A few words on the future of this blog

I've made the decision to discontinue my regularly Monday Wednesday Friday updates here on the site. I've done this for several reasons, but the primary one is the lack of interaction they've gained in the last several months. I've watched my reader levels drop drastically here even as I've seen sales go up on my work. Clearly there's a major disconnect between this blog and my readership.

Secondly, it isn't really devolved into a lot of discussion of things I like and very little focus on stuff I write. I want to change the focus here to make this blog all about what I'm releasing and when. So the site will still see updates, and with two new stories out every month in the upcoming weeks, it will be far from dead.

If you want to keep up on things upcoming or are just a huge fan of my blogging, I am far from done there. You can read more from me at Medium. Right now it is a few articles on comics, a handful of interviews and several wrestling articles. But I will be endeavoring to update with a new article about every week there. They will likely be longer than a lot of what you've read here as late, and hopefully more in-depth.

Of course, there's also the newsletter and the Patreon. I'm posting at Patreon almost every week and updating the newsletter every other.

This is far from an end, just a change. I'll see you soon as my next release is only days away!

Great Art: the Amazing 80s by J. Scott Campbell

If you haven't figured it out from the radio silence, there's some major changes afoot for this blog in the next few weeks, but I will talk about that in the next couple weeks. But that doesn't mean I'm done with sharing some amazing things, like this epic piece by comics great J. Scott Campbell, featuring pretty much everything awesome about being a kid in the 1980s!

Remember you can check out a lot more Great Art in the Super Powered Fiction Facebook group!. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out all the places you can find me online!

Cosplay Friday: Zatanna

Sometimes you just need a little magic in your life. Zatanna Zatara always fits that bill and it's especially true when she's brought to life by the amazingly talented Riddle. Fine work by a true cosplay legend!

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Savage Dragon and Spider-Man by Erik Larsen!

Erik Larsen is one of those guys that is just a consummate comic professional. He just loves making comics and has made a living doing so for over three decades now. Twenty-five years of that have been focused on Savage Dragon, his childhood character that he turned into a multimedia star for a few years before comfortably settling in to regular adventures of the entire Dragon family. Hundreds of issues later, he stands as a unique single writer/artist on a book with only Dave Sim and Fred Perry challenging him for commitment to his creation.

He also happens to be one of my favorite comic artists, dating back to his Marvel days. I actually saw his work first in the pages of Marvel Comics Presents though, not Spider-Man. He did a strange little Excalibur arc in that book where the team basically fought the Looney Tunes characters that I adore and am a little surprised has never been reprinted. It wasn't until a few months later I found his Spider-Man and loved that just as much. But I was an X-Men guy up until the rise of Image. Yet after I read the first couple issues of Dragon's adventures, I knew I had read something different. I could almost feel Larsen's commitment to the character and making him work. It impressed me then, and he became the character I most latched onto as a young man. (Though I'm still mad that none of my contributions won his villain creation contest in issue 10.)

To make a long story short, I'm always excited to see unique pin-ups from Larsen. So when I found this Spider-Man / Savage Dragon crossover piece, I thought it was the perfect image to feature on a Great Art installment. Enjoy and be sure to go buy a copy or two of Savage Dragon, still going strong after all these years.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art in the Super Powered Fiction Facebook group!. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Gallur-y: Revenge of the Past!

Over the last few years, Mexican artist Rafael Gallur has become a go to painter for action. A regular painter of amazing lucha libre magazine covers, he channels the energy of Frazetta into modern cover art, something very lacking on this side of the border. And since his art doesn't quite fit into the usual comic-oriented Great Art feature, I thought it was time to give him his own feature here at Super Powered Fiction. Few painters can match the power he brings.

Octagon isn't a luchador well remembered by many American fans, but he was a big time hero when the martial arts craze was all the rage in the 80s and 90s. Long retired now, the character has been brought back on a few occasions with a new "junior" version, with both current WWE star Kalisto and international talent Flamita wearing the mask. He's probably most notable these days because the first incarnation of Octagon Jr gave rise to a new generation of his eternal foe, a young talent that lasted much longer named Pentagon Jr.

In his heyday, the original Octagon starred in his share of lucha libre comics and stories. "Revenge of the Past" is clearly one of the best. There's a whole lot going on here and Gallur combines it all into something awesome. 

Be sure to head over to Gallur's DeviantArt to check out more work by him and order some of his amazing work as prints. After you're done admiring his work, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Cosplay Friday: Batgirl

It's a bit surprising that Batgirl doesn't get nearly as many costumes as some of her peers in DC's superhero community. Admittedly her costume is more detailed than a Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy or even Supergirl, but when she's done right, she just looks iconic. Take as an example, Astelvert's amazing work on her cosplay of the Burnside Batgirl here.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Rocketeer by Tom Grummett!

