Shawn's Trip To New York Comic Con

Spellbound Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Mid September 1989

My life is a horror movie. Give or take a scene.

I feel the eyes of Park West’s most popular girls pointing daggers at me from the back of the classroom. I’d love to ask them what they’re looking at. I’d love to ask them what their problem is. But because I want to live to see another day in this hellhole of a high school, I just do my best to listen to Mrs. Lubbock talk about The Civil War.

 “During the Civil War Lincoln freed the slaves.” Mrs. Lubbock says as she continues her lecture. “And he did so in an effort to help Black people have a better life in America.”

Okay, I hate to correct a teacher. But that’s only part of the story. And I can’t have my fellow classmates go on being miseducated by our wonderfully substandard New York City public school system when I can do something about it. Besides, me pontificating about the Civil War will eat some time off the clock. When this period is over, half the day will be gone. Then it’ll be one year, nine months, thirty-three days and two hours until I can kiss this shithole goodbye on graduation day. 

“Mrs. Lubbock?” I ask raising my hand.

“Yes Matilda?” She asks.

“Er…President Lincoln didn’t free the slaves to help them have a better life, he freed them part of a strategy to win the Civil War.”

Mrs. Lubbock gives me a curious look on hearing my statement. When she flashes me a smile I realize I’m not in trouble. “What would that strategy have been Matilda?”

Is she actually interested in what I have to say? “Well, Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union above all else. And one of the strategies he used to undermine the Confederacy was freeing the slaves.”

I hear a chorus of huffed sighs and sucked teeth on hearing my presentation of the facts about American History. Mrs. Lubbock smiles proudly after hearing me speak. “But they got a better life after they were freed.”

I’d love to tell her that the results of that could be debated. But I don’t want to push my luck with the teachers around here. “We had to fight for it.”

Mrs. Lubbock is about to reply to me when the bell rings. Students start scrambling for the door as I ease out of my seat and start stuffing my notebook in my backpack. Just as I’m putting my American History book in my bag, I catch the cold look in Shantelle’s eyes. The faster I get out of here the faster I can get to the cafeteria. And maybe school security will actually give a shit about me when I get there.

I’m about to make a beeline for the door to make my escape when Mrs. Lubbock calls out to me. “Matilda, could you stay for a minute?” She requests.

Me and my big mouth. I shuffle back over to Mrs. Lubbock’s desk while the rest of the class files out of the classroom. As Shantelle and her girls get to the door, she looks me dead in my eyes and whispers that she’s gonna fuck me up. Just what I need. The threat of an ass kicking before I get my fish sticks.

After Shantelle leaves, Mrs. Lubbock closes the door behind her and turns to greet me with a kind smile. “That was a very intelligent observation about the Civil War Matilda.”

My eyes fall to the floor on the compliment. “Er…I just thought I could say something about the subject.” I say. “My Dad’s a professor and he teaches this stuff at the college where he works at.”

“So this class is just a formality to you.”

I’d have to say so. He’s been drilling Black history into me since I was seven years old. I’d love to tell her about the impending ass kicking I’ve been threatened with, but we’re having such a lovely conversation. “Yeah, that’s what my Dad tells me.”

“Since you know so much, I’d love to hear more from you.”

 I’d love to say more in class but it’d just get me more grief from my fellow classmates in the cheap seats. “I just wanted to say something about the subject.” I say playing with the cuffs of my jacket.

“Well, don’t be afraid to speak. We’re not going to hurt you.”

That can be debated. If I say what I really want to, Shantelle and her friends may silence me permanently. “I don’t know…”

“Matilda, I know you’re uncomfortable about speaking, but you have to find your voice.”

I give her a look. “What do I need a voice for? I get good grades-”

“Your voice is the only way you’re going to make it in this world. It’s the only way people are going to know who you really are.”

