Metaversal Translator

2009-10-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

BOOM! STUDIOS

ENTERS INTO DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

WITH HAVEN DISTRIBUTORS

Los Angeles, CA - October 5th, 2009- BOOM! Studios is pleased to announce a distribution agreement with Haven Distributors to distribute all second printings of their monthly comics to direct market retailers, this includes not only the core BOOM! Studios line, but also BOOM!’s line of Disney licensed comics published under the BOOM Kids! imprint.

“Retailers have been begging us to get our second prints into their stores at a faster pace for the past year,” said BOOM! Studios CEO Ross Richie. “We’re happy to be able to offer retailers another choice in getting an important part of our product line to their stores and into the hands of their customers.”

The addition of Haven Distributors adds to the growing list of distributors offering BOOM! Studios and BOOM Kids! publications. This past summer, BOOM! Studios announced mass market distribution deals with Simon and Schuster and HarperCollinsCanada, with Simon & Schuster distributing BOOM! Studios and BOOM Kids! line of graphic novels in the United States and HarperCollinsCanada distributing in Canada.

Previous to the addition of Simon & Schuster and HarperCollinsCanada, this past March BOOM! announced a newsstand distribution deal for their BOOM Kids! line through Kable Distribution Services, Inc., best known amongst comic book fans for distributing Archie Comics throughout North America in the United States and Canada.

The entire BOOM! Studios and BOOM Kids! line of publications are offered in the direct market by Diamond Comics Distributors.

Retailers needing more information on how to order from Haven Distributors can call 1-877-HAVEN-50 or sign up on their website here: http://www.havendistro.com/retailers.html

About BOOM! Studios
BOOM! Studios (www.boom-studios.com) is a unique publishing house specializing in high-profile projects across a wide variety of different genres from some of the industry’s biggest talents, including Philip K. Dick’s DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, The Henson Company’s FARSCAPE, and the original Mark Waid series IRREDEEMABLE. BOOM! recently launched its youth imprint, BOOM Kids!, with Pixar’s THE INCREDIBLES, CARS, and TOY STORY, as well as Disney’s THE MUPPETS. This year, BOOM! Studios celebrates its fourth anniversary.

About Haven Distributors
Haven Distributors (www.havendistro.com) was launched in 2008 with the mission of enabling independent comics to succeed in an ever-changing market place. They provide a wide array of comics and related merchandise at competitive discounts with low minimum orders to direct market retailers. They strive to treat both their customers and suppliers as business partners, providing a range of order fulfillment services from wholesale distribution to web store management.

Disney Buys Marvel for $4 Billion

2009-08-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm hardly breaking the story here. The newscaster this morning rattled it off like a footnote but it still jumped out at me and made me scream "What?" out loud at the radio.

The reactions on Twitter have been funny. Punisher's emblem will change to a flower. "This Man, This Muppet". Mickey Mouse telling Bendis that Ultimate Avengers need to be a lot nicer.

I'm more curious about what this will do to the BOOM! license with Disney. And I'm morbidly curious what will the new mascots be at Universal Studios, right down the road there from Disney World.

2009-07-04T10:55:00.001-07:00

I'm proud to announce our first Haven Exclusive Variant. Check out Sullengrey Sacrifice #1 by Ape Entertainment.

Moving along

2008-09-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. We haven't had a lot of really groundbreaking news since our opening simply because we've been getting our feet under us, so to speak. I've said many times that I wanted to have a solid foundation under us before we tried to expand too far. The last thing I wanted to was to come out with lots of noise and promises that we couldn't deliver.

This month we have quite a broader range of titles for you to choose from. And we've beefed up our Heavy Metal selection quite a bit due to crazy demand. The biggest news has all been internal stuff, though... the big move to a new warehouse, the new computer.

Once we're settled into the new Skokie warehouse and the database upgrade is complete, we'll have far more interesting announcements for our customers. Sit tight and thanks for staying with us.

2008-03-04T15:50:00.001-08:00

RIP Gary Gygax

2008-03-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

An icon passed away this morning. Just about anyone who's picked up a 20-sider was influenced by him, even if they didn't know him by name. He was the creator and founder of Dungeons and Dragons, making him essentially the father of role playing games.

It was thanks to the vision of Ernest Gary Gygax that a whole generation of us off-the-mainstream kids found an outlet for our creativity growing up. He was 69 years old.

Cold Cut Under New Management

2008-02-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2008
Chicago, IL
Contact: comics @ coldcut.com
1-866-4-COLD-CUT

As you read this, thousands of comics are being packed up and shipped from their old home in Salinas, CA to their new home in Chicago, IL.

Cold Cut Distribution, the leading distributor of independent and small to mid-size press comics in the United States, has sold their company assets to Rogue Wolf Entertainment.

Retailers can still access the online ordering system at www.Coldcut.com, but be advised that Cold Cut will not be able to fulfill new orders while the inventory is still being moved and set up in the new warehouse.

“We expect to be back up to full speed by the end of February,” said Lance Stahlberg, Vice President of Rogue Wolf. “We’ve already begun to reach out to customers and publishers, making sure inventory gaps are kept to a minimum as we rebuild.”

“I’d been looking for someone who could take the company the next level, and Lance and his team are exactly the right people for the job,” said Cold Cut's owner, Mark Thompson. “Having Cold Cut located in Chicago will cut shipping times and costs for most of our customers and suppliers, and makes more sense for the entire industry.”

The new owners will continue to offer the same flat discount rate to retailers, and will seek to extend the same terms to all new accounts with previous Cold Cut customers.

“As a team, we bring twenty-four years experience in the distribution business combined with a first-hand understanding of the needs of independent publishers to the table,” Lance added. “We have the resources to take this company to new heights.”

Keep an eye out for more information in the coming weeks!

ABOUT COLD CUT DISTRIBUTION –
www.ColdCut.com

Cold Cut is the industry's leading reorder distributor for quality independent comics, serving retailers across the country and internationally since 1994. They have consistently lead the way in supporting and promoting independent comics in an ever-changing market place.

