On Thursday, October 30th I made an amazing discovery. The standard procedure when a writer is preparing a new book is to look for similar books on the market to study their production and marketing techniques.

As you may know, I’m working on my second book - a novel (Feb 2009 - I’ve written about it before ) which is geared towards middle school and high school boys (as well as their fathers). Since the story has ’superhero’ elements, I wanted to include illustrations in each chapter. One of my issues is figuring out how many drawings to do.

I had a chance to do an audio interview with my friend - Demetrius Veasy II - at the 2008 NY ComicCon Convention, back in April. Demetrius is the creator of the Lions 12 comic book series. I’ve added music and visuals to the interview, which you can watch below. Demetrius and his manager are the ones who ‘twisted my arm’ and forced me into My BIG PROJECT Challenge .

Hey Everybody,

Do you have one of those projects that you’ve been thinking about for a long time? Maybe you’ve been saying for years that you would get around to it and now it seems like forever? I remember a quote I read a while back, "Most people talk about their dreams, very few actually go out and do them."

I’ve got some projects that I’ve been holding onto for several years, but there’s one in particular that I’ve carried around with me for at least 10 years. I would always talk about it and even did some illustrations and technical schematics. But all I did was talk.

FINALLY!  The Iron Man DVD is here!  Just released today!  I’ve been waiting for the DVD since Opening Day back in May.  I’ve been saving my change for months and picked it up on my lunch break.  It helps when there’s a Bestbuy right across the street. (Although it takes a lot of discipline to stay away from those un-necessary purchases.  But I”m making it, thanks for asking.)

Do You Watch Heroes?

If you watch the hit television show Heroes,(now in it’s 3rd Season) then I want to hear from you!  What is it about the show that draws you and keeps your interest?  How far does your fandom go?  Just leave your comments below.  I hope to write a series of posts about the show, people’s responses and comic book ideology - relating it to our everyday lives - so you don’t want to miss it.

Let me say a few things to start things off:

(Picture from Wikipedia article on the Justice League)

What would the world be like without comic books?

Does the world need comic book superheroes? I know what you are thinking… “Superheroes? You mean like the men and women in tights and capes?” Yes, but not all wear capes. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, X-Men, Icon & Rocket, Spiderman, Static, Captain America, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Hardware, The Hulk and all the hundreds and thousands of others. Does the world need comic book superheroes? You may be thinking that “comics are for kids.” Maybe on some level comics are for kids, but they are written by adults and often deal with very serious issues that pertain to the totality of society. Major Blockbuster movies are now based on comic book superheroes - Spiderman (1,2,3), X-Men (1,2,3), Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Fantastic Four (1,2)… and the list continues to some movies that didn’t do too well (Daredevil, Elecktra, The Punisher, Ghost Rider…)