That’s my problem. People know who I am. Matilda Kelley Crowley, the middle class girl next door. And because I am the middle class girl next door they can’t be they all hate me. “They know who I am-”

“I wouldn’t even know you were here if I weren’t taking attendance. You’re so quiet it’s like you’re invisible.”

I’m a middle child. Being invisible is what we do best. “I usually don’t have anything to say-”

Mrs. Lubbock takes my hand and gives me an earnest look. “I believe if you want something bad enough you’ll tell the world. And you’ll tell the world why you want it.”

“I guess I have to fight for it.”

Mrs. Lubbock gives me kind smile that makes me think she actually believes in me. “Just think about what I told you.”

“Okay.”

I check my watch as I rush towards the door and hurry down the hall into Staircase C. I’ve got two minutes before the late bell rings. If I’m lucky Shantelle and her girls are already in the cafeteria. And maybe I can avoid getting my ass kicked today.

The paperback edition of Spellbound will bee available the week of Halloween! You can pre-order the eBook version on Kindle and Smashwords today!

Bonus: The Siouxisie and the Banshees song that inspired the title!

Resurrecting my Dell Latitude D830 from The Grave

 

The Laptop I wrote over 30 books on! 

A few years ago after seven years of service, my Dell Latitude D830 died. Due to an issue with the video card, the motherboard was beyond repair.

Unfortunately The video card wasn’t the only issue I had with that Latitude. After I got my A+ Certification way back in 2009, I found myself putting my PC repair skills to work fixing that Laptop more times than one. Before the extended warranty expired I wound up doing TWO partition and formats to the hard drive where I reinstalled the operating system and the software. And after the extended warranty expired in 2011, I replaced the cooling fan inside the D830, and in 2014 I replaced both the broken hinges that held the screen up. After the Dell died, I searched eBay long and hard for a new motherboard. Unfortunately with limited funds I couldn’t find anything in my price range.

Worse, I found out the Motherboards in most Dell Latitudes are bolted into the case by the monitor jack ports. So there was no replacing the motherboard.

Since I had a functioning hard drive, I went looking for a way to replace the computer. What most people don’t know is that if you have the same make and model computer and you put the same hard drive inside that unit, it’ll boot up just like the old computer.

 Searching eBay I found a few leads on units on Goodwills across the country, but I kept getting outbid. At the time I was looking for a motherboard with the processor inside. I found one motherboard for $34, but I also found a whole laptop for $25 with a Buy It Now. Since I had some birthday money I picked up that laptop for $25 plus shipping.

The laptop I got was old, but very clean. It looked practically new. A former school computer, the unit had a working DVD drive and a battery. So it was a pretty good deal for just $25.

Back to LIFE! 

Once I got the laptop delivered, I put my old hard drive inside and after two years…My old computer was brought back from the dead.

After a few adjustments to the drivers using the Dell Driver CDs I had from the old laptop, I had a functioning laptop again. The whole process to reinstalling the hard drive and the drivers took less than an hour, and I’m very happy.

After six years, my PC repair skills are still sharp. I can still break down and fix a laptop and get it back running new. I’m still looking for a full-time job where I could do PC repairs professionally but I’m just happy to know I can still fix a problem on a Windows PC easily if I have a problem with one at home.

I’d love to learn how to fix tablets and Macs. Maybe if I can find a cheap Surface Pro or a MacBook pro I believe I could learn how to fix those as well.

Wonder Woman is Bisexual…Good Gravy.

DC has made it official: Wonder Woman is a bisexual. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Okay, there’s a lot wrong here. But it doesn’t have to do with Wonder Woman. It has to do with DC Comics.

Just when you thought Rebirth was going to change things at DC…They go back to the same old failed playbook doing the exact same things and expecting a different result. The rest of the publishing world calls this insanity, but this is business as usual at DC Comics.

Goeff Johns told us Rebirth was supposed to be a change from the Didio era. But here we have Greg Rucka following the same old approaches from the Didio business model that pretty much cost DC ten percent of its market share and thousands of readers. This whole Wonder Woman is bisexual gimmick is just another marketing stunt designed to generate short-term controversy but won’t increase sales for DC Comics in the long term.