ABOUT ROGUE WOLF ENTERTAINMENT –
www.Rogue-Wolf.net

Rogue Wolf Entertainment, Inc was founded in 2006 with the idea of creating comics for comic fans. They currently produce three web-comic titles. With this new addition to their corporate portfolio, their focus will be on helping their fellow creators and valued supporters succeed and hopefully improve the comics industry as a whole in the process.

Rogue Wolf in comics news

2008-01-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

Though we somehow missed it, back in November, Sean Taylor did an interview with The Pulse's Jen Contino about his career... and about his new work on our series, The Veil.

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=006827;p=1

And more recently, Jazma Online did an interview with Danika about the founding and future of our company.

http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews2008.asp?intID=12

Both are great reads. Looking forward to seeing more coverage.

Ring in the New Year with Rogue Wolf webcomics

2007-12-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

For Immediate Release
FREE WEBCOMIC SUBSCRIPTIONS FROM ROGUE WOLF ENTERTAINMENT FOR ONE YEAR

Chicago, IL – December 28, 2007 –

Bored of what you’re seeing at the comic shops? Too cold to venture out to get comics? Want to start the New Year reading something great?! Not to fear!

Feeling very giving this season are the good folks at Rogue Wolf Entertainment with a limited time FREE webcomics subscription! Visit www.rogue-wolf.net and sign up for the newsletter and receive a free one-year subscription to all Rogue Wolf webcomics through the first week of January 2008.

This is an exciting time for us. With new creative teams ready to roll, we’re looking forward to a fantastic new year and we want to share it with our fans. The new art posted each week is just a teaser. The real fun is behind the curtain the subscriber’s pages: full color pages, bonus stories, and downloadable issues.

Just click on "Mailing List" at http://www.rogue-wolf.net/

Titles currently include...

NOCTURNAL ESSENCE - Urban action adventure meets supernatural noir set a Gothic soundtrack. Written by Lance Stahlberg and Danika Kenn. Past issues included the art of Nicola Scott and Rudolf Montemayor. New issues will be drawn by Terry Pavlet with Mike Devine staying on for grayscales.

REDSHIFT - A high octane space opera, following the converging lives of four unlikely heroes. Also written by Lance Stahlberg and Danika Kenn. The current issues are drawn by Sergio Martinez. New issues have Rudy Vasquez on art and Scott Story on colors

THE VEIL - Classic horror meets a spy thriller in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting. As first seen in Shooting Star Comics Anthology. This one is written by Sean Taylor, with new art by fan favorite Mariano de la Torre and colors by Ross Hughes.

Rogue Wolf prides themselves in giving readers something different - not something "shocking", "edgy", or "hip" ... but something genuinely new.

Way of the Peaceful Warrior

2007-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

I'm generally a sucker for inspirational movies. Some are angsty and self-important. "Pay It Forward" was 2 hours of my life that I'd really like back. Others stand above the crowd. "Pursuit of Happiness" is a movie anyone who has ever had dreams and struggled -needs- to see.

Yesterday I was in kind of a funk. So I looked to see what Blockbuster had sent me in the mail that week. It was "Perfume: Story of a Murderer" (heh ... no) or "Peaceful Warrior".

I kind of cringed. I was hesitant to put it in my rental queue because the trailer made it look like kind of predictable and shiney-happy. But I figured what the hell. I like Nick Nolte.

The trailer lied. It was obviously put together by Hollywood-ified producers who didn't -get- the movie at all.

See it. It's adapted from a 20 year old semi-autobiographical parable "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman. The book has the tagline "A book that changes lives." And it probably does. Though I could imagine a lot of people might miss the point, too.

The philosphy of this story is DEEP. It's about how to live in the present, focusing on your dreams without hanging everything on a future you can't control, "taking out the trash" in your head, and experiencing every moment to its fullest. I was hearing a lot of the things that I've said myself in the past, but keep forgetting.

I just ordered two of this guy's books. Going by the sample pages on Amazon, his prose is kind of rough, so I got his more recent anecdotal collections.

Totally off topic, but I also included book 2 of the Dresden Files in the order. Jim Butcher rocks.

Oh yeah, I have a blog

2007-09-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

As much as I used to like spending ungodly hours on forums, you'd think I'd be a blogging machine. But I was never one to keep a journal as a kid, so this whole concept is still kind of new to me. Not to mention, I just don't have the time to sit around and pontificate anymore.

But... I do have these comics. And I am reminded every now and again that I do have fans -- or at least people who keep up with my work. That's another concept that's kind of new to me.

To complicate the problem further, all of the stuff that we have going on at Rogue Wolf needs to stay behind the scenes. No sense in letting out news on something that could still change or fall through. We've had enough of that to last a lifetime.

But fear not. Stuff IS happening. Check out the site for a glimpse of what we got goin on. We've got new creative teams, a new book, and... well maybe some other stuff. We hope. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Pre-Convention Season Hysteria

2007-06-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly and painfully trying to get into comic book industry for the better part of a decade. This is not a journey for the faint of heart ... which I normally am. But this is something that I clearly WANT out of life. If I haven't proven that after all the crap I've gone through to get only this far, I have no idea what will.

For the five years that I have been working cons from the business side of the table, the arrival of a new convention date has been a portent of sleepless nights and aggravation.

The first time around it came in the form of the pain of designing a PVC pipe backdrop with next to zero clue about such things. That was actually minor compared to dealing with the personality conflicts that existed in that first co-op I was in. But I would gladly trade that hassle for the panic that sets in when you are informed that your printer has bumped your job back for the umpteenth time and may or may not ship your book on time for the convention... which has happened to me not once, not twice, but three times over the course of five cons.

This year is no exception to the strain on my mental health, even despite having much more reliable printers.

I've been scrambling to get pages from multiple sources together as they've been trickling in. In my original vision, Rogue Wolf was going to have six issues of Nocturnal Essence and four issues of Redshift. After all the fallout from alleged professionals who don't understand the concept of deadlines, we'll end up with four issues of the former and only ONE of the latter.

