Isis: The Main Event Color Cover Art & Color Umbuttra Model Sheet

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Finally got to coloring the Isis: The Main Event Cover Concept. With the colors it really POPS. I want this cover to have BIG action with  an imperiled Isis held over the edge of the cage by the Umbuttra, Hell’s Beast from the Bowels, with Nemesis the Greek goddess of Retribution trying to come to the rescue with a steel chair. I can't wait to see what Bill Walko does with this one! 

I drew inspiration for this one from the 1998 Hell in a Cell where Mankind fought The Undertaker. With this being a battle between goddesses and one of Hell’s most powerful demons, I wanted to present a battle that was EPIC on the level of that match. Anyone who has seen the Taker/Mankind Match knows it set the gold standard for Hell in a Cell Matches and I wanted the fight between Isis, Nemesis and Umbuttra to be as big a spectacle as that one. 

 When I was writing this story a lot of parallels between wrestlers, gods and superheroes. and I wanted to design a cover concept that showed how all three of those worlds were similar.  

Also did Umbuttra’s model sheet. Wanted to give her dreadlocks to contrast her ram  horns. And with her being in the Ninth Level of Hell, she ain’t gonna find a hairdresser.   

I got inspired by TNA and WWE superstar Awesome Kong’s ring attire but I wanted to put a Jack Kirby spin on it. Really wanted her outfit to look like something Kong would wear while capturing the spirit of Jack Kirby's New Gods and Eternals designs.

Isis: The Main Event will be available in 2020. Still in the middle of edits and trying to get the cover done! 

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Isis: The Main Event Cover Concept Art

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Finally got some ideas on paper for the Isis: The Main Event Cover Concept. The cover concept is inspired by the 1998 Hell in A Cell, where Mankind took on The Undertaker. Umbuttra, the Beast From The Bowels has an evil grin on her face because she’s got Isis beat and has her dangling from the top of the cage. She’s making plans to toss her 20 feet into the announce table. Nemesis, seeing her in danger is running behind her with a steel chair in an effort to make the save. With Isis and Nemesis taking on one of the most powerful demons in the Legion it’s literally Hell in a Cell!

Also did a model sheet for the main villain Umbuttra, The Beast From the Bowels. Umbuttra was last featured in E’steem: The Beast From The Bowels. I’ve had this image of her in my head for five years and I finally got it to paper.

The inspiration visually for Umbuttra is primarily former TNA and WWE wrestler Kia Stevens, also known as Awesome Kong. Kong was a human wrecking machine who practically DESTROYED TNA Knockouts and WWE Divas in the ring.

The other inspiration for Umbuttra is Batman villain Bane. Underneath Bane’s powerful physical exterior is the mind of a cunning master strategist.  When I imagine Umbttra she looks like Kong with dreadlocks and but sounds like an articulate well-spoken African woman.

With her incredible power and her brilliant mind, Umbuttra gave E’steem a run for her money in Beast From The Bowels. And in Isis: The Main Event she uses her brains and brawn to give Isis one of the biggest challenges she’s faced since the Cybergoddess.

And I finally got around to doing a model sheet for Nemesis. Nemesis made her first appearance in Isis: The Ultimate Fight. Nemesis was supposed to be the Greek Counterpart to Isis so I wanted some similarity to her outfit. The one-armed Toga was meant to contrast Isis’ blouse and kilt.

 

Personality wise, Nemesis was inspired by Lucy Lawless, TV’s Xena Warrior Princess. Whenever I write Nemesis’ dialogue and narration, I hear Lucy Lawless’ voice in my head.

Like Hercules in Marvel’s Thor comics, Nemesis is a rival to Isis. She’s a heroine, but she’s out to compete with Isis. And just like Isis she’s trying to find her way back on the road to being a heroine after the events of Isis: The Ultimate Fight and Isis:Power of The Princess.

Readers will see how much progress Nemesis has made on the road to redemption in Isis: The Main Event. And they’ll see how their relationship makes a major turn as they take on Umbuttra in the steel cage of the Dangerous Divas of Wrestling!

