Retro Double-Dip

So the other day, I get a hankerin' to play some Rastan. Anyone remember that arcade game from back in the '80's? It's pretty much a Conan sort of thing and I've always liked Conan. Back in high school, my friend and I used to hang out at the local convenience store, sip on Slurpees or whatever and play Rastan before going to class. Awesome game. Only problem is that my copy of Rastan is on a compilation disk for the old Xbox.

Undeterred, I dig out the old black beauty itself and the Xbox works great. Better than the Xbox 360, but I digress. When I turn it on, the Xbox's default date and time is set to 12:00am June 3, 2001. As I'm spinning those years forward, I can't help but imagine my Xbox asking, "What day is it? Where have I been?"
"You've been out of it a long time, Xbox. Brace yourself. It's 2012!!"
Cue the opening music from Buck Rogers.....dates flying past....Xbox spinning and toppling through news clippings of big events....then snazzy vehicles from the current futuristic paradise zip by!! Yeah!!!

Wow, this is loopy. What do you expect? I was up until 5am playing freakin' Rastan!!

Almost here!!!!

I know you guys have heard me go on about ebooks for a while now. Sounds like a cool idea, right? I hope so because my first book is so close to being released that I can taste it! Since I'm responsible for putting it all together, I've been taking my time to make sure it's all ready before putting it out there. Editing is almost done, the cover is coming together and I seriously think it should be ready to be unleashed onto the ebook market by mid-May.

I also know I've been saying the next Skinners book will be coming out in ebook format. The mid-May release is not Skinners, though. There's lots of reasons for this and NONE of them involve me turning my back on that series. Honestly, it took a lot out of me to write the last three and I pretty much did them back-to-back. Rather than try to get the next one out right away before it feels like the proper time, I thought I'd let it all gestate for a while. Also, Skinners is my baby and I'd rather get comfortable with the ebook process before throwing my baby out there.

That being said, the book that's almost ready to roll isn't just something I slapped together to test the waters. It's EXACTLY the sort of thing that made me want to publish in this format for such a loooong time. I've been describing it as Indiana Jones mixed with Flash Gordon and a dash of The Untouchables thrown in for flavor. It's retro sci-fi set in an alternate version of 1935 where a hard boiled PI deals with gangsters, feds, mad scientists and inter-dimensional vortexes. The more I read through this, the more I love it. Even if it would be given a chance in traditional publishing, I like the thought of handling it myself. It's first in a series and a hell of a lot of fun. I REALLY hope you guys enjoy it.

Next on my agenda is Skinners! For those of you who read Book 6, you know the Skinners world got turned on its ear. The next steps taken from there are important and the last thing I wanted to do was rush them. I've been pondering it a lot, coming up with tons of cool stuff and am PUMPED to move on with the monsters and bad-ass hunters I love so much. The next story arcs will take place some time after Book 6. They'll be a little shorter, action packed, and will branch out in several different directions. Also, I can move forward on some other Skinner stuff I've been meaning to do. For example, I've wanted to write an anthology or perhaps shorter fiction released separately (for cheaper) focusing on pivotal moments in the history of our favorite monster hunters. This series is tentatively called Skinners: Legends  and would be set in different time periods including tales of the early hunts of Jonah Lancroft, the exploits of different Full Bloods from centuries past, and accounts of Skinner pioneers like the one responsible for their shapeshifting weapons. Stuff like that. I told ya! I'm NOT leaving Skinners behind.

So that's the big update. I cannot express how grateful I am that you have stuck around. There's still a ways to go and every time I hear from a reader about how they're looking forward to something new from me, it puts wind in my sails. Thank you so much for that. I'll let you know when the first book in that new series is out and of course I'll keep you updated on any and all things Skinners. Oh, and I'm also working on another website with two other like-minded authors venturing into ebook territory for the sole purpose of writing the cool stuff we love. It's been a long time coming, but things are about to get REAL interesting!

It's NOT the same!

