Designing a Hero 1: Lightweight

One of my favorite parts of creating Lightweight and the subsequent Kickstarter was finally seeing my creation brought to life in art. I started a search for a great artist that would both be affordable and provide the book with an awesome cover. Having interviewed and become online friends with Cynthia Celeste Miller and the folks at Spectrum Games, I found their regular cover artist.

The amazing Brent Sprecher was more than willing to work with me, even in the confines of a Kickstarter backed project. We came to an amenable price, but in order to get to the final cover, Brent had to do some design work.

We started with this:

Made with the HeroMachine program, it was the closest approximation I could make to the Lightweight living in my head. Clearly the logo was all wrong, but I'm pretty sure you can see hints of the basic design there.

Brent sent the first designs for Kevin's face a few days later.

He got the basic design of the collar and mask dead on from the first try, but the build for the character was too similar to the Hero Machine design instead of the lankier build. I left the lankier build bit only in one of the numerous documents I sent Brent, so it was an easily made mistake. From this point I actually gave him an actor to work from visually, The Secret Life of an American Teenager's Ken Baumann. (Baumann since retired from acting and is now an editor and writer of note, through his own Sator Press.)

March 2016

Writer's Update for April 7, 2015

Not too much to report this time around as most of my writing time has actually been focused on a few overdue editing projects I have sitting on my virtual desk.

But I am always up to a little something. I have pretty much finalized my rough outline of Lightweight year two. I will be putting the full story to paper soon with a Kickstarter to follow shortly after the first couple chapters are completed.

And in case anyone out there is wondering, the new chapters of Lightweight will connect into the Times Past theme of 2015. I am not going to reveal how exactly, but fans will find out closer to publication.

Today’s image is sample art for Lightweight’s costume by Brent Sprecher.

Still to come in 2015:

• More Walking Shadows, including that series own entry into Times Past


• A pair of new pulp hero tales (more details soon)


• A new chapter of Vengeance which takes the character around even more of the Quadrant Universe as he uncovers the secrets of his path.


• Several new Metahuman Press anthologies including Modern Pulp Heroes Volume 2 and Horror Heroes 2.


• Another later 30s era Metahuman Press anthology in collaboration with another author (yet to be announced).


• Pulpsploitation: Airboy (alongside The Gunmaster and two other short novels.)

That's just a taste of my plans for the next year or so. We are in for an interesting ride as we barrel deeper into 2015. Here's hoping you will be along for the ride!

Order Lightweight: Senior Year at Amazon!