Since Diamond just debuted a huge array of merchandise for Cliff Secord at San Diego this year, it felt like a fitting time to share some truly great Rocketeer art. I still feel like the sky's the limit for this character's future if a publisher and a creative team really set out to write an entire series of grand adventures for him. Here's hoping someone makes that a reality. And when they do, it might be great to get Tom Grummett to draw the dang thing. Because as you see here, the man draws Dave Stevens's character with finesse and panache.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art in the Super Powered Fiction Facebook group!. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

An important life lesson...

I shared this recently on Facebook and thought it best to share it more widely here. This is an important point for any consumer of art, from novels to comics to paintings to movies to whatever.

Gallur-y: Mars Attacks!

Over the last few years, Mexican artist Rafael Gallur has become a go to painter for action. A regular painter of amazing lucha libre magazine covers, he channels the energy of Frazetta into modern cover art, something very lacking on this side of the border. And since his art doesn't quite fit into the usual comic-oriented Great Art feature, I thought it was time to give him his own feature here at Super Powered Fiction. Few painters can match the power he brings.

The classic Topps card line Mars Attacks has become an icon of weird alien invasion stories, and has transitioned into comics, novels, games and a hilarious Tim Burton film. But when Topps decided they wanted to produce an updated line of cards, Rafael Gallur was one of the talents they tapped for the new cards. Here's an example of his work on a better known licensed property, and it is clear he brings the same craftsmanship he does to his lucha work to the Martian invaders and the human resistance!

Be sure to head over to Gallur's DeviantArt to check out more work by him and order some of his amazing work as prints. After you're done admiring his work, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Cosplay Friday: Mary Jane

Spider-Man: Far From Home is hitting theaters on this long holiday weekend, so it seemed an apt time to pull out an MJ cosplay. But in the spirit of Zendaya playing a very different take on that character (complete with new name), I thought it would be a perfect time to pull out one of my favorite looks at the character. This one is from one of the most beautiful cosplayers out there, Lua Stardust, and is maybe my favorite take on Mary Jane Watson anywhere!

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Moon Knight by John K. Snyder III

I've spent a lot of time thinking about vigilantes and heroes of the mystic of late, although it is for a project I will not say too much about just yet. But with that in mind, I've been perusing some moodier art of dark vigilantes. That's when I stumbled upon this piece by John K. Snyder III.

Snyder has been around for a long time. He was drawing Grendel comics over three decades ago and has worked his way through pretty much every publisher over the years, though much of his work has been for DC. Just in the last year, he drew an issue or two of Bloodshot for Valiant and doesn't seem to show any signs of changing his eclectic release of cool art.

As far as I can tell, this piece is the only time he drew Moon Knight, for a commission. The piece perfectly encapsulates what makes the character pop so well off the panel, with his silver-white costume up against a dark background. Flanked by his enemies and the visage of Khonshu, source of his abilities, it's a super-cool piece that makes the character just look plain awesome.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art in the Super Powered Fiction Facebook group!. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

That's My Jam 5: "Dangerous Days" by Perturbator

Straight up, I have no recollection of who first mentioned the name Perturbator to me. I could guess it might have been Warren Ellis' newsletter but I cannot really say for sure. But I can say that I absolutely love things cyberpunk.

And man, Perturbator is so cyberpunk.

Perturbator is just one guy, an amazingly talented French individual with the very un-French real name James Kent. He's been working in the synthwave genre of music for the better part of the decade. Synthwave seems like a genre designed for me, with a heavy focus on 80s film and video games as inspiration. But a lot of artists of the field don't click with me.

But when I stumbled upon the album Dangerous Days I was insta-hooked. It has a powerful continued beat through all its songs, like some kind of rave out of a never made Neuromancer film. It's that push to move forward coupled with the rareness of lyrics that helps make it such a great album to play while writing.

Perturbator also has some great album covers.
Dangerous Days is by Ariel Zucker-Brull. 

Once the slow rise of the opening track "Welcome Back" melds into the driving beat of "Perturbator's Theme" my mind is hyper-focused and ready to get rocking on some words. I'm listening to the album right now as I write about it and it has become so ingrained in my creative process that I just want to go back to the latest Shockwave story.

The entire album is available to listen to on Bandcamp. Perturbator even has a pay-what-you-want model set up for downloads. I'm pretty sure I actually downloaded the album for free many moons ago, but I've certainly given Mister Kent my money with every subsequent Perturbator album he's released. Or you can just listen to on this handy Spotify list...


So it's a win-win to go give this album a chance. If you like eighties movies, synth music or just a driving beat, I doubt you will be disappointed.

Cosplay Friday: Meggan

One of the books I cut my teeth on as a comics fan was Excalibur by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. The two men created a really solid team book that wasn't worried about being funny here and there. It's heyday was its first year and a half or so of issues, and they still hold up as some of the reasons I will challenge anyone that lumps the 80s and 90s in comics into some generic summation.