It’s clear to me Greg Rucka is out of his depth. When writers like Greg Rucka can’t write good stories they resort to gimmicks. And they hope to deflect from their lack of storytelling ability by doing something flashy to overcompensate for their lack of substance. So instead of writing that great Wonder Woman story where we see her taking on a new menace or a fresh take on an old one…We get the revelation that she’s bisexual.  

Big Deal. Cassie Hack of Hack/Slash has been bisexual for over five years. Tara from the FemForce has been a lesbian for over 35 years. Xena has been rumored to be lesbian for 20 years. What makes this revelation so special? 

The big problem with comic book writers like Greg Rucka today is that they overthink everything instead of keeping it simple. Readers don’t need to know Wonder Woman’s sexual orientation. We don’t need to know what kind of tampon she uses. We don’t need to know if she masturbates in the shower or under waterfalls in Paradise Island. We just need to know what a wonder she is at kicking ass. 

Seriously, no one cares if Wonder Woman is bisexual. Readers care if she’s interesting. Readers care if she has a "voice" that speaks to them. Unfortunately writers like him can’t write Wonder Woman stories that get readers excited about buying the comic for close to 40 years. Instead of the gimmicks, give us a Wonder Woman story where she kicks the ass of the members of her rogues gallery like Cheetah, Dr. Cyber, Giganta and Circe and you’ll give readers an incentive to buy a comic. Heck, just give her some new rogues and maybe readers might try a comic. But instead of creating some interesting stories we get more of the same old gimmicks from DC that collapsed the comic book industry in the 1990’s.

Greg Rucka thinks that revealing that Wonder Woman is bisexual will make a profound statement for diversity. Unfortunately, most comic fans are indifferently responding to it. Many see right through the marketing stunt and many more are just wating for the next reboot to retcon this little revelation from the characters’ mythos. At this point comic fans and casual readers are just tired of the archaic 1990’s shock marketing approaches comic publishers continue to use and want them to do something different with their business model.

The big problem with Wonder Woman for 40 years has been that no one has been able to write her adventures in a postfeminist world. Yes Wonder Woman was an icon for feminism and a symbol for strong women back from the 1940s-1960s. But ironically after feminist Gloria Stienem demanded that she be changed back from the strong selling Diana Prince Wonder Woman concept back to the star spangled superwoman in the mid 1970s in Ms. Magazine she has struggled to find a direction, an identity and an audience with readers. These days with so many strong real-life women around like Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Gina Carano, Mickie James, Chyna, Beyonce, and Carly Fiorina around and strong female heroines like Buffy, Xena, Sonya Blade, Elisa Maza, She Hulk, Rogue, Jessica Jones and The Powerpuff Girls in media, Princess Diana of Pardise Island has become another pretty face.

Now she’s bisexual. But still just another pretty face in a crowd of dozens of superheroine and fantasy characters. And there’s a lot wrong with that from a business perspective.

Seriously, What can Wonder Woman do that any of the characters I mentioned can’t?  What makes her special? Why should readers care about her? Those are the questions no writer has been really able to answer in Postfeminist America for over 40 years. Yeah Wonder Woman was the first female superheroine. But most people don’t buy her comic because no writer makes can make a person they can relate to today.

What Wonder Woman really needs a new direction. Something contemporary and relatable to readers of all ages. Something that defines her for this age. Give readers a story where Wonder Woman a story where she participates in an ultimate fight against a Greek Goddess like Isis did in The Ultimate Fight. Or she stands up for her principles against a villain who challenges her values like Isis did in The Beauty Myth and Wrath of the Cybergoddess. Or have her take on a more contemporary menace readers relate to like Vampires like Isis did in Night ofthe Vampires. Or have her and Batman take on Dracula like Isis did in Bride ofDracula. Those were some of the ideas I had for Wonder Woman stories. And I believe those are the kinds of stories that’d get readers excited about the character to start buying her adventures again.

