The Comic Avalanche

The Comic Avalanche (www.comicavalanche.com) will be re-launching (tentatively) on October 31, 2005, Halloween. The new website will include new features and content as well as other surprises.

The overall presentation of the new site is based on a comic book. Every page is filled with panel layouts, SFX, balloons and special lettering, complete with a letters page forum. But the glitz doesn't take away from the purpose or experience of the site.

Included in the new features are a new classifieds section for talent ads, collaboration forums, polls, an online store (with great deals) and much more. More features will be added in the coming weeks including new columns and other goodies.

The Comic Avalanche, now co-owned by Bryan Carlyle, the site's founder, and Brant W. Fowler, the site's webmaster and columnist, was created purely for the love of comics. There are no paid advertisements on the site, nor will there ever be. All advertising is free. Everything is free except the items in the store, which are constantly on sale (currently all back issues are 50% off!).

The Comic Avalanche focuses heavily on indy comics and creators, but also delivers the news on and interviews with your favorite mainstream creators and reviews and features on the hottest mainstream and indy comics.

There are many different weekly columns to choose from as well as weekly and daily updates in the forums and on the site. There is also a monthly contest with top notch giveaways.

Slide on over to The Comic Avalanche and enjoy a completely new experience in comicdom!

I Can SEE!

I can finally access my website after a strange period of time of not being able to. I have no idea why I couldn't nor why I can now, but I'm just glad that I can once again access it! Just wanted to share.

But since I'm posting I might as well say a little more so you don't feel coming here today was a total waste of time. So how about some quick hits? Good, I'm glad you approve.

Stephen King is in fact writing for Marvel now. Very cool, though I'd still like to see him write an actual Marvel property. There are several books I can think of that if infused with his talent could be much better and more entertaining. Maybe that day will come, who knows?

Marvel also got Rambo's creator to write Captain America. That is awesome. Can't wait to read that!

You all have to check out my boy, Jason Berek-Lewis' columns at Broken Frontier and Silver Bullet Comics, as well as his Blog. He's got some exciting stuff going on!

I got a chance to see some of the TNA ppv from Sunday, which thankfully did not have Jarrett vs Kevin Nash, and I have to admit it was pretty good. There were some excellent matches of very high calibur. WWE should take note of some of these stars. However, the main event still wasn't all that great. Rhyno vs Jarrett for the title. Eh.

But this got me thinking of what great matchups could be had between WWE and TNA stars, and I thought I'd post a few I thought of and if any of you follow it you can post your own. So here's a few:

Jeff Hardy vs Eddie Guerrero (Yeah, we've seen it, but it's still cool)
Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle
Kane vs Abyss (come on, who else would these two face?)
AJ Styles vs Rey Mysterio (This is my favorite one)
AJ Styles vs Shelton Benjamin
Christopher Daniels vs Shelton Benjamin or Guerrero
Bobby Rood vs Chris Benoit
Monte Brown vs Bobby Lashley
Monte Brown vs John Cena
Chris Sabin vs Hurricane
Petey Williams vs Benoit or Guerrero

I think the TNA stars I mentioned (the left side of all of those) are the most promising and could have great futures in the business...if they don't kill themselves first!

Final note for now, there will be an announcement about comicavalanche.com very soon. It's big and it's cool, so keep an eye out for that!

B-Out

IMAGE: REBIRTH

Hey all, just a quick post.

For those of you who are not aware, Image Comics' website went down a while ago for maintenance, updates and to work on a new design. Well today, without notice or hype Image launched their new website merely minutes ago (within the last hour of this post). It's sleek, simple and effective. It doesn't have the HUGE logo the old one housed. As a matter of fact you barely notice the logo at all on this version. I assume what they were going for was functionality rather than novelty, which is cool. All in all, it's okay. Not much has changed from the previous incarnation other than the addition of a blog and a store (coming soon). The forums still look the same (why, I'm not sure as conforming that particular type of forum to the look of the site is relatively easy), and all the same features are there. The important thing is it's back up!