Meggan was one of the breakout characters of the series, a faerie girl in love with Captain Britain and with a bevy of powers including shape-changing, flight, super strength and empathy. She spent much of the first year of the series basically just wearing athletic wear as a "costume" until she finally received this number during the Cross-Time Caper story. Cosplayer Sara Moni brings the Davis design to life perfectly, an impressive feat considering all the character traits that come together for the character.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Ninjak by Michel Fiffe

Michel Fiffe draws one of my favorite comics right now in Copra, but he doesn't do non-creator owned characters all that often. But this variant to the Valiant Ninjak book was totally worth the price of admission!

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art in the Super Powered Fiction Facebook group!. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Gallur-y: Super-Nenas!

Over the last few years, Mexican artist Rafael Gallur has become a go to painter for action. A regular painter of amazing lucha libre magazine covers, he channels the energy of Frazetta into modern cover art, something very lacking on this side of the border. And since his art doesn't quite fit into the usual comic-oriented Great Art feature, I thought it was time to give him his own feature here at Super Powered Fiction. Few painters can match the power he brings.

Unlike a lot of his work, Super Nena (or Supernena, as I've seen it written both ways) isn't an actual star of lucha libre. Created for the fiction magazine Sensacional Del Luchas, she allowed some female led stories with a whole lot of T and A. But because of her original nature, it sure looks like she was set up to be a bit more super than some of the other luchadors in the book. She definitely has a Catwoman vibe with her whip as a weapon. This cover seems to pit her against evil duplicates of herself, ones willing to use automatic weapons and murder wantonly. There's a great story there I suspect!

Be sure to head over to Gallur's DeviantArt to check out more work by him and order some of his amazing work as prints. After you're done admiring his work, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Have you joined The Good Fight yet?

I'm going to get real here. I talked about my story in The Good Fight 5: The Golden Age already, but apparently that's not brought quite enough readers to our amazing anthology. Our classic era super-heroics aren't attracting the level of readership for our previous four volumes of the Pen & Cape Society's premiere superhero anthology. Each volume features new stories from a variety of authors and superheroic worlds, and I'm proud to make this my fourth appearance in one of these books.

I could conjecture a hundred reasons as to why the book hasn't found success, but I know one thing that's definitely hurting it: lack of reviews! After just over a month out, it still only has one review on Amazon and none on Smashwords. The digital edition is $3.99, a steal for a book featuring twelve new stories by yours truly and a host of talented authors including the late great James Hudnall.

In order to encourage more reviews and in return, I have five digital copies available for reading and review. If you receive a copy, you must be willing to read it and give it a starred Amazon review within one month of receipt. I will give these away to the first five people that respond to this post here, on social media or by emailing me at nick {at} superpoweredfiction {dot} com.

If you have even a fraction of the love for super powered fiction that I have, I know this is a deal too good to pass up! And even if you don't get a free copy, please buy the book and review it when you're done. Every single review helps immensely. I know you see that a lot, but it is incredibly true.

The Good Fight 5: The Golden Age is now available on Amazon, Smashwords and pretty much everywhere you buy books.

Cosplay Friday: Starfire

I will make no secrets that I sometimes play favorites here on Cosplay Friday. But it's been nearly two years since I last featured my favorite Titan on a cosplay post. That worked out wonderfully for TatumTotCosplay as I get to feature her absolutely amazing Starfire cosplay today! She knocked it out of the park with her modern take on the character here!

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Storm by Ken Steacy

Canadian great Ken Steacy isn't a name mentioned nearly enough in the annuls of great comic artists, but he did some truly great work from the mid-80s to the mid-90s. Here's an excellent Storm pin-up from a classic issue of Marvel Fanfare as a shining example.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art over on the Tumblr. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

New Heroics 1: a look at new super powered fiction!

I've been quietly whiling away with my own works for years now, but with my focus on the Quadrant Universe, I've lost a lot of the places where I crossover with the other creators out there with superheroes in their fiction. To remedy that, I introduce New Heroics, a recurring column where I look at books coming in the wide world of stories out there. These are not meant as an endorsement of any writer's work, but a way to share new stuff from compatriots in the writing trenches.

Knightwatch: Invictus X is the first book in veteran scribe Mark Ellis's new superhero fiction series. With characters culled from the public domain, he uses the DC generational concept to form his own takes on several characters with familiar names. This one is actually on my Kindle right now and I can vouch that the adventures of Scarab, Magno, Lynx, Samson and Kismet get better with each page.

Friend of the site and all around swell guy Jeff Deischer is a writing machine. His latest novel is New World Order: Hero U.N.I.O.N. which focuses on a United Nations program to develop superhuman agents. With fifty years of history behind it, this looks like an interesting take on the classic THUNDER Agents concept, one which always needs more love.

I've known David Kachel for years, as the man helped me make the classic Metahuman Press site in the mid-aughts. He's since honed his craft and has released a collected edition of his Legacy: The Tale of the American Eagle. I can vouch for the quality of this one, so be sure to get out there and check it out.

