Spotlight on: Spectrum

Two Gargoyles Comics' Thunder was among the first characters I discovered, and became a fan of, after starting the They Stand On Guard blog in 2012.

Sadly, only four issues of his series have been released to date (and they are available on Indyplanet individually or collected as volume 1) and I believe the last one was in early 2014, perhaps even late 2013.

It appears as though the character has gone through intensive restructuring during that time, however. His appearance has changed, the art chores are now being handled by one Myk Emmshin and pages of the fifth issue are being posted on a weekly basis on the publisher's website, presumably to also be made available in print at a later date. The publisher's renewed commitment to the character is further underscored by the merchandise they now offer with his image.

Here are the basics, if you're new to the character.

In January. Two Gargoyles introduced a new series and character, using the same page-a-week format. Meet Spectrum:

As I write this, page 13 is about to become available. I'd been waiting for him to be seen in costume before sharing a page from the series. At a page a week, it was taking a while. But Two Gargoyles facilitated matters by creating the promotional fact sheet above.

I'm trying to avoid reading too much of that book, and the fifth issue of Thunder, because I plan on getting the print versions at some point. But I do know that you can follow Spectrum's adventures from the beginning on this page.

Crowdfunding For Psychosis, Volume 3, Coming Soon!

Big fan of this series.

The Kickstarter goes live on March 15th and I want to reiterate (while not putting any pressure on unrealistic expectation on the creators) that these guys have been as reliable as anyone in terms of meeting their goals for delivery. 90% of the projects I've backed are late. Psychosis is in the 10%.

If you're new to Psychosis, the Kickstarter will offer the opportunity to purchase the previous volumes as well so it will easy to catch up. Here's some background on those.

The year is 2134. It has been almost a hundred years since society as we know it disappeared. Cities were brought to the ground in days, governments in weeks, and entire countries in mere months. Two thirds of the population had died off before the year's end. This is what is written in the history books as "The Great Purge". 

The Great Purge tore the Earth asunder. Many of the remaining population mutated and gained abilities forming a new species dubbed NewGens. The NewGens rose to power decimating the population of the world and eventually gave rise to SeVeN, Six Newgens and one very rich and powerful human. They make the decisions now. They choose who lives, who dies and who prospers.. 

That was nearly 50 years ago... 

Victor Stevens is a calm, collected and stable young man. He does his best to get by with what life has given him... the short end of the stick. His other side, Psychosis, is cocky, arrogant, and always one step ahead of the opposition, Psychosis relies on no one but himself while Victor trusts his friends to help them through. Despite their differences they stand against the might of SeVeN together. 

Which side will prove stronger in their battle for control? 

(In volume two) Victor struggles to fend off his demons, while the world around him is brought to its knees. Can he hold it together long enough to make a difference?

I see there'll be an option to get slaughtered in the comic among the Kickstarter perks. I've already had my throat ripped out in an issue of Z'Isle so perhaps I'll start a tradition. Let's see how many Canadian comics I can be butchered in!

According to their Facebook Page, Atkinson and Coates plan on crowdfunding volume four in September or so, so there's more Psychosis in our futures!

One More To Watch: The Sentinels from Standard Comics

I regret not including this among the projects to watch in 2017 when rebooting the blog earlier this year.

Almost five years ago now, I stumbled into Roy Johnson's gallery on Comic Art Fans, probably while looking for Captain Canuck material. Like many, I was momentarily suckered by the image below, believing it to be, at the time, yet another attempt at a Captain Canuck series.

Shortly thereafter, the following image was added which not only included Commander Steel again, but this time added Nelvana and The Penguin.

Unfortunately, it was not preview art for an upcoming team-up book (although Chapterhouse might want to give that option some thought). When Mr. Johnson began collecting commissioned artwork, he chose to apply the name of a defunct publisher to it. The final result appears very authentic.

Mr. Johnson has since created a reference guide to the various characters that populate the Standard Universe, mixing updated (to various degrees) public domain characters and his own original creations.

Standard Comics Encyclopedia (Abridged) is where you will find entries on the colorful characters in the Standard Comics Universe, including information on their personal data, personality, history, powers, and abilities.