I’ve never wondered about Wonder Woman’s sexual orientation. The only thing I wondered about was the action and adventure between the pages of her comics. Show readers what makes Wonder Woman great as a character people will buy Wonder Woman comics.

Wonder Man Action Figure Mod

For my 43^rd Birthday I was given a Marvel Legends Wonder Man from Captain America’s Abomination wave by a family member. While I love this updated version of Simon Williams Hasbro produced, I wasn’t a fan of the costume they chose.

While I’d love to have a Safari Jacket version of the Man of Wonders for my Marvel Legnds collection, I much prefer the red and black togs he wore in the West Coast Avengers over that overdesigned mess of a costume he wore in Uncanny Avengers. 

Since I’m a fan of classic versions of characters over modern, those stupid red armbands and legbands on Wonder Man’s costume HAD TO GO. Using a couple of coats of Delta Ceramcoat Medium Flesh on his biceps and Delta Ceramcoat Black on his legs I painted over those red bands. Then I took a piece of electrical tape and made his belt. A few coats of Michael’s brand burgundy and I finally had a Wonder Man ready to join my West Coast Whackos.

FUN FACT: West Coast Avengers was one of the first series that I started collecting regularly when I was 14 years old! Took close to 20 years, but I finally have the core members of that team in action figure form! Thanks ToyBiz and Hasbro!

Monster High Reboot Cartoons- More STUPID Than The Law Allows

Okay, I knew the Monster High Reboot was going to suck. When I saw the pictures of the dolls with softened face paint and cheaped out clothes, it was clear to me that Mattel was going to fuck up one of their best-selling toylines. But now that I’ve seen the cartoons to promote the relaunched toyline all I can say is…

I never knew anyone could cram that much STUPID into less than one minute. But here we are. 

I thought Monster High was supposed to appeal to teens and tweens. But the content Mattel put into its new cartoons is so DUMB even toddlers would look up at the screen and say WTF? 

Seriously Teletubbies wasn’t this STUPID when it was on the air. Even Elmo and Baby Bear on Sesame Street aren’t as DUMB the new Draculaura, Frankie Stein, and Clawdeen Wolf are.  Seriously, Clawdeen Wolf’s power is to turn into a puppy. And her family turns into puppies. 

Again WTF? 

While the New Monster High cartoons have state-of-the art computer animation there’s little substance behind its flash. The stories in these one-minute shorts pretty much betray everything the books and the original cartoons were about. Instead of boys and girls being presented with an intelligent series that showed everyone what’s great about being different, viewers are getting a dumbed down series that promotes sexist ideas about interpersonal relationships between boys and girls. 

Under the new Monster High Premise, Monster High is a private academy and girls can get in by making a…sad face. No, you did not read that wrong. The new male Headmaster is so much of a WIMP he just breaks down when teenage girls just give him a look when he says not to them. Seriously, what kind of message is that to send to girls? 

Look pretty, put on a sad face and men give you what you want. Isn’t that Barbie’s premise? And isn’t that why Barbie’s sales are in the CRAPPER these days? Because today’s girls and women have REJECTED the archaic ideas she represents. But here we have Mattel pushing these outdated messages to 21^st Century girls and boys in an effort to sell toys.

Unfortunately, what made the Original Monster High concept sell to boys and girls was the fact that it showed the beauty in what socieity perceived as ugly in the original Flash Cartoons. Because we saw the content of the characters of the monsters like Frankie Stein, Clawdeen Wolf, Cleo De Nile and Gholia Yelps we started looking past their appearances and seeing how great these characters were. 

And the original Monster High cartoons promoted the idea that boys and girls got what they wanted through hard work. Frankie wanted friends? She worked for it. Draculaura wanted Clawd? She had to make efforts to let him know. Cleo wanted to get out of Nefra’s shadow? She worked for it. Ghoulia wanted to solve a problem? She worked to solve the problem. When the Monsters wanted to get on the fearleeading squad they had to work together to accomplish it. And when the Monsters fell into a trap laid by someone like Toreliai or some monster like in Gloom Beach they worked together to get out of it.

