I’m Glad I Wasn’t Drinking Anything When I Found Out the Slingers Were Returning
Because there would have been spit-takes for days!
Holy heck, you guys! The Slingers are returning to Marvel Comics in September! What a neat idea! I’m a Slingers fan from way back in the ’90s, when they were actually around. And I’ve patiently followed the individual characters’ exploits in the decade since their comic was cancelled. Did you know Prodigy was the first superhuman arrested under the Superhuman Registration Act in the first Civil War? Yep!
Anyway, writer Peter David, himself a fan of the 90s, is bringing the Slingers back in the pages of his pro-90s comic, Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider!
According to the issue solicitation, which came out today, there’s someone going around in costume as a new Hornet in Las Vegas (the original died). The Slingers head to Vegas to get to the bottom of it, with Scarlet Spider caught in the middle. How many Slingers are even still around? Prodigy and Ricochet are still active, but is Dusk? I think so…
Anyway, I think it’s super neat that Peter David is going to bring them out of the mothballs for a comic book adventure! I only hope he doesn’t kill them all over the course of the story, or turn them into villains. It still stings what happened to Phil Urich…
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Meet the Cast of Forever Blue, My New Comic Project!
I write comics. That is pretty fun to say. I write this blog, too, but mostly I want to write comic books for a living. I’m not alone in that regard, obviously. There’s a ton of hard-working people out there pushing for this goal with a lot more to show for their efforts. But I’m trying. I’m getting there. For example, my first graphic novel — Gamer Girl & Vixen: Flirty Money — is available now! How’s that for a first effort? I’m excited!
Well I’m not going to rest on that one accomplishment! I’ve got more ideas cooking, and I’m going to share more about one of them today.
Meet the cast of Forever Blue!
Forever Blue is a Firefly meets Power Rangers story about a crew of rainbow-colored cosmic superheroes who failed to save the galaxy. Now it’s 9 years later and one of them, the Blue Foreverteer, is captaining her own smuggling/mercenary crew. She is hired by the team’s former Big Bad to track down her old friends and teammates, kicking off the story.
I’m still working on all the big, flashy marketing stuff, so my premise/tagline isn’t too snappy and energetic yet.
But anyway, this is the first full drawing of some of the main characters. The art is by Gemma Moody, the same artist behind Gamer Girl & Vixen. I like her style and her design skills, so I’ve got her on board working up a lot of character and hopefully spaceship designs for Forever Blue. I also believe she’s taking art commissions, so if you like her style, get in touch!
As for the cast:
The first two characters on the left are Tameron Dackard, the former Forever Blue, and Roth Rivas, the former Forever Red. The rest of the Foreverteers haven’t been designed yet, because they don’t factor into the story until later.
Then we’ve got the present day crew of Dackard’s ship, the Nevermore: Charlotte “Charlie” Somas, the fighter; Pryce Michon, the pilot; Kalina Fall, the medic; and Mungo Ragonese, the mechanic.
The Nevermore is also still in the design stages. Or maybe I’ll just call it “Nevermore”, like Serenity. Haven’t decided yet. I’ve asked Gemma to design something as iconic as a cross between the Millennium Falcon and Serenity, so no trouble there, right?
Anyway, this is a project I’m having a lot of fun working on, even if it’s slow going. Gemma is standing by to help me keep designing story elements, whenever I can afford her. And I hope to have a couple mini-comics done by the end of the year. I’ll share all of that on this blog when I can.
If you’re interested in reading more about Forever Blue, I twice submitted the opening script to the first full issue to The Proving Grounds on ComixTribe.com some months back. You can check out my two entries here and here.
That’s it for now. I’m just excited to share another project I’m working on! And I hope to have more to share soon!
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/17/17
I need to read more DC Comics. There’s no getting around it. This week saw an overflow of Marvel Comics that I read, but I only found time to review one DC Comic. It’s shameful! To say nothing of my apparent inability to read any indie comics. I’m not trying to be a Marvel Zombie! I’m not!
But Marvel delivered both the best and the worst this week. For reasons I wish I had an answer for, the new Hulk series seemed to implode this week, undoing everything that made this series special. Meanwhile, Ms. Marvel kicks off a new story with everything I love about this comic, so I’m rather pleased to award it Comic Book of the Week!
What a perfectly cromulent throw
Secret Empire had a weird little issue this week. The idea that Captain America and HYDRA have completely conquered the United States has shrunk in scope to a race between two super-teams to get pieces of the broken Cosmic Cube. It makes for a fun enough comic as the two teams get treated to a family dinner from Ultron Pym.
Also, Batman has kicked off a rather continuity-heavy, mind-erasing bit of big story at DC. Gotta get caught up on that!
Comic Reviews: Defenders #1, Detective Comics #958, Generation X #3, Hulk #7, Ms. Marvel #19, and X-Men Blue #5.
Strong Guy Speaks!
I am not reading all of the Secret Empire tie-ins, so twice now the Strong Guy Watch has been caught with its pants down! I didn’t know he showed up in the pages of Secret Warriors, and I had no clue he popped into this week’s Secret Empire: United. Ugh. Too many tie-ins!
Fortunately, I’ve got some dedicated readers, and friend-of-the-site josta59 pointed out to me that Guido shows up and actually has speaking lines in United this week! Fantastic!
Good to see him making jokes again
Of course, this blows my leading theory out of the water: that someone at Marvel decided to start putting Strong Guy into the background of X-Men scenes without a word. Now that Guido actually has lines, I’m not sure what to make of any of this…
I’m also glad to see Marrow back to normal and back to business
At least they’re putting him to good use! I can only hope he becomes a regular in one X-Book or another. We’re two years away from the next massive status quo change for the X-Men, so here’s hoping Guido sticks around until then!
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Jazz the Opossum Can Now Be Real!
A lot of fun new video games were announced at E3 this year, with a ton of really cool trailers. Unfortunately, since I switched almost completely to PC gaming, I don’t get to play any of the cool new games on the Nintendo or the Playstation. But there’s one trailer in particular that spoke to me on a personal level.
Or, more accurately, spoke to the dorky, teenaged Sean that was super into creating fan fiction characters. Behold, Sonic Forces, with a legit Sonic character-creator!
Way back in the day, I liked to draw at school. I’m sure a lot of us did. I doodled on line paper like every other would-be cartoonist. I would move Heaven and Earth to somehow find those doodles and sketches again. But for now, I’ll have to rely on my memory.
One thing I loved sketching was the Sonic the Hedgehog team, circa Sonic 3. I had some dorky obsession with Knuckles, and it didn’t help that I never actually owned a Sega Genesis or anything to play those games. I was just a dork, pining away for video games of my own, tracing and re-drawing Sonic cartoon characters.
And, sure enough, I created my own: Jazz the Opossum! He was hip and cool in all the best Poochie ways. I’m pretty sure he wore a backwards baseball cap and had roller blades. There was no shame.
Now, thanks to the first-ever Sonic character creator in Sonic Forces, I can create Jazz the Opossum and send him on adventures! I’ve just got to, somehow, get my hands on the gear and systems needed to play the dumb game…
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Henchman-4-Hire 