Interest in his product has proved to be such that Mr. Johnson is now preparing to publish not only a second volume of the encyclopedia but a "real" version of the Sentinels book. And that book might/should include a Canadian character or two (three?) as there are a handful in the Standard Universe. We'll have to wait until the Kickstarter campaign kicks off soon to know which among them will appear and to what extent, but reading the current line-up in the Encyclopedia makes me optimistic.

In the meantime, additional work had been on Commander General Steel, presumably with the intention of putting him to use at some point, if not in that Sentinels book.

Art by Luis Rivera and Escomic! 

A forceful, dynamic man, Steel is a natural leader. He sees the humor in life, and, although his attitude briefly soured after the murder of his family, he has never let it overwhelm him. 

Jack Steel was mortally wounded by a German shell at the Battle of El Alamein (1942). A strange scientist took him to a hidden cave laboratory and injected the "elixir of life" into the dying soldier, reviving Steel and giving him superhuman abilities. Steel had no idea where he was born or what his true nationality was, therefore, he considered himself a champion of all nations against Dictatorships. His activities during WWII included battling Nazi Werewolves with the Grim Reaper in Transylvania (see Grim Reaper, The Grim Reaper #22), freeing German Prisoner of War camps, leading resistance movements in occupied countries, and so on. 

One of the Canadian Standard Universe characters will be appearing in another project that is expected to be launched through Kickstarter soon.  More on that later but in the meantime, you can track Standard's progress on Facebook here.

Big Nick Issue 2 Cover Reveal!

I've gotten busy at a most unfortunate time and have missed posting some of the news that I'd intended to but hope to catch up quickly, starting with this rather cool cover for the second issue of Big Nick from our friends at Expired Comics. The book, last we heard, was expected to be availabe in June or so.

The big bastard in the background is named The Bedrock Titan. Might he become Nick's arch-nemesis? We'll start to find out this summer!

In the meantime, allow me to send out a friendly reminder about Expired's fan art contest by which you can have your work displayed in a future book. The deadline is April 15th and submissions can be...huh...submitted to socialmedia@expiredcomics.com.

North Force Alpha Cover Reveal!

North Force Alpha was among the projects I'd said we'd be keeping an eye on when this site was basically rebooted.

It seems to be motoring along quite nicely. The book is now expected to be available in April and the first coloured images are being displayed on its dedicated Facebook page.

...The book has expanded to 16 pages. More art and story for the same price! 

Also, the first 500 orders receive their pick of character profile card. Available cards include; Shania Magic Fox, Jack Wildmane, Patriotfire, Gabrielle Coldspell, Matthew Quickclaw, and the robotic Steel Knight! 

Reserve your copy today by responding (on Facebook). $10 for signed hard copy (includes shipping and handling). Special offer to first 500 members: $10 one time small fee for all 2017 title digital releases! 

Follow Pete@ https://www.facebook.com/peter.colp.33 

SERIES SYNOPSISThis group of "special beings" is based in Canada, a country that is divided into the territories of the Elfen Empire (northern Quebec) , The Domain of Ogres, Wolfen Territories, and human existence spread throughout. 

A team (NORTH FORCE alpha) is formed outside the control of the law to combat the growing terrorist threat known as "The Octagon". The team will confront their many technological terrors and also the agents of Octagon....They will have to learn to put their past conflicts and (biases) between their people behind them to grow and learn to function as a team.

Profile card? I'll have me a little Gabrielle Coldspell for the collection, s'il vous plait.

Arrowhead Merchandise Now Available

If you're a fan of the True Patriot books and characters (and if you're reading this, it's hard to imagine you aren't) then you might be interested in the merchandise being offered on TeePublic.

The Canadian super hero from the pages of TRUE PATRIOT in a very Canadian design... ARROWHEAD with maple leaves and a nod to the the vintage AVRO conspiracies that his origin is inspired by!

TeePublic also offer phone and laptop cases as options. Nice way to support the True Patriot projects(s) and creator Jay Stephens in particular.

Two-Chapter Review: Captain Canuck - The Terror Birds

I seldom wrote reviews on the previous version of this blog. I described the contents of books frequently but seldom expressed an opinion as to the quality of that content. Not only is quality a very subjective thing but having never published anything myself, I don't think it's my place to criticize those who have.