Wednesday is new comic book day. Way back when I was in college, it used to be Thursday but it's been Wednesday for a while now. Anyway, New Comic Day is great. Like any comic book fan, I love seeing the new books on the racks. I love gathering them into a stack and then taking them home. It's just nerdy bliss. So this last Wednesday, I was talking to the owner of my local comic store. He's not anything close to the chubby weird dude from The Simpsons. He's actually got more of a "cranky old neighbor" vibe going on. Instead of screaming for me to get off of his lawn, he hands me stuff from my reserve list. Big difference. We talk about a great many things. This week, it was digital comics.

Now, I'm the last person to speak against digital publishing. It took me a while to wrap my head around ebooks, but once I got a Kindle and started diving in to all the great stuff out there I was hooked. Sure I miss the actual books sometimes, but there are plenty of offerings in the digital arena that simply can't be found on shelves. And with publishers floundering along with every other industry lately, ebooks make plenty of sense. You see quirky titles that would never get a shot otherwise and in the end, the written word still shines through. So...I get digital publishing. For COMIC BOOKS??? Nuh-uh.

 

I have a Kindle Fire and I do purchase some digital comics. Yes, they look sharp and clear. Yes it is pretty cool to have them electronically delivered. But my insider source (comic book store owner dude) pointed out that the big companies are aching to go digital all the way. That's easy to see with their apps and their general push in that direction. The way things are headed, comic stores will start drying up completely in less than a decade. Is this just speculation? I hope so. Unfortunately, I could easily see this happening.

I still read plenty of comics and the experience is significantly better (and different) between digital versus print. With regular books, that difference boils down to a format thing. The words are still there and I still enjoy reading them. For comics, the difference is in art. There's something vastly different in seeing the picture on the screen as opposed to having it there in your hands. There's also the ads. What's that, you say? Ads?? Yes. When I dig deep into my collection and read an issue from the early 1980's, I see ads for Atari 2600 games and candy that doesn't exist anymore. I see membership forms for dopey fan clubs whose  cards used to take up space in my cheap little plastic wallets when I was nine and DON'T exist now. That stuff really takes you back and it has nothing to do with a story that could be reprinted in digital format. Even ads now are specifically targeted to a comic book audience and are stuff I really want to see. Well...mostly. This is a general thing. I'm not in love with ads. You get where I'm going with this.

The thought of comics being exclusively makes me sad. It will probably take a long time for print comics to be phased out all the way, but they WILL become harder to find. There simply aren't as many comic stores now as there were years ago. I've seen entire chains in cities where I've lived dry up and blow away. Could it just be a dip because of the recession? Is it a shift in times and people like me will just have to deal with it? Probably some from both columns.

Right now, I read some comics on my Kindle. I even tried reading some on an app for my phone (which wasn't bad during prolonged bathroom visits). Those are ok. When it comes to my favorite books, though, I want the print version. I've come to terms with ebooks. If comics start going purely digital, I can honestly say I'd rather trim down my purchases to a fraction of what they are now and get my fix with back issues.

Bah! Freaking technology. GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!

Maybe it IS time for a reboot

I had plenty of gripes about Spider-Man 3. Pretty much anyone who saw the movie had 'em. Even so, I think that Sam Raimi was forced to cram too much into one movie and that he still does a great job with the franchise. From what I heard, he wanted to do 3 as mostly Sandman with the black suit added into the mix. Venom would come in the next movie. That would have been perfect. Would he still have had the cringe-inducing bad boy change coming from a hair flip or dance sequences? Maybe, but it would have been a better movie and the next one with all Venom would have kicked ass. So, 3 aside, I think the Spider-Man movies could have picked up just fine.

Seeing that the one coming out this summer is a reboot made me cringe as well. Come ON! I'm a huge Spidey fan but even I'm getting sick of the whole origin story thing. Between the movie, the cartoons, the iterations of the comic books and video games, I've seen that spider bite his hand so many times that I just want Uncle Ben to hurry up and get killed so we can GET ON WITH IT. Even with new actors, directors, and the whole bit, we could have just continued with more Spidey stories. The only reason to do a reboot is to give the whole thing a fresh look and feel. So...here's the newest trailer for this summer's Spidey offering...