One of the things I liked about Monster High’s cartoons was that they promoted the idea that girls and boys had to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. It sent a message to both boys and girls to accomplish their goals through hard work, not doing manipulative things like putting on sad faces to appeal to the heartstrings of men like these new cartoons do. 

The other thing I liked about the old Monster High Cartoons was the fact that it showed teens from all walks of horror world came to Monster High. We got to know them and their families. We got to know parents, friends, families and how they interacted with each other around the world of Monster High. This new academy/boarding school concept takes away from the intricate world built around Monster High and makes it a shallower place. 

Once customers looked past their appearances and saw people we could relate to, they started to buy the toys. With these new cartoons I see no reason to buy the toys related to the Monster High Reboot. They’re not monsters. They’re not proud to be Monsters. They hide their best features like their scars behind plastic surgery and pretty made up faces. They’re dressed up not to look distinct and be themselves, but to conform and look like everyone else. And they’re written not to act like themselves, but conform to the standards of their obsolete predecessor Barbie Millicent Roberts. 

Mattel has been running the new Monster High cartoons on YouTube. And they’ve been disabling the comments on all of them. And I believe they’ve been disabling the conent because they don’t want to hear from all the anger from all the fans who made Monster High the hit it was for close to a decade. They have a right to feel betrayed. Everything they loved about Monster High has been tossed to the wayside for a dumbed down premise that talks down to customers and treats them like idiots. Mattel may think these new cartoons will appeal to kids, but all I saw online were animations with stories that would insult a kid’s intelligence. 

While the original Monster High cartoons were crude Flash animations, they had more depth, substance, character and heart than the ones in this reboot. These new Moster high cartoons betray the orignal premise of Monster High’s books and the toys. And they insult the intelligence of viewers. Instead of selling us on what’s great about Monster they show us all how Mattel executives have ruined a great product by trying to turn it into another Barbie clone. I’ll take any of the substance of the stories in the old Monster High cartoons over the flash in the new fancy CGI ones any day. 

What Makes Comic Characters With Mysterious Pasts Fun

In comics some things need to be left a mystery. Such as:

The Phantom Stranger’s origins,

The Joker’s Past,

And Wolverine’s past. 

These days many comic book writers think it’s a good thing to fill in all the details in a character’s backstory. However, sometimes the best story is left to the imagination of the reader. Sometimes a writer leaving things blank allows the reader to tell a better story than anything a writer ever could.

When it comes to certain characters, it’s the mystery behind their backstory that makes them fan favorites. The fact that the reader doesn’t have all the answers is what makes readers keep coming back to read more stories featuring them.

In Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman The Joker is given a name: Jack Napier. However, the comic book character has never been given a name. And that’s really one of the most compelling elements of the character. Since he’s psychotic, there’s no way of ever finding out who the Clown Prince of Crime ever was before he became the Clown Prince of Crime.

Yes, we got snippets of the failed comedian could have been in the canon/noncannon Batman: The Killing Joke. And Batman: Mask of the Phantasm showed us a mobster who killed Andrea Beaumont’s father, but none of those stories don’t give anyone a definitive picture of who The Joker ever was before he became the Joker. Again, since The Joker is psychotic, no one really knows about his past but him. And since he’s crazy, we’ll never know if he’s ever going to tell the truth about that past. That’s what keeps readers coming back for more stories Batman stories featuring him.

One of the things that is planned for DC’s Rebirth is telling us that three men were the Joker. I’d rather have it where The Joker is just a crazy guy who no name and no past. Part of what makes the character great is no one knowing who the man really was before he became the clown prince of crime.