With the relaunch of this site, I wanted to be a bit more vocal. I won't review every single item I read but if one specific aspect of a book can illustrate a point I consider to be potentially valuable to creators, then I shall comment on it. It's just a different method by which to be supportive, but one I find very tricky, frankly.

And with this in mind, let's take a peek at the Captain Canuck: The Terror Birds novel.

The title of this post is quite literal. I've only read two chapters of Terror Birds. Yet I've already come across an issue that seems to be becoming more and more common; A lack of proper editing.

Did every editor on the planet suddenly drop dead? Is there no one out there available to point out errors in punctuation and/or grammar and/or spelling anymore?

Hey, mistakes happen. There are probably a couple in this post! They seem to be more and more frequent in the material I read these days, however.

I've been told that finding errors is not the purpose of reading books. Of course it isn't. I know this. I don't WANT to find them. That's exactly why this post is being written.

Here's why I consider these small errors to be an issue, even as just a fan.

• They're distracting. Imagine watching a movie and the screen goes black for one second every minute. Would that not partially prevent your from being totally engrossed? Can you really enjoy a song when the recording skips? Errors have the same effect.
• They can cause the story to be unclear. One story I read recently (not Canadian, mind you, just used here for the sake of example) used the word "hanger" instead of "hangar" repeatedly in a chapter. They are totally different things, aren't they?
• They can make you look second-rate. Your delivery can take away from your content. When you read a comment to a newspaper article from someone who can't get "there/they're/their" sorted out, do you not question the writer's credibility just a bit?

Here are a couple of examples from Terror Birds.

...Redcoat tried to unsuccessfully to conceal a yawn.

Obviously the underlining is mine. This is probably a matter of attempting to improve a sentence after it was written and inadvertently going in the opposite direction. Later, a sentence begins "Their current was position was well outside...". Probably an easy mistake to make.

He always did Mr. Bobo had no problem with authority he was very susceptible to praise.

Wouldn't punctuation have made the above sentence far more clear?

The creature tore out a draw.

Or a drawer, rather.

Here's a big part of the problem; spellcheck won't draw your attention to that error because "draw" is a word. Someone attentively reading your work should be able to point it out to you.

The following sentence is in reference to a heated debate in a First Nation council meeting.

It was this warrior's name that in the end quieted the descent. 

I believe that the last word should be dissent, a synonym  for disagreement. In context, "descent" makes very little sense here.

No one expects perfection. But these are four examples of a variety of errors within the first 30 pages. There are several others but they are similar in nature.

So all that being said...

• Do I regret buying this book? Hell, no. I love that Chapterhouse is using as many methods as possible to tell their stories. 
• Do I think Neil Dougherty is a terrible writer? Of course not. I can tell in only two chapters that there's a cool story building here. 
• Do I think Chapterhouse released an inferior product? Not really. There is no editor credited, however. I think it's more accurate to say that I think they skipped a step in the process. 

Here's what I do think; Spellcheck is NOT equivalent to an editor. Spellcheck can't tell when you mean "descent" and when you mean "dissent". I thought it would point out the missing apostrophe in "...when she read the senders name..." but perhaps not.

No matter how good this book turns out to be, it would have benefited from another set of eyes. If you're currently working on this type of project my suggestion, for what little it's worth, is to find that set of eyes prior to release. You're about to present yourself to the world, find someone willing and able to tell you when your fly's down. You don't want a number of small errors to distract from your wicked story.

True Patriot Present #2 Available On Wednesday!

Combining sales pitches from the Chapterhouse and True Patriot Facebook groups respectively below.

This Wednesday, be sure to grab True Patriot Presents #2 from our page on ComiXology featuring, Arrowhead, the beginning of a new Dominion Jack arc and an all new feature: Crude!

This digital first issue features the introduction of CRUDE by Fred Kennedy and Dave Bishop, the first of a three-part DOMINION JACK story by Jack Briglio and Dominic Bercier, plus the continued adventures of Arrowhead by Jay Stephens!

Love me some Dominion Jack so this will be a release-day purchase for me, with the hope that interest justifies a print collection.