I gotta admit, the teasers had me intrigued and this pretty much seals the deal. I like a good reboot. Casino Royale made James Bond f'ing cool again and Batman Begins...well come on. I don't have to mention how nerdgasmically awesome the Nolan Batman movies are. Looks like this new Spider-Man has plenty of promise. The Lizard looks great and the whole thing has that Spider-Man feel that still gets my geeky toes a'tappin'. Between this, The Avengers and Rise of the Dark Knight, it looks to be a great summer. Hell, I'm still pumped for Ghost Rider!

The Good, the Bad and the Snotty

Time for scratchy throat / cough / headache season. Yippee. Let's weigh some of the pros and cons as far as hacking up bloody mucus every few minutes is concerned.

Pro - I get to take all kinds of medicines, some of which make me feel delightfully dizzy.
Con- All those meds combine deep within my digestive plumbing to form a noxious stew.
Pro - That stew tastes like honey and cherry
Con - I'm allergic to cherries
Pro - No, I'm not.

Con - My appetite is going down.
Pro - That's got to be good for me on some dietary level, right?
Con - Not really

Pro - I don't get funny looks for being in my pajamas and robe at 7pm.
Con - The robe has dried soup on the labels and crusty sleeves.

Pro - I get a little more time to blog
Con - The blog posts turn out like this one.

Back to bed.

The Big Game

No, I'm not talking about Arkham City (which I'm still working my way through one glorious side mission at a time). I'm talking Super Bowl here. Ever since I traded in my overpriced cable/DVR combo for Netflix and Hulu on Xbox Live, I haven't been able to watch much in the way of sports. I catch the occasional game here and there, but not enough to keep abreast on what's what. All in all it's a good trade-off for not having  40 hours of stuff in a DVR waiting for me to watch. This way, I actually get some work done. I do still have my favorite teams when I am able to watch a game and let's just say the Giants or Patriots ain't one of  'em.

I don't have a very good reason for this. Maybe, since I'm a Midwestern boy, my loyalties drift more toward teams in those regions. Ok...I actually WAS rooting for the Giants. Mostly because they're NOT the Patriots. My reasoning for this? I could spout some anti-Brady sentiment or various disputed plays, but that would just be my attempt to sound like I know what I'm talking about. In fact, I hate the Patriots because of Madden NFL for the XBox. Not the 360. I'm talking the original XBox. I think Madden NFL '05 was the last one I played and I played the HELL out of it with Webmaster Steve on Live. I would pick a team because of the skulls on their jerseys or their proximity to my house and he would actually pick teams based on skill.

Well, in Madden '05, if you picked the Patriots, you could pretty much put the controller down, walk away from your TV, get something to eat, hit the bathroom and STILL win. Every pass, no matter how well it was covered, was caught. Defensive players bounced off of Brady like bullets off of Superman's eyeball (one of the very few cool moments in Superman Returns). Their defense consisted of Mack trucks and bulldozers with jerseys stretched over their freaking backs. And the other teams just wilted. I guess the makers of the game wrote that one off to "momentum" or "shifts in the game's atmosphere". Lob a 70 yard pass to a receiver who'd already been brought down somehow? No problem he'd make the play anyhow. I threw down my controller, traded the disk in at Game Stop for about 75 cents and ended my Madden career.

Even Steve had to admit the Pats were ridiculously overpowered. It got to the point where he'd pick them just to get under my skin and I never picked them because I hated the sight of their stupid digitized faces!! So thanks, EA Sports. Thanks for making it easy for me to pick a team to root for in this year's Bowl. It actually was a pretty entertaining game to watch and when the Patriots lost...I couldn't help but smile. Video game vendettas NEVER die.

The Site / Blog Combo

Hey everyone. In case you haven't noticed, I've taken down my old website and routed all traffic from http://www.marcuspelegrimas.com/ here to my blog. Part of this change was to cut down on expenses, but most of it was just streamlining. Webmaster Steve did a GREAT job of making the site what it was and I enjoyed having it there. I just didn't have the time to devote to making it really great and felt that, instead of having it stagnate, I'd just consolidate the two sites into one that I could periodically tweak and update. That being said, I'll be looking into adding more stuff to this blog over the coming months.

I appreciate you all stopping by and PLEASE continue to check in with me over here. And let's all give it up for WEBMASTER STEVE!!! Great job, man! By the way WS, think you could advise me on tweaking this blog?