Another character that readers really don’t need to know everything about is DC Comics’ The Phantom Stranger. Part of his character premise is being a literal Stranger.  The Phantom Stranger is supposed to be mysterious individual who observes events in the DC Universe and only comes in to intervene when absolutely necessary. Since he’s a literal stranger on the outskirts of the DC Universe, he doesn’t need an origin. He doesn’t need a past. He just needs to be what he is: A Stranger.

However, that didn’t stop DC Comics from giving The Stranger four different origins back in the late 2000s. And in one of them he’s supposed to be Judas Iscariot. Attempting to answeri that question just sucked the life out of what made the character a compelling one. 

What makes The Phantom Stranger a great character is us NOT knowing who he is or what his mission is regarding the DC Universe. The way I see him, he’s kind of like DC’s answer to Rod Serling, an outside observer watching what transpires in the DC Universe and sees it kind of the way Serling saw things in The Twilight Zone. Before the Neal Adams redsign with the mod turtleneck, chain, and the cloak, The Stranger reminded me of Rod Serling with his black suit, tie, and trenchcoat and I always believed that early issues of the Phantom Stranger were inspired by The Twilight Zone. On the earliest issues of Phantom Stranger Readers are supposed to wonder if he’s a man or if he’s a ghost. We’re not supposed to know who he is, or what his mission is. That’s a question that no writer was ever supposed to answer. And that’s what made the character great.  

Once writers start answering the unanswered questions oftentimes a mysterious character starts to lose their luster. For example, when Wolverine was given an official origin in the early 2000s it sucked the fun out of the character for me. I liked the idea that we didn’t know where the man called Logan came from. When he first made his appearances in the X-men back in the 1970s, we all knew he was over 80 years old, but we didn’t know anything about who he really was. His mind had been tampered with and his memories a jumble. Which led readers to ask: In the past was he a samurai? A government agent? A drifter the government picked up and experimented on? And if he was experimented on by the Weapon X program were his memories even real?

Unfortunately, in the early 2000s We found out his name was James Logan Howlett, and he was around since the 1800s. A story that didn’t really need to be told, but somebody told it anyway. And when they told that story it took a lot out of the Wolverine mythos. What made Wolverine intriguing was the fact that he was a man with a mysterious past filled with unanswered questions. Once writers started filling in the blanks it became a total letdown for many readers.

I’ve written quite a few characters with long backstories filled with unanswered questions. For example Isis is over 2,000 years old. And I haven’t told all the stories related to her past. Yes, she’s mentioned living in Egypt during the Roman Empire. She’s also mentioned living in Japan during the feudal period, along with traveling across Asia to learn different martial arts. And she’s mentioned fighting pirates.

When it comes to E’steem she’s over 4,000 years old. And readers only have learned snippets about her past in Ancient Egypt and in Europe. She’s mentioned past relationships and marriages, and even having children in Isis, The Temptation of John Haynes and E’steem series stories like Faerie Tale, but I’ve barely scratched the surface of the characters’ backstory as a human and a demon.

And when it comes to John Haynes there’s an unanswered question to whether or not he has supernatural powers. I never answered the question to why Lucifer hated him and from his ability to take on the principalities of darkness like demons, vampires and Dracula, there could be more to him than meets the eye.

I could fill in the blanks in these characters’ backstories with in a series of stories, But I’m not gonna tell those tales. Why?

Because I believe that some stories are best left to the readers imagination. I believe if I start filling in the blanks the reader is going to taken away from what they believe to be great about a character. And instead of them forming a connection with the internal traits that make a character great, they’re going to get sucked out of the story and caught up in the minutiae of continuity.

Sometimes the best stories aren’t the ones that a writer tells. They’re the ones we tell ourselves as we fill in the blanks writers left in between their stories. Part of the fun in comics is not knowing every little detail about a character’s life. As we ponder the answers to the questions writers have left unresolved regarding a characters’ past, we’re supposed to imagine what could be coming in the next story where we may or may not get an answer to those questions in the next adventure.