Derek Borne is a name I've not yet read but he's been quickly releasing new works in his Ultimate Agent series over the last couple years. He's released a couple of shorts over the last few months featuring the Agent on the hunt for cryptids. His most recent is The Mothman Files, where if you haven't guessed, the Agent goes up against the legendary mothman.

Borne has been at it a couple years, but Yuri Jean-Baptiste just debuted his first book in January. He's got the right style down for modern publishing though, as five months later he's already got a prequel and a second book out in his Metamorphs series. The latest is the prequel, Legion's Gambit. The pull quote is a bit light on details but looks like it might set up the story of superhero students in the first volume of the series. It is free however, so anyone interested in checking out Yuri's work have no excuse not to do so.

The third book in the Chronicles of Fid series and David Reiss continues his story of the supervillain Doctor Fid in Starfall. Villains going to the light has been used as a story trope for years, but it remains a highly untapped concept for a long term superhero story. It should be interesting to see how Reiss plays it out in his series.

Michael C. Bailey is a name I've seen on the superhero fiction pages for years on Facebook. His Action Figures series has become a strong seller over the years. The eight book in the series shares a title with a fantastic Doom Patrol collection: Crawling From the Wreckage. The story picks up with our lead Carrie Hauser returning from eight months in space to find her life... a wreck. She's got to rebuild her purpose from the ground up. But two opposing teams of super-villains will make it a lot less easy in what sounds like an action packed continuance of this series!

That wraps up the first installment of New Heroics! If you're a superhero fiction writer that wants your book featured here drop me a line at nick{at}superpoweredfiction{dot}com with your new work and it just might appear in our next column!

Cosplay Friday: Emma Frost

I wasn't much a fan of AVX at Marvel, but the one great thing to come out of it was the Phoenix Force imbued Emma Frost and her costume. It was simply an amazing character design.

The immensely talented costume designer RuffleButt made her own suit here and it's nothing short of amazing work. Go over to her DeviantArt and make sure to check out all her amazing work there.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on the Tumblr. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Ultraverse by Jerome K. Moore

I don't often share my love for several of the comic book universes that were created in the 1990s that sadly didn't manage to survive into the new millennium. Milestone. Defiant. Lightning. All offered some unique ideas to the comic medium. But none resonated with me quite as strongly as the Ultraverse.

With a bit of money behind it and a team of writers impressive by any standards, Malibu pulled out a lot of stops to make their universe shine. They used a lot of big name creators to design their characters, but one of the talents that often seems most linked with their style is the incredibly talented Jerome K. Moore. Probably known these days mostly for his photorealistic Star Trek comic covers. He did a ton of design and advertising work for the Ultraverse and recently he shared this promotional piece he drew featuring the second wave of characters for the universe. Barry Windsor Smith's Rune is probably the best remembered, but Wrath and Warstrike would both have several issues of their own series over the next couple years. I'm not sure if Masquerade ever appeared in Ultraverse Premiere as promised here though. I remember seeing the character once or twice, but only in promotions like this or the trading cards. If anyone remembers her from anywhere else in Ultraverse history, please let me know.

Jerome K. Moore continues to work, though mostly in character design work for animation and such. Check out his DeviantArt for more of his great art!

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art over on the Tumblr. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

The past brings a new Second Life! The Good Fight 5: The Golden Age is here!

The Good Fight 5: The Golden Age came out last week. The book features stories with a pulp twist and set in the time period between the 1930s and 1950s. I was happy to be back for this one, though the nature of the book meant much like the third volume of the series, it didn't exactly work for a new story of The Second Life of D.B. Cooper, a character I always like to go back to in these volumes.

This time around though, it seemed like a great time to give a prequel to that series. Thus was born my story "The Second Life of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin."

I thought about putting Mignola's Rasputin here,
but he looks nothing like the real thing. So here's
Riley Rossmo's version from an equally oddball
take on the character. 

Grigori popped up in the first of Coop's story back in The Good Fight 2: Villains. His connection to Coop has never really been made clear, but the legendary Mad Monk now gets to live his own second life in a story set in the late 30s.

Though he's probably best known these days as a character in Hellboy, Rasputin's place in Russian history is the stuff of legend. The stories of his powers are all over the place and the insanity surrounding his death makes it clear he's just the kind of guy to have another life after the Bolshevik Revolution. Now he's in America, on the trail of a mysterious threat in a small Washington town.

I've always loved the legend of Rasputin. Much like D.B. Cooper, his legend is larger than reality and that makes him a perfect figure for super powered fiction. Yet more often than not, he's played usually as a villain or at best, an enigmatic meddler. Yet history showed him to have some history in Russian democracy, which certainly seems a noble cause to any American. I built my take on Rasputin with that in mind. After twenty years traveling the world, he's a very different individual, a man with a noble heart but a willingness to do bad things for the good of all.

The story serves as a prequel to the three existing Coop stories, but it will also have ties to an upcoming project as well. But I'll talk more about that in a future column.

