Spent the last two
days working on cover concept art for E’steem Goddess of? And I finally got
some of the images out of my imagination down on paper.
E’steem Goddess of?
takes place after E’steem: Ascension and is what E’steem is doing while Isis
and John are trying to Escape from Transylvania in Isis: Escape From Transylvania.
In this story, Hell’s aspiring angel takes on Avarisk, The Tormentor, a demonic
Dominatrix out to make E’steem submit to Lucifer and return to the Legion. And
as she takes on that Demonic Dominatrix we get a showcase of E’steem’s new
powers and her stronger resolve.
The scene for this
cover is fairly simple. E’steem is on the beach of the Island of Solitude
hovering above the sand with an intense look on her face and her hands glowing
with her new light powers. Avarisk is rearing her whip back ready to strike to
take her down.
E’steem’s look for
this one is simple, just her powered up in a red bikini. The reason why I
haven’t drawn a bikini top is I’m on the fence about having her topless. In
Goddess of?, E’steem loses her Chanel bikini top in the fight with Avarisk, The
Tormentor, and she’s topless in this fight sequence. While wardrobe
malfunctions are par for the course with E’steem in her battles, but I don’t know
how readers would feel about seeing a topless woman on the cover. I might draw
her hair over her breasts as a compromise .
Avarisk, The
Tormentor’s look in contrast to E’steem’s is intricate. Her outfit is black
leather dominatrix gear with lots of laces. I was gonna keep it simple, but I
felt the laces added texture to her outfit and drew our eyes to her face where
we’d see the plume of blonde hair, blue eyes and red lips along with that
badass spiked collar.Avarisk is a
demoness you don’t want to mess with she can kill a gnat with a crack of her
whip!
I’m hoping to have
E’steem: Goddess of? Available in Spring of 2019. The book is edited and
uploaded to Amazon and ready for sale. All I’m doing right now is just trying
to get the cover concept art ready for the artist.
I haven’t had much time to write blogs over the last few weeks. That’s because I’ve been busy working on editing my new nonfiction book THE MAN CRISIS. Now that I’m closer to the finish line on that book I’ve got a chance to do a progress Report. And this one details my work on the Shawn James initiative this summer.
Back in May when I was on Obsidian Radio we talked about the Shawn James initiative. And thanks to all the brothers donating money on Patreon and Paypal, I was able to get a Verizon ellipsis jet pack and have the home internet that allowed me to do the show. And over the last few months I’ve been working on pursuing the goals as related to the initiative.
The second goal was helping me upgrade my equipment by getting a new Macbook Pro. And I was able to pick up a 2012 Macbook Pro on eBay. This new Macbook has a quad-core processor, 15” matte HD screen, 16 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. With the solid state drive, this computer up boots in less than 2 seconds!
It’s twice as powerful as the 13-inch 2011 Macbook Pro that I do my videos and write my books on. That machine is showing its age; I just replaced the Superdrive that broke in 2017.
The reason why I picked up a 2012 Macbook Pro because it still had upgradeable architecture and would still allow me to work with things like Smartphones iPads and digital cameras. The new
2016-2018 Macbooks have memory chips soldered to the motherboards, glued in batteries and no ports for things like USB keys or SD cards or network cables. As an A+ Certified IT Technician, I know that it’s cheaper to replace parts than replace an entire unit, and the older Macbooks allow me to replace parts or add on parts if I want to upgrade the unit.
I’m in the process of transferring my files to the new laptop and working out on getting the software up to date. Right now I have to get new Adobe software to do books on, new font software and download the new iMovie from the App Store to edit videos.
Now that I’ve got the laptop I’m working on getting a new smartphone and service. I’m looking at the iPhone SE and trying to see what providers can give me a deal on service. Hoping to get a new phone soon so I can do some vlogs and outdoor videos!
I want to thank all the brothers out there who donated to the Shawn James initiative. I appreciate all your help and support and I want everyone to know that I know how hard all of you work for your money so that’s why I want to be as transparent as possible. As I work towards completing the goals of the initiative and working towards launching the books of the SJS DIRECT fall catalog like THE MAN CRISIS I want everyone to know that if it wasn’t for your help I wouldn’t been able to do complete this initiative and take those steps towards moving myself forward.