But the good news is, we'll have gorgeous promotional art and a booth that will kick more ass than I would have dreamed in the days before we had an investor willing to actually, you know, invest. It will stand out without being too flashy. The biggest difference between this con season and summers past will be that the payoff will be much more worth the effort.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

I just wanted to take the time to thank the people who put in the extra effort to make what we WILL have for the con possible. This is my formal, heartfelt shout out to the talented and professional creators who stepped up as if to balance the universe and get us to the dance.

Thank you Brant Fowler, Ethan Colchamiro, Rudolf Montemayor, Matt Haley, and Rudy Vasquez. You guys rock.

Requiem for TV shows too young to die

2007-04-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

Before I get into this, I should mention the new release schedule for Rogue Wolf comics. I looked at the stats and, for the most part, y'all are only checking the site once a week anyway. So we're changing our page updates accordingly. Nocturnal Essence is Monday, Redshift is Wednesday.

So... Guh. Fox.com is spinning the cancellation of Drive like a special event. "Last two episodes this summer". Wh... wha? And then the other day I hear that Dresden Files may not get renewed.

I don't get it. Every show that I really like either disappears before it deserves or gets killed out of the starting gate. I am so out of touch with mainstream audiences.

The phenomenon actually started before I was born. I used to love the syndicated reruns of the old campy Batman show when I was a kid. But then this one episode made me jump up and take notice. That's Bruce Lee kickin' Robin's ass! And this dude in the trenchcoat is freakin cool. Who are these guys?

I eventually came across episodes of The Green Hornet years later and was totally hooked. Only to find out it lasted all of one season. -_- It was decades ahead of its time in its realistic portrayal of superheroes with next to zero camp. It didn't have a prayer.

In the 80's I used to be a fan of Spenser: For Hire, but I didn't watch it for Robert Urich's character. I watched it for his ultra cool "sidekick" who was worlds more interesting than Spenser himself. Avery Brooks played this eloquent, slick as ice, disarmingly soft spoken, stone cold badass who packed a .44 automag and went simply by the name Hawk.

ABC made a mid-season replacement spinoff, A Man Called Hawk. This show was brilliant by detective show standards. We learn that Hawk has this crazy spiritual side. The story took us the east side of Washington DC, a much gritier part of the world than we were used to seeing in these shows. I watched it faithfully.

But in 1989, mainstream America wasn't ready for this strong and stereotype shattering of a black leading character. It lasted its 13 episode to finish the season, but didn't get renewed.

The pattern died down when network television turned out a decade of garbage on prime time. But now that the networks are getting a little more experimental, the trend has returned.

Farscape, axed without warning. John Doe, one season. Over There, half a season. Blade, one season. Day Break, not even half a season. Painkiller Jane, scrapped after the pilot and rewritten into something unwatchable. Dresden Files, may not get renewed. Drive, two freakin episodes!

And yet CHARMED ran for EIGHT! fucking! years!

Alright, technically not "all" my favorite shows die early deaths. Angel had a good five year run. Babylon 5 squeezed out an extra season it probably shouldn't have. Alias got to finish its story before it ended. I'm pretty sure '24' is going to get a day seven.

Still... It is almost a mystery how shows like Lost and Heroes manage to survive. Knock on wood.

Joe... Jimmy... I'm so sorry

2007-04-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I praised the Sci-Fi original movie Painkiller Jane. By Sci-Fi standards especially, it was awesome. I went in with trepidation, I kept waiting for it to suck like so many other superhero concepts put on TV, but I was amazed that it was... good. You had a solid character, good acting, a tight story, entertaining action, and a great set up for a new series. And it was especially cool to see a comic book concept be given such great treatment on TV.

So I was stoked when I heard about the PKJ series. I wasn't sure about the cast change, since I liked the original Jane. But Kristanna Lokken is not a bad actress, not to mention my latest crush. I really thought it was just a change to get a more recognizable name in the credits.

Then the commercials aired. I find out that they are rewriting her origin. Why? The setup was already perfect. That was my first red flag, but I remained optimistic because surely it would at least stick with the spirit of the movie.

Ooooooooohhhh Lord was I wrong. If you were curious about this show, don't waste any more brain cells on it. It's not worth it. It was bad. It was 'Elektra' bad. It was 'Nick Fury' bad. ... It was 'Mantis' bad.

Lokken delivers this stilted voiceover that puts you to sleep. She acts more robotic as this "tough as nails" cop than she did in Terminator 3. And the dialogue. Oh good God the dialogue.

The very first line of the show is a voiceover: "Dad always called me his painkiller Jane"

WHY would he do that!? That sounds almost creepy. What kind of demented family did you come from? Not to mention it's beyond lame to force the name of the character into their backstory like that. ... Like in Punisher. -_-

I'd say it was Punisher bad, but Punisher was better.

But that was just the opening line right? I mean not everyone can do good voiceovers. Just ask Harrison Ford. But the dialogue never got better. I've never heard so many terrible and utterly nonsensical one liners in my life. Steven Segal would be confused by what was coming out of these people's mouths.

My friend Dani's tolerence gave out sooner than mine did, but I had to go and make the mistake of watching more to say I gave it an honest chance.

Okay I want to stop ranting, but I can't. Here's the plot, in case you think I'm being too harsh.

This group of mutant hunters recruits DEA agent Jane Vasco into their group not because she's a mutant herself. No, they didn't even know she was. They shanghai'd her into their outfit apparantly because they thought she was that much of a badass. And I mean shanghai'd. They serisouly wanted her in their ranks, to the extent of destroying her career so she'd have no choice.

She's the same elite agent who at the opening of the show tried to arrest some drug dealers by drawing her gun in a crowded dance club, btw. -_-

But anyway, she joins the cliche collection of rogue good guys and is sent on her first mission. And fails it utterly when she is thrown out a window by her mind controlled partner, falling 46 stories to her alleged death.

THAT's how they find out she's got powers. But she doesn't want to join. She just wants to go home. So what do they do? They go and recruit her former partner from the DEA to join... in another ploy to get her to stay!