The story's appearance in this volume will now serve as something of a bittersweet point in my career. The volume features the first Pen & Cape Society story by James Hudnall, a true inspiration to me as a writer. Sadly, it will also be his last as he passed away last month at the far too young age of 61. I knew James only through a few brief encounters online, but his work on ESPers directly inspired the idea of a psychic D.B. Cooper. I will talk about the meaning of his work more in a future column, but his death leaves me heartbroken for what could have been.

You'll be missed, Hud.

Gallur-y: KISS!

Over the last few years, Mexican artist Rafael Gallur has become a go to painter for action. A regular painter of amazing lucha libre magazine covers, he channels the energy of Frazetta into modern cover art, something very lacking on this side of the border. And since his art doesn't quite fit into the usual comic-oriented Great Art feature, I thought it was time to give him his own feature here at Super Powered Fiction. Few painters can match the power he brings.

The comic appearances of KISS have long been an inspiration in my writing as the mix of rock band and superheroes just hits the right notes for me. And while recent KISS comics have left me disappointed, this cover Gallur did for a study of KISS comics published in Mexico deserves a wider look from fans of both the band and painted superhero art in general!

Be sure to head over to Gallur's DeviantArt to check out more work by him and order some of his amazing work as prints. After you're done admiring his work, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Goals achieved and worlds destroyed! My 7th Camp Nanowrimo is in the books!

Image by Javier Estaban via Unsplash.

Over the weekend, I hit my goal for my seventh Camp Nanowrimo event. The twice annual free-form writing event has always been a fun one for me, and while I developed some issues with my pacing midway through the month, it's been all engines forward for the last week or so.

The main focus was playing catch up on Quadrant and I managed that quite well. I'm fast working through the latter half of volume two, otherwise known as the time travel arc. I don't want to give away much on this one, but I will reassure everyone that it continues to prove how much fun developing new tales of the Morgan brothers is for me.

I'll have more on the future of Quadrant in updates very soon. Over the next year, I hope to make the brothers' saga as important as Lightweight currently is in my publishing schedule. With that in mind, I have big plans for the characters in the weeks and months ahead!

Before I wrap this blog up I wanted to remind everyone that The Good Fight 5: The Golden Age will be available to read as of tomorrow. Go get your copies pre-ordered now!

Cosplay Friday: Nebula

I have absolutely no idea who the cosplayer is behind this rendition of the modern Nebula (based on the classic 90s design by Ron Lim.) It's some dang fine costuming work though and seems like the perfect fit as Avengers: Endgame debuts and will likely break some records this weekend.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on the Tumblr. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Great Art: Avengers by Eric Canete

Eric Canete is one of those artists that I just don't feel gets enough attention. He's got a unique style, one that he's brought to multiple outlets over the years. He's never stuck to one series for long either, as he doubles as an artist on numerous animated projects, many for Man of Action , where his frequent comics collaborator Joe Casey is one of the four forces that share the eponymous name. His take on the Avengers expands from his amazing work on Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin, in my mind still one of the best Iron Man stories ever. Find a ton more of his work at DeviantArt.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art over on the Tumblr. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Kickstart the Week 73: The cat comes back! New Champions rise!

It's been awhile since we last checked in on Kickstarter. So it's time to check in on two current projects worth a look on the site!


Mike Grell has been producing great comics for four decades now. From Legion of Super-Heroes to Warlord to Jon Sable to Green Arrow and beyond, he's given the world tons of great comics (and even one really great novel.) Yet he left one series unfinished when comics plummeted into the abyss in the middle of the nineties. While meant to be an ongoing series, the empty market caused Maggie the Cat's cancellation after issue two in the middle of the first arc.Fast forward more than twenty years and Mike has moved to Kickstarter to finally bring Maggie the Cat.


Maggie's origins lay in the Jon Sable series and her own book followed events in that series and Shaman's Tears. The new book on Kickstarter will feature remastered versions of the two already published issues with extra remastered pages to streamline the story for new readers. It will be followed by a new issue sometime down the line where the arc finally comes to its finish!

Fans of great old school adventure should definitely check out Maggie the Cat on Kickstarter.

*

I'm always excited to see new superhero prose make its way onto Kickstarter. Blake Michael Nelson has been slowly building his own superhero universe over the last few years. The Signalverse takes its name from its main setting: Signal City. Nelson is now on Kickstarter looking to fund his sixth novel, Champions Weekly.

The new book revolves around a reporter for a news magazine of the same name. She's set out to uncover what happened to a hero that disappeared over a year ago, but she quickly falls into more trouble than she ever expected!

Nelson has even made the first chapter of the novel available for free. Go check that out and get a feel for his solid prose. After that, be sure to go support Champions Weekly on Kickstarter.

Cosplay Friday: Cammy White

As a teenager in the early 90s, Street Fighter is rarely far from my mind. It was an indelible part of the culture of my childhood. Fighting games and RPGs were my bread and butter, but nothing quite topped the finger ripping action of the Street Fighter franchise.