Busy editing the MAN CRISIS And here’s a chapter that I had to cut from the
final book.
Chapter
The Invasion Of Men’s Personal Spaces
As part of the War
on Men, Feminists have been making efforts to invade male spaces, places where
men come together to share common interests and hobbies.
In most cases feminists say they need to
that they are entering male spaces to allegedly fight sexism and promote
equality. However, this is a lie. What they want to do is take over these men’s
personal spaces and control how men behave in them. By invading male spaces
feminists can ensure men are “good little boys” in their own little spaces and
not disrupt the smooth gynocentric world they’ve created.
If feminists were
really about equality as they allege, they would have no problem letting men
enter female spaces. However, when men propose to enter predominantly female
spaces like nail salons, spas, hair salons and Yoga classes, these same
feminists will say that those men are being perverts and sexual deviants who
need to stay out of women’s personal spaces because they make them feel
uncomfortable. So the move to enter men’s personal spaces is all about women
trying to make men be men on a woman’s terms in their own private space.
Women entering
men’s personal spaces puts men in crisis because it takes away men’s freedom to
be themselves. It’s clear that these efforts to invade male spaces isn’t about
diversity and inclusion, it’s about insecure feminists using their power to try
to take control of male spaces so they can monitor men’s activities.
If these women
wanted to share their interest in the same hobbies and interests men
participate in like comic books and video games they could do so in their own
female spaces. However, most women don’t want to create their own personal
spaces to engage in male hobbies. They want to encroach on the male space and
eventually take it over for themselves.
Feminists just
don’t understand that there are male personal spaces and there are female
personal spaces. Places like Barbershops, comic book stores and gyms are places
where men come together to relax and be in the company of other men. It’s in
these places where men feel comfortable about being a man and being masculine
and expressing their natural masculinity. Yes, there’s a lot of swearing and
even some crude talk in these spaces about women, but women swear and talk just
as crudely in their personal spaces like spas, gyms beauty salons about men.
Feminists also
don’t understand that Male spaces aren’t just places where men share common
interest in hobbies; they are places where men learn the unwritten social rules
for manhood and learn male life skills. While these men bond over their
favorite hobbies, older men oftentimes teach younger men the male life skills
they’ll need to survive in the world of adult men. It’s in these spaces that
boys and younger men get the guidance and support from older men that helps
prepare him for the rough road to manhood.
As men bond and
form relationships with men that they trust in these male spaces, men talk
about their lives, their problems, and their issues. Getting feedback from
other men allows them to get perspective on their problems and work towards
solutions to move their lives forward.
It’s important for
boys to enter male only spaces like barbershops and comic book stores at an
early age. The faster a boy enters a male space the faster he can start seeing
manhood modeled for him by other men. And he can start learning how to
socialize with other boys and men.
Moreover he can
have masculine energy transferred to him. It’s this masculine energy that
enables him to grow into a healthy young man. When a man starts getting
masculine energy at an early age, he starts to build the confidence he needs to
go out and take the risks he needs to go out and do things like go out to make
a living or be able to talk to girls in his peer group when he’s ready to
date.
Feminists just
don’t understand that Men and women need time away from each other. When men
and women are in spaces together for prolonged periods of time they feel
stifled because they have to put on an act to be around each other. In male and
female private spaces men and women can de-stress and recharge. It’s in that
time they can take a breath and relax. It’s in those spaces that a man can
learn how to be better man and a woman can learn to be a better woman.
Right now THE MAN CRISIS is up for Pre-order on Kindle and will be available this October on Amazon and KindleUnlimited!
I had been
anticipating the upcoming upcoming Danger Doll Squad Galactic Gladiators
crossover event from Action Lab Comics for months. Since the first Danger Doll
Squad crossover was a fun action packed story I was hoping that Galactic
Gladiators would be just as entertaining. Unfortunately, the covers tell a better story than what Action Lab
presented in this Clustur Fukur of a 4-issue crossover event.
Danger Doll Squad:
Galactic Gladiators takes place after the first Danger Doll Squad team up.
After defeating the bad guys Zombie Tramp, DollFace, and Vampblade are on their
way back from The Black Room when they’re intercepted by a mysterious alien
spaceship that looks like the old Milton Bradley Simon game. That game takes
them across space to the Vadim Galaxy and Batau Ceti 16 where Queen Amalgma places
the Danger Dolls minds in a cloned body that merges all their powers together.