But wait, it gets better. They send their new recruit into the enemy den to catch the bad guy using the exact same method they tried with Jane... The one that got her thrown out of the window, disguising her as a new mail girl just hired by the company. How many mailroom clerks has this company gone through, one wonders.

They realize who the mind controller must be, but it's too late. Jane's old partner is under control and is about to kill herself. The team of expert mutant hunters tries to break the mind control by reminding her who she is and why she's there over an open radio channel where they know the bad guys are listening.

Jane gives the team leader an earnest look. He hands her the radio. She starts pleading with her friend to focus...

And I turned it off.

The worst episodes of Birds of Prey were better than this crap.

Okay no they weren't, but it was still garbage.

I want that forty-five minutes of my life back. I want the forty-five minutes I took to write this blog back. Sci Fi owes me an hour and a half dammit. Why are they only capable of airing ONE good show at any given time??

I have a pretty good hunch that the reason the original movie was so good was because Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti's names were in the credits. The actual creators of the character were involved in the creative direction, or at least the production. Concept.

I did not notice their names in the credits this time around. My guess is they just sold the rights and walked away with their check. I'm not saying I blame them. I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing in their shoes.

But is still sucks for consumers of this brand of entertainment. It's another example of what happens when networks who have no love for the source material take over something good.

Still chugging along

2007-04-04T03:36:00.000-07:00

This is a test to see if any of my old coworkers are still following my blog or comics...

TIM!! You said something about Painkiller Jane comics?

So anyway, this has been a rather insane month. I got a new third shift job at a big trading firm downtown. So far (read: under the current management) this place rocks. There's a lot of corporate nonsense, as there is with any big company, but overall the expectations are reasonable and we're treated like adults.

And while I have my old coworkers' attention, it's worth pointing out that my unemployment lasted two weeks. I'm making more as a contractor than I did before as a full time employee with the shift differential. I had three interviews out of being presented for five jobs and ultimately had to choose between two of them. Take that anecdotal evidence about the state of the job market in Chicagoland however you like.

So beyond changing jobs, I find myself single again. This prompted me to finally cave in and create a MySpace in an attempt to be more social. It turns out that setting it up started my education in CSS code. Another thing I'm doing with my severance package is taking courses on web design. ^_^

But you'd rather know what's going on with our comic books, I'm sure.

I finished a script for a short story that will wrap up the first TPB of Nocturnal Essence. I'm almost done with the final chapter of book one of Redshift. I hired an editor, Kris Simon to help polish said scripts and streamline production, convinced Brant Fowler to be our letterer and pre-press guy for both titles, and put Rudy Vasquez and (...drum roll...) Matt Haley to work on some pin-ups for San Diego.

Here's the first one from Rudy...

Oooohh. Ahhhhh. Purdy.

Movie Omnibus

2007-03-26T01:47:00.000-07:00

Daredevil and Elektra are fairly universally tied for the benchmark as the worst of the modern superhero movies. For some it's debateable which one was worse, but generally one or the other gets named.

Last week we saw Ghost Rider. It was better than Daredevil.

Okay seriously, though... it was alright. Not great by any stretch. Didn't totally suck. Nick Cage did a pretty good job, but lost me in his final scene where he's supposedly standing up to Mephisto. It was worth the price of admission just to see the bike in action. Kind of like Hulk was still worth seeing if only for the chase across the desert, but not much else.

...

300 is one of the few movies I've seen that lives up to the hype. Anyone who goes looking for historical accuracy needs to get a clue. Like Sin City, this movie was not just inspired by the comic, it was practically lifted panel to frame from the comic. This was a powerful story with great performances and gorgeous battle sequences.

...

If you are the kind of reader who appreciates the narrator of Nocturnal Essence, with all that introspection on fate and the human experience, check out Stranger Than Fiction. It's a quirky Will Farrell comedy with a great hook. This disturbingly normal guy stuck in a mundane existance starts hearing the voice of the author narrating his life. It's an inspirational story with an unusual formula.

...

Speaking of avoiding the usual forumla... Harsh Times with Christian Bale is a very cool crime thriller worth seeing. At it's core, it's kind of a modernization of the Deer Hunter. Combat veteran with PTSD has trouble fitting into society. Throughout the whole thing you think you have a pretty good idea how it's going to end and what the moral is. You're wrong.

...

On the opposite side of the dramatic spectrum, TMNT was a great, fun ride. It's a fantastic blend of the comic and the old cartoon. All of the interplay between the Turtles is as you remember it. But it had the level of action and feel reminiscent of the original comic. The obligatory Leo vs Raphael fight was awesome. Over-sensitive critics unintentionally gave this a ringing endorsement by saying it was too violent for kids. It seemed like the kids who saw it in our theater loved it, but I'm pretty sure they left with their innocnse in tact. Sidenote: Those kids were the most well behaved kids we've ever shared a theater with. Not used to that.

...

Okay this isn't a movie, but I need to rant. We need a new rule for Smallville. No more wrestlers. Both times now, the fight between Clark and the wrestler have been the highlight of the show... but the rest of the episode stank on ice. In this last one, it was like Vince got involved in the production. The level of T&A was almost absurd, and for some reason the soundtrack was turned up to the point it was distracting. And don't get me started on the nonsensical plot points. It's so aggravating when the first half of this season was so good, too.

Life after work

2007-03-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Total non-sequitor... My mom started watching and likes Smallville. That wierds me out beyond words.

Being unemployed has turned out to be a bigger drain on my comic book time than ever before. I have two short stories to write and two feature scripts to finish and we still don't have a subscriber section to speak of. I thought I'd be able to hammer those out in a week, but I haven't even gotten started. My apartment is slightly less of a disaster at least.

Inter-Fan Jam was fun. We met some interesting people. It was good to finally meet Lance "Doc" Boucher. His table provided entertainment in the waning hours of the con. Potentially the best part was meeting a new artist from Chicago named Moe Nasar. We hope to be showcasing his talent through Rogue Wolf. If I can get the damn short story written for him.