This week's featured cosplayer Vert Vixen is a jack of all trades. She recently joined Gamestop TV, but she also makes convention appearances in costume, content manages for Gunfire Games and is a pro wrestler in the making. She's also possibly the most perfect being to fill the costume of Cammy White, the game's resident amnesiac secret agent with a dark past.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on the Tumblr. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Coming Continuing Comics 3: A crossover, rebirth and jumping on point, all in one!

One article, that is.

The April Previews does not show a lot of big debuts in the month of June. Or at least, not a lot of debuts I care a lick about anyway. Yet I still have a few picks worth taking a look at.

But first I wanted to give an honorable mention to Usagi Yojimbo. The book is coming back from IDW now with a new first issue (which makes this Usagi volume 4 I believe.) There's little to nothing super powered fiction about the character outside crossovers with the TMNT, but he's well worth a mention as the title is consistently one of the best comics on the market. Alright, on to our more superheroic fare, none of which comes from either of the big two this month!

Savage Dragon 247

It's about as far away from a number one as you can get, but Erik Larsen has consistently produced one of the most impressive superhero universes ever now for twenty-five plus years. I'm behind on the series by nearly a year right now, but this issue offers a "perfect jumping on point" for readers as Malcolm Dragon fights the Demon King as the run up to the next anniversary starts. If you're an old school comic fan and not reading Savage Dragon, I encourage you to seek out what you're missing and be surprised by one of the most impressive superhero sagas of all time.

The Crow / Hack Slash 1

Tim Seeley has come up with a winning formula for bringing back Cassie Hack and Vlad, the monster hunters of Hack Slash. He's just wrapping a crossover at Dynamite with the old Chaos Comics characters that embroils her in their entire new history at that publisher. As soon as that one wraps, it looks like she'll be right back into it, this time at IDW!

The story is a pretty basic setup. A new Crow rises, but his revenge spree is taken by Cassie and Vlad as the rise of a new slasher, the supernatural horrors they hunt! It's a superb concept to run a story about. More impressively, Seeley returns to pencils on the book for the first time in years, while he's inked by regular Crow artist Jim Terry. This one promises to bring the fun and violence!

Psi-Lords 1

Valiant has been dusting off old IPs with new versions for quite some time now, but they still haven't covered them all. The Psi-Lords are fondly remembered by anyone that read the book but this one doesn't look to have heavy ties to that concept. Still it looks like an intriguing book by artist Renato Guedes and the criminally under-rated Fred Van Lente.

The book takes four humans and drops them with amnesia into the middle of an intergalactic hotspot. And while it spins off from events in the current X-O Manowar book, it is meant to stand on its own. With a star creative team, this looks like a great new ongoing series in a universe filled with intriguing moves in 2019.

Do you have a new favorite coming soon to the comics world? Let me know in the comments below! 

Gallur-y: Cibernetico

Over the last few years, Mexican artist Rafael Gallur has become a go to painter for action. A regular painter of amazing lucha libre magazine covers, he channels the energy of Frazetta into modern cover art, something very lacking on this side of the border. And since his art doesn't quite fit into the usual comic-oriented Great Art feature, I thought it was time to give him his own feature here at Super Powered Fiction. Few painters can match the power he brings.

Cibernetico isn't as recognizable a luchador as some. He has been maskless since early in his career and never quite received the attention in America that many Mexican talents have over the years. But Gallur brings him to life with a true flare here and even presents quite a looming threat in the robot monster behind him!

Be sure to head over to Gallur's DeviantArt to check out more work by him and order some of his amazing work as prints. After you're done admiring his work, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

The Good Fight returns... to the past!

I've proudly been a member of the Pen and Cape Society for several years now as the group of superhero fiction writers have put together four great anthologies and worked together in all kinds of unique and fun ways. Now the fine folks at Local Hero Press have prepped the fifth edition of our shared anthology series The Good Fight and this one takes us back a few years. Previous themes have wrapped around villains, "the homefront" (supporting cast) and sidekicks. This time around, the series goes back a few years as the focus turns to "The Golden Age."

Twelve writers answered the call for new stories of World War II superheroes, pulp age adventurers and everything in between. For those that have followed my previous The Good Fight contributions, you know that I like to make my focus a new tale in my "The Second Life of D.B. Cooper" series of short stories.

How do I place a story about the later life of a 70s era plane hijackers into a thirties era setting? I will reveal that in a couple more weeks, but be reassured that the story's title does start with "The Second Life of."

And I'm not alone. I have a mega-talented eleven other creators in this book with me: Leonard Apa, Stephen T. Brophy, David Court, Jeff Deischer, Adrienne Dellwo, Psychopomp Gecko, Ian Thomas Healy, James Hudnall, T. Mike McCurley, Scott A. Story, and Tom Warin! If you're interested in supporting great new fiction, be sure to head over to Amazon or Smashwords and pre-order your copy! The book launches on April 30!