I felt that was a cop-out because from what we saw on the covers I thought we
were going to see the Danger Dolls using their powers to take on Aliens in
one-on-one combat as they tried to escape the planet.
WE SHOULDA GOT THIS FIGHT!
After defeating the
monsters (Two of which look like Ookla the Mok from Thundarr, The Barbarian and
Bug From Micronauts) The amalgamated Danger Doll monster is named Clustur Fukur
by Queen Amalgmam. And that’s when this story starts to go from a promising
premise to a complete clusterfuck of a miniseries. As the story progresses We
get more convoluted combat sequences, more 1980s references most Gen-Y and
millenials wouldn’t understand, and a story that just falls completely short of
the promising premise presented on those awesome covers for this mini-series.
After reading the
final issue of Danger Doll Squad: Galactic Gladiators I was disappointed. There
was so much potential for a great story in this miniseries. Unfortunately
Martin and Mendoza just can’t execute on the great concept they set up for this
comic. I’m guessing that Dan Mendoza and Jason Martin wanted to get this event
out of the way so they could focus on the Death of Zombie Tramp event. Big
Mistake. The way I see it they should have written this one to take place after
Zombie Tramp #50. If they made this story the event after Zombie Tramp #50 it
could have been a great way to transition into Janey’s return and possible
redemption after the events of the Death of Zombie Tramp storyline.
WE SHOULDA GOT THESE COSTUMES!
Thanks to Martin
and Mendoza pushing the Death of Zombie Tramp event over Galactic Gladiators, the
writing in Danger Doll Squad: Galactic Gladiators feels rushed and convoluted. And
thanks to Martin and Mendoza rushing it, they just don’t actualize the story’s
potential. The storyline for Galactic Gladiators doesn’t flow as organically as
the original Danger Doll team-up and most of the characters in Galactic
Gladiators are one-dimensional with none of the personality or “Voice” the
Action Lab girls have in their own comics.
With the incredible
amount of talent, skill and craftsmanship Jason Martin and Dan Mendoza have shown
with Zombie Tramp, Dollface, and Vamplabde, I would have like to have seen them
take this premise to another level. Take some time to build up the world of
Batau Ceti 16. Show us some of the Aliens. Show us the culture of this Alien
World. And show us why Queen Amalgama would be a threat to Earth that the
combined forces of Zombie Tramp, Vampblade, and Dollface would need to
overcome.
And I’d like to
have seen Mendoza and Martin really take a minute to develop their own
characters and show them using their powers in creative ways. I wanted to see
how Janey would have been able to get out of a jam where her magic wouldn’t
work on aliens. And I wanted to see if she have been able to possess alien
bodies they way she did humans. Or what would Katie would do if she were away
from those alien vampires she fed on for a long time. Could Dollface adapt alien
tech into her arsenal or interface with alien computers. The miniseires issues
should have given us the answers to these questions as they took on the Klustur
Fukur.
With the story
presented Mendoza and Martin told too much and showed too little. Galactic
Gladiators should have been a visual FEAST filled with fantastic imagery and
unique designs, not off the shelf aliens and spaceships from the 1980s and
references only a 44-year-old like myself would figure out. In 2018 most new
readers wouldn’t know about half the stuff Katie and Janey were talking about
or what references were made in this story. This story should have been a
SHOWCASE for Mendoza and Martin to show how they could put their own
fingerprint on a comic, but they just didn’t push the envelope creatively like
they should have. Had it been me writing this story and making the designs, I’d
have gone ALL OUT and put a FRESH take on alien gladiators that’d have put the
stuff in Thor: Ragnarok to shame.
Danger Doll Squad:
Galactic Gladiators had an incredibly solid premise and a strong concept.
Unfortunately, the rushed and convoluted storytelling and one-dimensional
characterizations prevented it from being the great comic it should have been. If
Martin and Mendoza had just taken a few more months to flesh this story out in
rewrites, Action Lab’s Danger Zone could have had a CLASSIC on the level of
Marvel’s Secret Wars. But what they presented in these four issues is sadly,
just a clustur fukur most comic fans should just pass by.