Well I'm off to my first of two job interviews today. Dusting off my Unix and Perl manuals and trying to brush up on them enough so I don't sound like an idiot killed another day's worth of writing time. Hope it was worth it. Wish me luck.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right

2007-03-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

A lot of people think it's unfair when a conservative pundit goes so far as to say that liberals hate America. Now I have good friends on all three sides of the political spectrum, so I agree. As a blanket statement, it is very unfair.

But the creators and editors at Marvel Comics made it a lot harder to deny the accusation after the way they killed Captain America.

Just wrap your mind around that.

They killed -- correction -- murdered! Captain! America!

Steve Rogers didn't die in a valiant battle to protect an innocent or defeat an evil enemy of his country. Oh no. His reward for giving up and surrendering his country to fascism was to be murdered in cold blood by a sniper. Just what are Brubaker and his editors trying to say?

Don't get me wrong. I am taking this for what it is. It's a publicity stunt just like the Death of Superman. Let's be honest. Sales of Captain America haven't exactly been burning up the chart. I'm not so much angered by the stunt as I am in the manner in which the once great House of Ideas is implementing it.

IMHO, this is no less than ripping the soul right out of the Marvel universe. Or I should say, what little soul it had left.

It turns out, I only knew the half of it

2007-03-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

So... it wasn't just a chapter of my life that ended this weekend. It was a whole book. Part II of the trilogy of my story (maybe it'll be a quintet, who knows) has come to a close with a doozy of a cliffhanger.

New page update for Nocturnal Essence just went up. Issue 3 wraps up next week.

On to the next chapter

2007-03-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

Like Rush Limbaugh when the Republicans lost the House in '06... I feel liberated.

Actually I've felt liberated since I first got the news that my job was being eliminated two months ago. But as of two hours ago, it's official. I'm unemployed.

Is that a bad thing? Hell no. The way my supervisor had to collect my keyfobs and my badge, walk me to the door and send me off, the scene looked and felt like an ex convict finally leaving the state pen. The irony was perfect.

Then in the car, the first song to queue up off the CD was Gotta Knock a Little Harder from the Cowboy Bebop OST, which was oddly fitting to how I was feeling on the drive home.

I feel liberated. I no longer have to pretend to care about a job as a phone monkey.

Maybe that's what I'll end up being again in my next job, but for awhile I get a break.

A break from jumping to the beck and call of a chime in my ear like a trained zoo animal and putting on my "smiling voice",

... from having to help the very people who are stealing my job on the sole merit of being cheap labor,

... from having my ethics, my integrity, and my intelligence questioned daily.

... from being shackled by moronic and useless procedures that are designed to discourage initiative, while at the same time being held to unrealistic standards -- that ultimately mean nothing -- that are held as sacred by people who haven't a clue of the realty of my job and couldn't care less,

... from being treated like the lowest common denominator no matter how often I prove my ability or how obediently I do my job,

... and from hearing lies like "This is your chance", "Your feedback matters", and my favorite "We care."

Is it any wonder why the villains in my comics are heads of corporations?

And now back to our irregularly scheduled comic

2007-02-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a bit of a computer crisis. The power supply and an as of yet to be determined component on the motherboard of Dani's computer went out on me again. I've got issues with this whole dusting concept. But hey it was time to upgrade anyway.

So the downtime is over and both computers are up and running again, so life can return to normal. Nocturnal Essence gets updated in one hour, same time as Redshift.

Nothing else major to report this week. I had a job interview today that I -think- went okay. Who can ever really tell with these things?

Oh... I heard about the ending to Marvel's Civil War. Captain America -- the biggest hero of World War II -- breaks down into tears and surrenders the country to FACISM. It's a sad day for comic fans. I hope and pray for the day when the next generation of writers takes that company back. Why are the only big names who understand the superhero genre working for DC?

A few entertainment picks

2007-02-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

I've recently discovered an author by the name of Kim Harrison. I picked up her first book, "Dead Witch Walking", a couple weeks ago because I figured it's always a good idea to keep up on what other writers are doing in the genre you want to work in. It's a detective story with a supernatural twist. The book was so fun I turned around and picked up book two in the series, "The Good, The Bad, and The Undead" as soon as I finished. Literally.

The story is about a witch named Rachel Morgan, an Anita Blake type but not quite as "badass". It's set in a very cool original world where humans and "Inderlanders" (vampire, were creatures, pixies, fairies, leprechauns, and different types of magic wielders) coexist in society openly, more or less.

If you like Nocturnal Essence, I've got hunch this will be right up your alley. I might even send the author a copy of our first trade when it comes out.

http://www.kimharrison.net/

Another remarkably similar book series came out around the same time called "The Dresden Files". It is also a supernatural detective series starring a witch set in the modern day, but it's a bit grittier and is set in a more realistic world. Chicago, actually.

Now I confess I never read these books. I found out about it by way of the new Sci Fi series of the same name. I've been watching it every week since its debut. Great stuff.

http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/
http://www.scifi.com/dresden/

And finally, I'll be anxiously awaiting the first season of Painkiller Jane. Sci Fi picked up the pilot. This latest incarnation of the brainchild of Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti is an ex special forces soldier who survived a very "Team 7" like super soldier experiment by some kind of rogue government agency. She has super regenerative abilities and heightened senses, including a kind of computer scanner eyesight.

They recast the lead roll. I'm not sure if this is good or bad yet, but Jane will be played by Kristianna Loken (BLOODRAYNE, TERMINATOR 3). She's blazin' hot and a good enough actress. Bloodrayne was the victim of a bad director. She made it watchable. With that resume, she can definitely handle action scenes. But I hope this doesn't mean they've made radical changes from the pilot.

The pilot/movie was surprisingly good for a Sci Fi Original. I watched it out of morbid curiosity, waiting for it to suck. But it never did. In fact it was actually really good, at good as other shows of its kind at least. If it sticks to what made the movie work, the series should be worth the Tivo space. We'll see.

http://www.scifi.com/painkillerjane/

Gave BSG another shot... meh

2007-02-19T06:26:00.000-08:00

So a few months back I caved into peer pressure and finally made myself watch the new Sci-Fi rendition of Battlestar Galactica. I watched the recap and started watching with the premier of season 3.

