantern Joe Staton and equally legendary 70's horror artist Rudy Nebres (who gave Michelle a great compliment!), and the interview we gave for an upcoming article on the show--we even got our picture taken!

If you're visiting the Travel Agency for the first time thanks to meeting us on Saturday, welcome!  I hope you enjoy learning about Nocturne and The Chimera Falls Universe in general.

There's a chance some new goodies will be springing up thanks to some of the people we've met, and we'll begin showing the above-referenced character designs right here starting next week.

It's Coming!

This is the first promotional image for the Shadow Legion!  More to come....

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.