It's Camp Nanowrimo time!

Today is April 1st and while many will celebrate the fools of the world, I will instead be turning my focus to the twice-annual Camp Nanowrimo event. Unlike the 50,000 word sprint that is the November event, Camp Nanowrimo is far more free form with open project types and goals.

This year my effort is going into finishing up the current cycle of Quadrant stories, which have fallen behind the continued progress of Lightweight and Shockwave. If all goes as planned with this month and next, I should have pretty much every release I've got planned for 2019 done in the next two to three months

From there, I have more big plans for 2020. I'll write more about that soon though.

If anyone is interested in following along at Camp Nanowrimo, you can find my account here. And if you're a fellow writer of the super or heroic that's also participating in the event, let me know and I'll add you to our shared cabin!

The next month will feature weekly updates on the project as I work through first an editorial phase and then the completion of a year's worth of Quadrant tales. Those will hit every Wednesday, with other content already planned for Mondays and Fridays! So be sure to stay tuned into the blog as we get this show on the road!

Great Art: Catwoman and Batman by Terry Moore!

Earlier this week, I mentioned Terry Moore had an upcoming new series called Five Years, bringing all the series he's written and drawn over the last three decades together. But while Terry's indie credentials are strong, he's dabbled in mainstream comics more than once. And it seems he's more than willing to take commissions of the like as well.

He shared this piece of Catwoman overcoming the caped crusader on his blog a few weeks back, where you can find a higher res version of it for your own use and enjoyment.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art over on the Tumblr. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Coming Continuing Comics 2: a look at March 2019's most intriguing solicits

This one is a bit late, mostly because I didn't see a ton of stuff that really intrigued me in this month's catalog of stuff. But I do have the ends of two trilogies to talk about, plus another new comic that takes an existing universes in new and different directions.

Batman / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II have finally reached the volume of their crossover events that averages their own Roman numerals. But just as the announcement came that DC animation was working with Nickelodeon to produce the first volume of their series as an animated feature, they announced this concluding chapter to a series that in no way was planned to be a trilogy. The creative team has put together two great series. With the addition of Kevin Eastman on variant covers and apparently some interiors, this one could be the best yet.

Got to love that raw Eastman art with bonus Batman! 

X-Men Grand Design: X-Tinction

I know Ed Piskor's work isn't made for everyone. But I've absolutely loved the previous four issues of this series that covered the first twenty-five or so years of X-Men continuity. He streamlined the history to make things fit together without contradicting the established history. It's been really cool and the style he developed on Hip Hop Family Tree works wonders here.

The new run takes the team through the Australian years and into the Silvestri / Lee era of grand art. I expect the X-Tinction Agenda storyline to play a large role here, but the cover below makes it look like we will see plenty from the Reavers as well. Whatever the case, I'm ready to see two more superb over-sized issues of this series!

A simple design evokes the classic cover to Uncanny X-Men 251.

Five Years

Terry Moore has written for Marvel and DC among others before, but the Strangers in Paradise creator has often been known for his more nuanced down to Earth approach to comics, both in that seminal series and his later books like Echo and Rachel Rising. Following a year's return to his original title in Strangers in Paradise XXV (for the 25th anniversary of the property), he's now doing something other publishers have been doing for years: a crossover.

The story spins right out of the previous series but Moore promises it's a jumping on point for everyone. It does star every major character he's introduced so far from all those series above and his short-lived Motor Girl as well. All have played at least brief roles in the last year's storylines, so it will be interesting to see exactly how everything comes together for this one.

The one thing I can say for certain: with Moore on art it will be gorgeous.

That wraps up this month's comic picks. What upcoming books are you most anticipating? Let me know in the comments.

 As always, all cover images are copyright their respective owners. 

Cosplay Friday: Serpentor

In many ways, I am a slave to my childhood. G.I. Joe is a property that still holds a lot of sway on my brain. It's one that I often marvel at how little remains from the classic line. Hasbro hasn't produced new toys since the release of the last movie. The only exceptions are the collector's club figures, but I'm not one of the fans obsessive enough to spend $40 on a new 4 inch figure.

But the property still remains heavy on my mind. I have more than one half written Kindle Worlds stories that will now never be published. But I've also considered designing my own international defense force. I could wax on for many more paragraphs about that, I'm sure, but we all came here for Cosplay didn't we?

Drizzy Designs isn't a name I knew before I stumbled across this amazing costume on Pinterest. The alias of one Drisana Litke, she managed to make a Serpentor costume out of actual materials that doesn't look like it weighs a hundred pounds. Her page on Facebook has another half dozen pictures of this costume, plus a ton of other stuff, so be sure to check it out.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on the Tumblr. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

It's a marvelous life! (WIP Wednesday)

Over the last three weeks, I've fought two head colds but still managed to get a decent amount of work done on the ongoing projects that have been debuting as part of Patreon. I clocked about five thousand words in the last week on Shockwave and Lightweight. Lightweight is just about done while Shockwave currently sits at four chapters of a planned six in the first book.