I had very little nice to say about it, and stopped recording it after four episodes But I was then told by a few different sources that season three started off bad, and was not indicative of the rest of the show. So I tried again and rented the pilot.

Sorry. It's still a weak show. It's better than a lot of trash, but there is nothing exciting that makes me look forward to the next episode here.

Now I have learned to acknowledge that all entertainment is subjective. I live in a world where Firefly fans are legion, people actually consider Stargate SG-1 to be quality entertainment, and some philistines say with a straight face that the Star Wars prequels were well written. I acknowledge it, but fail to understand it.

The look of the series is gorgeous. I love the technology, not too flashy and just futuristic enough to be science fiction. The series portrays a very realistic vision of human life in space. The ship's mechanics are just as vital to the cast as anyone else, not just thrown in for background color. Touches like that ground the series in a way that makes me relate to it more than Star Trek normally can.

But the tone of the show creates a cynical, dare I say ugly, view of human existence. Adama's "We bought this on ourselves" speech seems to reflect a common theme in the show. Much of the drama loses its impact because its mired in so much moral ambiguity. The only time I really cheered was when Starbuck stood up to the X.O. of the ship at the end. I was relieved to know that we were NOT supposed to like this inept jackass, and yet confused as to why he was respected by anyone at all in the first place.

Speaking of losing impact... the space battles are ridiculously boring. They look pretty and realistic, but there's nothing to engage you in the scene. Maybe a friend of mine was right. Maybe I was spoiled by Lucas. Maybe I shouldn't expect all space battles to be exciting and fast paced. But then again maybe that's not so much to ask from a space BATTLE scene.

Oh, and this version of Baltar is just the sorriest excuse for a "villain" in cinematic history. He's too pathetic to boo, but too spineless and selfish to feel sorry for.

I took the rest of the series out of my rental queue. One guy told me that the pilot sucked and that the weekly series itself was better. But I have my doubts that these thematic elements that make the story so hard to enjoy only appeared in the pilot and the beginning of season 3.

Speaking of bad directors

2007-02-13T16:25:00.000-08:00

So, get a load of this... At the ICG Publicists' annual awards dinner, George Lucas presented the lifetime achievement award to Sid Ganis, who had been the in-house publicist for Empire Strikes Back. In his presentation he attempts to make quip...

"It's testament to his skills that ('The Empire Strikes Back') is considered the best 'Star Wars' film, even though it was the worst"

Now... Anyone who's watched the extras on the Star Wars videos knows that the man is so deadpan that he can't deliver a joke to save his life. Couple this with comments that he's made in the past, and one can't help but wonder if he was really joking. A lot of fans lit off on him over this comment because, considering the source, it had a ring of sincerity to it. Way to go, George. Good show.

...

I just finished the first season of Smallville on DVD. The first thing that struck me was that I had been watching this show longer than I thought. I thought I had jumped in during season 3, but I guess it was 2. It's also striking how different the viewing experience is, watching everything in a week opposed to over several months. So many things that an audience considers to be dragging on and on really isn't when you can see the big picture.

A funny aside... A few weeks back I ripped on Kristen Kreuk for screwing up a line. In a scene where this lab was collapsing all around Lana and Lex, she screams "Watch out Mike!" It was so noisy that Mike Rosenbaum the actor must not have caught it either. Apparently neither did the director.

It turns out Tom Welling did the same thing in season 1. At one point Lex asks Clark "Are you alright", to which he response "Yeah Mike I'm fine." How does this stuff not get caught? You'd think that would be material for the blooper reel. Okay maybe not so funny, but I got a kick out of it.

I gotta give Kristen a break, though. Last week she worked sick. I wondered if the writers decided to make it winter in Kansas to explain off why Lana's voice was so hoarse through the episode.

Trying to take notes from Job

2007-02-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

Any person of faith will inevitably go through a time when that faith is challenged, often to the point where they are forced to question it. I've had more of those moments than I'm proud to admit.

The book of Job from the Old Testament was about a man on top of the world. He had everything he could ever want; health, riches, a beautiful family. And he watched it all go up in smoke for reasons he could never understand much less control. The point of the story was to show us how a man's soul can survive any amount of hardship so long as he has faith.

Ever since I made the decision to leave consulting and go into tech support, that side of my life has just been one disaster after another. I've been laid off twice, bounced between contracts, somehow managed to survive 18 months unemployment, and now I'm about to be on severance again in three weeks. I don't want to believe that life is a zero sum game, but for most of the last six years, it feels like I've just been trying to recoup my losses.

Now I was never as prosperous as Job, and I haven't fallen as low or faced nearly as much as he did, so I am keeping this in perspective. I know I'm only getting a tiny taste of what he must have felt. And one clear difference between us is my downhill road began with a decision that was firmly my own. I acknowledge all of that.

It's just that when you think you're doing everything right, doing the things that you think God wants you to do for what you think are the right reasons, but you can't seem to scrape out more than a mundane existance despite your best intentions and efforts, it's hard to turn down the RSVP to the pity party.

Just as clearly as I've recognzied the things that have kept me from getting ahead as being beyond my control, I've recognized those things that have kept me from hitting bottom, too. I've always had my own place to live, and Danika has stayed through more storms than anyone has a right to. In the big picture, that's all that really matters.

Every time I'm afraid the bottom is about to drop out, God does two things. He catches me. And he reminds me of why I chose this path.

Nocturnal Essence and Redshift have hit a scheduling speed bump, but it won't last past March. Both books are scripted at least an issue ahead and our talented pool of creators is still working. Some are just recovering from bumps of their own.

In July, Rogue Wolf is going to be at the San Diego Comic-Con. We will have great artwork adorning our booth and we'll have new books to sell. No "I hope" qualifier in there. We will. That's a hell of a lot more than I could say last year (or the two years before that).