Just when you
thought it was safe to buy DC again…Dan Didio wants to bring back the New 52.
Damn. Just Damn.
Now that Diane
Nelson has been fired and Goeff Johns has moved on to DC’s TV and film division,
Dan Didio is back in control of DC’s Publishing division. And from the looks of
things he wants to get back to business as usual. The business of destroying DC
Comics.
Didio wants to turn
the clock back to 2011 and his New 52 DC Universe and return to dark angry era
of DC Superheroes he ushered in. Where heroes had to suffer endless tragedy in
between multi issue crossovers that went on for a year. And there was nothing
but death, mutilations, and you guessed it more death. Yeah, let’s go back to that
era.
The era of DC that
was THE POOREST SELLING in the 80-year history of the brand. The era where DC
Comics ROTTED on the shelves and comic shops couldn’t GIVE them away. The era that
cost DC and Warner millions in merchandising and licensing LOSSES as DC
merchandise ROTTED on shelves as ALIENATED FANS WALKED AWAY FROM DC CHARACTERS
AND THE DC UNIVERSE.
The definition of
insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result. You
would think after seeing The New 52 fail at comic shops, the New 52 inspired
Snyderverse movies like Batman V. Superman and Justice League FLOP at the box
office and Diane Nelson and get fired for pushing New 52 style ideas in the
Snyderverse that Didio would realize that New 52 is a FAILURE, put a period at
the end of it and move on.
But the New 52 is
Dido’s baby. And like Tom Breevoort obsession with Marvel’s Unstoppable Wasp and
Sana Amanat’s obsession with Kamala Kahn Ms. Marvel, he refuses to realize that
while he loves his version of the DCU, customers HATE IT. And as a business
decision he has to do what the CUSTOMER wants, not INSIST that the customer
keep taking his version of DC’s iconic characters.
If Didio goes back
to New 52, he’s gonna piss off a lot of fans. Most people were buying Rebirth
in the hopes of getting their classic DC Universe back at the end of the Crisis.
They invested in that Goeff John’s two going on three year storyline in the
hopes of it paying off with a return to the characters they knew and loved.
They saw hints of that with the button, Doomsday Clock, and the Flash War. If
Didio yanks the rug out from under fans it could not only put the nail in the
coffin for DC Comics, but the comic book industry as a whole.
Thanks to Sana
Amanat’s incompetent leadership Marvel Comics isn’t doing too hot right now.
And with Marvel sales at an all time low due to what many call SJW Marvel, a
return to the New 52 at DC could put the comic book direct market right out of
business. Last year 50 comic book stores closed last year due to Marvel alienating
comic fans who closed their wallets thanks to Marvel pushing identity politics
and forced diversity characters in what many people call SJW Marvel Comics. If
Didio pushes the New 52 in DC Comics and alienates DC fans, we could easily see
another 100-250 stores close their doors by the end of this year.
With comic book
stores being the only place you can buy comics, it’s gonna be really hard for
publishers to find to sell em’ if the comic shops are gone. But Didio and
Amanat can’t connect those dots regarding the industries they work in.
Dido’s jerking
people around may stir up the bloggers and get a lot of chatter on the message
boards. But at the end of the day it’s all about SALES. And the big two aren’t
pulling the sales numbers they had back in the 1980s and 1990s. So it’s just
not smart to keep alienating the people who are paying for your product.
I’ve said in
numerous blogs nothing at DC would change until Dan Didio is fired. And sadly
that’s what it looks like would have to happen for there to be any serious
change at DC. In the era where superheroes are at the height of their
popularity on movie screens across the country, comics can barely sell 20,000
issues. And that’s due to the indignance of people like Dan Didio and Sana
Amanat who refuse to give the customer what they want: Fun all-ages superhero
stories filled with action and adventure.
Didio and Amanat
want comics their way or the highway. And since WB and Disney’s CEOs won’t send
these two packing, the comic book industry is definitely headed on its way to
another crash. The way I see it, in between Dan Didio and Sana Amanat at
Marvel, the Big two should be out of business in two to three years.
At this point I’ve thrown up my hands regarding Both DC And Marvel.
They’re going to be out of business sooner rather than later. Maybe after the
dust clears after the fall of the big two someone can build something great out
of the ashes.