Next month will be my twice annual Camp Nanowrimo month, where several of my writing friends and I get together and push each other forward on writing projects. My plan is to complete the next three chapters of Quadrant over that month of writing. That will bring me right up to the finishing line with that one as well.

My big goal is to wrap all three novels by the end of May and set out on the next writing journey, which will include a short story or two plus the next phase of Lightweight!

I'm also working on a new scheduling format for Patreon releases, one that will see all the ongoing books update about every six weeks. That one will depend a bit on how things go as I move into the second half of 2019 however.

I went with my wife and the youngest to see Captain Marvel over the weekend. The family and I loved the very different take on the mythos of Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers. A lot of the negative reaction is confusing to me, as I felt it was the best use of Carol since the Brian Reed Ms. Marvel series of the mid-2000s. It gets a thumbs up from me, yet another in a solid string of really great Marvel movies in the last two years.

Today's image is of Carol in costume, drawn by the always amazing Sana Takeda, taken from a variant cover of Life of Captain Marvel. Character owned by Marvel.

Don't sleep on Newer Gods!

While this site focuses much on my own writing and other areas of interest, I have other blogs out there to focus on expanded views of things outside the purview here. One such outlet is the nearly year old blog Newer Gods, where I am doing a week by week rundown of comics featuring every appearance of the New Gods after Jack Kirby's initial run.

Now seems like the perfect time to mention it, as I just reviewed the beautifully rendered Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans, where the two heroes from different universes suddenly exist in the same one to conveniently team up to fight Darkseid and a reborn Dark Phoenix. Written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Walter Simonson, it's just amazing to look at. The story is all kinds of crazy as well, so be sure to head over and check out both parts of this epic review.

A new update will debut on Thursday and every Thursday for the foreseeable future. (There's a lot of New Gods appearances to cover.) So strap in and be sure to follow the fun of Newer Gods.

Great Art: Boom Boom by Mike Maihack

I've been a huge fan of the work of Mike Maihack for quite some time. His prints are all over our house, including my personal favorite featuring Yukio. His work on Cleopatra in Space has brought one of the most fun series of all ages graphic novels to life and I recommend it to everyone, especially with Fallen Empires, the fifth volume, only a few days from release. Last year, he did a series of X-Men pieces and this one featuring Boom Boom in her original look is one of my favorites.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art over on the Tumblr. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Kickstart the Week 72: Flying the 1959 Hellride to Section Zero!

This time around I wanted to shine the light on a couple of Kickstarters that have both fully funded but that are excellent comic projects by some truly cool talents.


Jim Lawson has been a favorite artist of mine since the 90s when I first discovered him as a regular artist (and later writer/artist) on Mirage's original version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He's got a unique but shockingly deep art style that I will always enjoy whether it's in black and white or color. He's produced a couple different books on Kickstarter, but right now he's got two new projects I'm excited about in one great Kickstarter.

The first is the complete edition of Dragonfly, the first part of which he funded on Kickstarter several years ago. It's the tale of a turtle like being, a woman, a dog and some aliens on a strange island where everything is pretty much not quite right. The first volume was fun and now this edition will finally bring the story to completion.

Hellride is the second title, and while Lawson is a bit more vague on the subject matter, it sure looks like the description is in the title. Our protagonist in on his motorcycle for a ride straight through Hell!

Both books look superb and you can help fund one or both at the same Kickstarter.


The second project of the day is the long awaited second volume of Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett's Section Zero. After funding the completed version of the original six issues as a book, they've got the new book on the market both as a Kickstarter exclusive and as an upcoming series at Image. (I'm enough of a fan that I'm supporting both.) Now they're going back in time with the series to explore the early days of Section Zero in Section Zero: 1959.

If you're wondering what it's about, think Challengers of the Unknown meet Area 51. I'm not trying to spoil anything else for me with this book though, so anymore details you will have to find at Kickstarter.

Kesel and Grummett are two of the finest comic creators still going. They've both been at it since the 80s and together are probably best known for creating the Kon-El Superboy. They had two amazing runs with the character in his original series and Section Zero is the continuance of one of the best creative pairs in comics. Head over to Kickstarter to support it!

Cosplay Friday: Cassie Hack

One of the delights of this year in comics has been the return of Tim Seeley to the world of Cassie Hack and Vlad in Hack / Slash vs. Chaos from Dynamite Comics. It's a series I could honestly read for months to come but alas it is just a limited series.

Yet even should it serve as a swan song to Cassie and company, Seeley and company built a strong legacy for the characters. That can be seen in several amazing cosplays of Cassie, with perhaps Tata-Chan1012's look here the best. Big ups to both her and photographer Laernu Sinatas for making this a reality.

As always, you can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on the Tumblr. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!