My comics career looks like it might finally be coming out of its forty months in the wilderness. I doubt you'll be seeing me on the cover of Wizard any time soon, but if you follow the indie press market at all, you will be hearing our name come up a lot more in the near future.

Comics on TV

2007-01-26T01:05:00.000-08:00

So I can't talk too much about Smallville in detail, because Dani hasn't watched "Justice" yet, but I know she wants to. I've been screening episodes for her because she still hasn't forgiven me for letting her watch the one with Batista and the Scooby Gang vs Static Man.

But Lois is back. Big bonus. Lana's not in it at all. Even bigger bonus. Though Lana was ten times less obnoxious in the episode two weeks ago than she has been previously this season, even with the Dawson's Creek-like plotlines being that were tied up that show.

As for the "Justice League", I hope the episode tested well, because I'd love to see this spinoff. I like the way all the characters were translated to the Smallville universe, even A.C. the surfer dude. Well... after having seen the little trailer for the Green Arrow "wireless show", I'm kind of disappointed. He'd always seemed a little too much like Batman with a bow, but the revised origin story sinches it. At least it's a really kick ass bow.

And Heroes is back! We actually cancelled the Tivo's season pass to RAW because wrestling has been that weak lately, and we don't want to wait for the Friday reruns on Sci-Fi.

This series is easily the best new thing to hit television this year. Like the movie Unbreakable, it's a brilliant way to package a superhero story for a mainstream audience without losing the best elements of the genre. It's a great touch the way each episode's title is shown like the opening page of a comic and the season is broken into chapters like trade paperbacks.

I saw on Dixonverse that Hayden Panettiere, the 17 year old actress who plays Claire, is going to be at FX in Orlando. I wonder if this is her first con, or if she's been sufficiently braced for what she's about to experience. My heart goes out to the poor girl when she sees a 300 lb middle aged man in a cheerleader outfit.

There's a lot that I want to talk about, regarding why I'm still going over a week between updates. But I can't, really. Suffice to say I'm about to have a change in employment, or at least my employment status, depending on how things go the next few weeks.

We're going to be at the Inter-Fan Jam in Portage Indiana on March 10th. God willing, we'll have new stuff to sell. True to form, we face a crisis with every new convention. So it goes.

My Tivo has stuff to do again!

2007-01-15T02:55:00.000-08:00

Something unprecedented happened last week. Dani blogged TWICE since my last update. We'll see if that happens again now that she's back in school.

As it turned out, I was staring at the posting screen last night trying to come up with something witty to say. I had nothin. I don't want to use this as a soapbox or get political. I hadn't been to the comic shop in awhile. I got Final Fantasy XII, but I'm only like 3 hours into it. Woohoo. It looks cool so far. Uhm... yeah.

Did you really want to read about the doldrums of my job and business as usual with webcomic updates? Me either. But I finally found some stuff to talk about. Go me.

From Dani's blog, I found out that I have more experience with raising kids than she does. I haven't changed a diaper, but I've held babies and bottle fed my cousin Sydney when she was just a few months old. Not a resume to be a nanny, but it counts right? The role reversals in our relationship are scary sometimes. No fear of getting my guy card revoked here. It's been on suspension for years.

I finally saw Phone Booth, one of the movies we skipped because we were sick of the Colin Farrell overdose that summer.

It was much better than I thought it would be. Farrell and Forrest Whitaker (my favorite underrated actor) gave great performances. The camera work and "inset panels" did a great job of keeping the audience engaged even though the tension was centered on a stationary spot. It's hard to believe it was directed by the same guy who killed the Batman franchise.

Part of why I was inspired to watch this movie finally was to get warmed up for Kiefer's return in 24 (His part in Phone Booth rocked, btw).

We watched the season premier tonight. In the opening ten minutes, we're caught up on who the new players are, where the old players have gone and how they've changed, and thrown head first into the action.

The creators have not lost their touch one bit. The storytelling is brilliant and the pace is insane. It continues to deliver eye bugging "Holy$&*# they did not just do that!" moments without being contrived. Jack Bauer is still superhuman and everything in L.A. is still located within 2 and a half minutes of everything else, but hey... the plot moves so fast and furious you don't really have time to quibble.

Turkey subplot of the series warning; whatever is going to revolve around the third Palmer sibling, Sandra. I don't know if she's supposed to be the conscience of the show or the unsympathetic whiner who just doesn't get it. Either way, she's already been the catalyst for left field drama (that I am sure will come back to haunt us by mid-day). Expect her to be the obligatory civilian who screws something else up for CTU.

That's it. No more or I'll spoil one of the other 99 good moments.

Next week... Smallville

Hooah

2006-12-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

I came across this gem of an announcement... "Military Vets form entertainment production company". The name alone has me looking forward to it: Charlie Foxtrot Entertainment. And their tag line: By Soldiers, About Soldiers, For Soldiers.

War comics are back! Sign me up.

...

When you get a chance, take the quiz... What kind of superhero or supervillain are you? My results owned.

You are Green Lantern - Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.
You are Dr. Doom - Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Both are true. I admit it.

... >.>

What?

... In Rogue-Wolf News ...
New pages return with the New Year. In the very near future we will be replacing Redshift's pencilled line art with grayscales. Hopefully I'll be inspired to do the cast bio pages. Aaaannd we have enough finished work on Nocturnal Essence to start production on our first printed book!

We've made what I hope is our final format decision for the books. Montlies just aren't cost effective (as in impossible to afford) for a small press that hires out their talent. But I don't want to make people wait over six months between trade paperbacks. So we're going to split the difference. Every four months (God willing), we're going to release a paperback collecting four chapters of each series. So it won't technically be a TPB because they won't be reprints. It's a spin on the way mangas are produced.

Press releases to follow. In the meantime, keep reading. And don't forget to vote!

Can I pay myself workman's comp?

2006-12-22T19:53:00.000-08:00

First a format change... I'm putting the fun off-topic stuff up top from now on, instead of at the bottom. Figure that improves the odds of people actually reading these. ;)

So...