I’m hoping to have Isis: The Main Event out in Spring of 2020. This one is one you want to pick up, because it’s the turning point of the second Isis story arc that started with Isis: All About The Goddess and the turning point of the overall Isis series!

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ISIS GRAPHIC NOVEL & SJS DIRECT 2020 Catalog Progress Report

The Black Man's Survival Guide Sample Chapter

I've been busy working on books, making videos and livestreams. And I've been busy writing and editing four projects on the 2020 SJS DIRECT catalog. So I haven't had much time to write blogs.

One of the projects I'm working on is The Black Man's Survival Guide.  After seeing many young brothers like Bakari Henderson lose their lives and others like Albert Wilson wind up in prison on false rape charges I realized that Black boys and young Black men aren't being taught the unwritten social rules Black men need to follow living in a White Supremacist world. 

 I'm hoping the book can help young brothers plan a course of survival in a world that hates them and possibly save some lives.   I'm working hard to get this book done and I hope to have it done in early 2020. 

Chapter 3

Unwritten Social Rules For Black Male Survival.

How do Black men survive in a world that sees them as an enemy? By having a protocol for navigating hostile territory.

During slavery and Jim Crow, Black men understood there was a target on their backs from overseers and slave masters. And in order to survive the oppression and terrorism they encountered, they developed a set of rules to follow so they could live to see the next day.

Because many of the emancipated slaves couldn’t read or write they weren’t able to write down this protocol. Instead they taught these rules to their sons orally. And with the oppression they faced daily, many Black men realized it was better to keep their rules for engaging and interacting with Whites and nonblacks oral so that White racists and their supporters couldn’t find out their code and make plans to thwart it.

These Unwritten social rules for Black male survival were passed on from father to son from generation to generation. And as the generations passed from slavery to Jim Crow To the Civil Rights Era Black men added more unwritten social rules to this code to so they could adapt to the times and avoid the pitfalls and traps racists set up to destroy their lives.

However, as Black men transitioned from the Civil Rights Era to today they weren’t able to pass these unwritten social rules for survival to their sons. As Black women got involved with the feminist movement and the welfare state they prevented their sons from having relationships with their fathers. And because those boys didn’t have that relationship with their fathers they weren’t able to learn these unwritten rules regarding how they were supposed to carry and conduct themselves in the White Supremacist world.

Most Black single mothers in the late 1960s and 1970s thought they could raise a boy to be a man on their own. However, without a Black father there to teach their sons the unwritten social rules of engagement in America many young Black boys wound up getting caught up in situations where they were harassed by police officers, racially profiled by store owners, and threatened and attacked by neighborhood racists just for walking in the wrong neighborhood or looking at the wrong woman. 

Without a father and men in the community to teach Black boys and Black men the unwritten social rules to they aren’t able to identify the racist predators in and out of the Black community and avoid dangerous situations with racist Whites and nonblacks who hate Black men. Nor are they able to develop the critical thinking and problem solving skills to diffuse situations with racists and other enemies from the state when they run into confrontations with them.

A Black man who doesn’t know what the unwritten social rules for living in a White Supremacist world is a sitting duck. And the reason why he’s vulnerable is because he has absolutely no understanding of how to carry and conduct himself when he goes out in a world that’s against him. So any reaction he takes can lead to racists taking actions that could cost him his life.

Only a Black father can teach his son the unwritten social rules of engagement of White Supremacist America because he has to live by that code every day. Unfortunately, since two three generations of Black men and Black boys who have grown up without fathers and men in the community to show them the protocol for interacting with the White Supremacist world this is why so many young black boys and young black men are becoming easy targets for imprisonment or extermination.

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Planet of the Nerds #2 Presents a Great story on Black Manhood

Saw a Story in the back of Ahoy Comics Planet of The Nerds  #2 that presented an incredibly positive image of Black Manhood and Black Masculinity.

This one shows a young Black teenager with a father in his life and shows him changing his perception of self and self image. He goes from seeing himself as the sidekick in a White Man's comic book stories to realizing he can be his own man and make his own way in the real world. It's a powerful story.

This story reminds me a lot of myself growing up and the things that motivated me to dedicate myself to writing positive stories about Black people back in 1991 and what motivates me to publish books like the John Haynes series today.