Attention Hong Kong action cinema fans!! Proceed immediately to your video rental establishment of choice and check out KILL ZONE aka Saat Po Long aka SPL. It came out in 2005, and seems to have be released in the States now.

Don't watch it expecting non-stop fights like a Tony Jaa flick. It's a hard hitting police drama. There's plenty of action, and the fight scenes that are in there are incredible, but I found myself getting hooked into the story. It deserves the hype. I put it in the same league as John Woo's early work with Chow Yun Fat.

Besides... Donnie Yen vs Samo Hung! Need I say more? No. I thought not. Now go. Read the rest when you come back.

... In Rogue Wolf News ...

I got a problem, guys. Lately my wrists, my right (mouse controlling) one especially, have been killing me. I do okay at work with my big cubicle sized desk, but if I spend more than 15 minutes at my cheap little particle board desk with the keyboard tray at home, I start looking for the Advil. I used to only need my wrist brace on occasion when one hand or the other flared up a little. Now I have to wear it all the time.

That means I can't really write at home. I certainly can't do much digitial pre-press. And what really sucks is I'm missing out on the City of Heroes winter event to boot!

In lieu of a visit to the doctor, I'm going to try something preemptive. I'm getting one of those big corner desks. They really aren't much more expensive than what I got. The catch is, if you've seen my room, you'd know what a major project this is going to involve. I gotta clear all the crap out, rearrange the furniture, get the old desk out, and build the new one.

This could take a week. I wish I was kidding.

So... I'm taking Christmas off. There will only be one page scheduled for each book next week, and they'll both be on Monday.

More updates, more fixing stuff

2006-12-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

Heh.. uhm... Our archive page was broken all weekend. Sorry. The comic navigation should now make more sense.

We've also added two advertising networks. You can bid on advertising spots on the left sidebar of our home page and comic pages of Rogue-Wolf.net, 133x80 buttons or 120x600 towers.

Oh, and all of our vote buttons now work. We've finally been approved at Onlinecomics.net. Please show your support! Vote, flag us as a favorite, and go click happy on our listings to your heart's content. :)

... In Other News ...

Saw Casino Royale this weekend. James Bond has more than just a new face and hair color. This movie relaunches the franchise with a whole new approach. The action is still intense, but more believable. The gadgets are cool, but make more sense. And the women are still as sexy as the cars, but the innuendo is far less silly.

Daniel Craig is much closer to the Bond that Ian Flemming wrote in his novels, even moreso than Sean Connery. IMHO, if you're the kind of Bond fan who's been disillusioned since George Lazenby, you can come back, now. This one's for you.

Let the spa-- err buzz begin

2006-12-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

So I think I've got all of the links and frames on Rogue-Wolf.net ratcheted up. We've got pages queued in WCN to update the next couple weeks. I'm getting in more colored and lettered pages, so we can have a subscriber's area worth subscribing to. And we've gotten as much response from my flood of press releases and message board posts that one can expect from a web comic posted by a guy no one's ever heard of.

I grabbed a couple spots on Comicspace.com, and our blog is now mirrored on Blogspot and LiveJournal.

Now we gotta get reviewed. Our art has improved tremendously, and we don't have the scarlet letter S hanging on our necks anymore, so I don't think I'm being too conceited when I predict that we'll get better grades this time around. If you want to review or know a good place to get reviewed, shoot me a line!

A sidenote on Comicspace for those who haven't heard of it... as the name implies, it's MySpace for comic fans. It just started very recently, but the population exploded exponentially once a few key people in the biz got wind of it. It looks like it'll be a lot of fun once it gets some more features.

I won't do MySpace because it's so infested with adware (and someone already took the url name roguewolf -_-), so let's hope the blessed creator of comicspace doesn't take it in that same direction.

... In other news ...

Traditional comic fans have most likely heard that Marty Nodell passed away this weekend. He was the creator of Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. He was at pretty much every convention, where he always had time for his fans -- of which he had many. Marty was a genuinely sweet man, and one of the founding fathers of the business. Artist Alley will feel a little emptier next year.

...

I'm glad I didn't listen to the critics of Apocalyto. All I kept hearing was blood, blood, gore, gore. But seriously... The Patriot was bloodier than this movie. It was tame by today's standards, especially Gibson's. Overall it was an intense movie a great story, engaging characters, and gorgeous cinematography. I highly recommend it.

...

Coff: Off the Leash got a huge nod from Diamond last week. Eduardo Barreto and everyone's amigo Beau Smith are the powerful creators behind one of the Top 10 Comics of 2006! Way to go, guys.

Rogue-Wolf.net (Re-)Launches Two Webcomics!

2006-12-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chicago, IL
December 12, 2006
Replies can be sent through: http://www.rogue-wolf.net/contactus.php

Rogue Wolf Entertainment is excited to announce the launch of REDSHIFT, a new sci-fi series, and the return of NOCTURNAL ESSENCE, a supernatural noir webcomic.

Lance Stahlberg and Danika Kenn are the co-creators of both series. They originally published NOCTURNAL ESSENCE under the label Powerful Press. This relaunch will pick up right where the story left off, featuring brand new art by Rudolf Montemayor.

To go with the new logo and banner, Rogue Wolf will publish new "remastered" editions of their back issues from the original label as well.

NOCTURNAL ESSENCE is an urban noir blended with a supernatural thriller and a healthy dash of Greek and Arthurian mythology. The vampire and werewolf underground of Chicago finds itself in the middle of an unfolding prophecy, triggering open warfare with hunters and mages for the first time in centuries.

Their second title is a new series, featuring pencils by Sergio Martinez and colors by Blake Wilke. The penciled pages will be updated on Rogue-Wolf.net twice weekly for everyone to get a sneak peek. The full color edition will be available to subscribers and in the print editions when they come out.

REDSHIFT, is a high action space opera that mixes classic staples of the genre with elements of Hong Kong cinema. The story follows the collision of fate that pulls a band of unlikely heroes together in a chaotic galaxy trying to keep itself together.

You can check out both titles at Rogue-Wolf.net (don't forget the dash).