Check it out at http://www.imagecomics.com

Prison Breaks, Avalanches and Approbation

Hey all,

Not much to say at the moment, but I thought I'd throw out a short post to let you all know I'm still here. I still can't access my website, which is driving me crazy, but at least I can still post.

Anyway, first order of business is my first interview for silverbulletcomics.com with Approbation Comics CEO/EIC, Bart Alex Thompson is up. You can view it here: http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=877

Secondly, since I'm going in reverse of the title of this post, big things are coming soon from The Comic Avalanche, so stay tuned!

Thirdly and finally, I just wanted to give my brief thoughts on the television show Prison Break. Now let me preface this by saying I was not at all intrigued by the premise of the show when it first came out. I am not a fan of prison dramas at all, not even the acclaimed Oz. They're just not my thing. Having said that, my opinion on the genre was changed after watching this show.

It was either Saturday or Sunday afternoon I took a break from the many things I was doing and sat down to flip channels for a few minutes. This is when I came across a marathon of Prison Break on FX. I figured since nothing else was on I'd see what this show was all about. 20 minutes into the first episode I watched I was hooked. I watched the entire marathon and the newest episode the following Monday (last night).

I attribute a few things to this sudden craving for the show. First of all it's a very clever show. The main characters are intelligent and well developed characters that draw the viewers in. They maintain a portion of mystery to them as well, which is a good thing in this type of show/story. Also the former star of one of my favorite shows of all time, John Doe, is one of the main characters, Lincoln Burrows played by the brilliant actor Dominic Purcell.

The plot also has many twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. The other main character, Michael Scofield, played by Wentworth Miller (Dinotopia, Joan of Arcadia) is an excellent actor and an excellent character that really make the show. He's cool, calm and collected, and he's a genius. He had a spotless record, but pulled a heist to land himself in prison so he could break out his brother (Burrows) who is up for the death penalty in 17 days for a crime he didn't commit. Scofield devises a plan to break him out but obstacles keep appearing in his path.

But the twists don't only happen inside the prison walls. Outside the lawyers trying to prove Burrows' innocence and Burrows' own family are paying the price. Spoilers ahead.


Last night's episode saw the lawyers almost blown to bits while Burrows' ex-wife and her husband were killed in front of Burrows' teenage son, who is now on the run. The kicker? The assassins are taking their orders straight from the Vice President of the United States! Talk about plot twists. No telling how all this ties to Burrows and Scofield, but I'll be along for the ride!

In closing, I just wanted to share that because I think it is an excellent show, and if you have missed it every episode is a jumping on point. But if you can find the old episodes and watch the entire season. This is one of the best original series I've seen in a long time.

So there you have it. Three things to keep your eyes on. 'Til next time...

B-Out

My Writing Journey

First let me start by apologizing for my lack of posts. For some odd reason I am unable to access my server, which is where I host this blog. For some reason it never occurred to me that I could still post to it since I don't use my server to do that. At any rate, I have no idea why I can access every website on the web except for my own while everyone else can, but there you have it. Moving right along...I said I was going to share my writing experiences with you all over a week ago. Actually I had typed out a very long piece detailing my writing starting at 4th grade. I won't bore you with that entire diatribe except for to hit the highlights. If you do want to know more about me you'll just have to wait for my website to be up and running. :) Ok, that's enough of a preface to get us into the meat of things today. But just to hit some highlights of my passion early on, here is a combination of an excerpt from a post I made elsewhere added with new content for the purposes of this post:
When I was around 6 I started drawing. I come from a family of very creative people, so it was in my blood. I started off tracing Smurf folders, then progressed to drawing G.I. Joe and Transformers during school. I also wrote a lot even as a child. I used to write my own little paper on school events in fourth grade and drew the pictures because I didn't have a camera. I tried to sell these one-pagers for $.50, which when considering you could get a regular daily newspaper, a pop and a buttload of candy for that price at that time, they didn't sell real well. But suffice it to say I had a hunger for writing and for getting people to read what I wrote early on. Though it would be years before I would realize how passionate I was about it. I continued to draw for years, and once I was introduced to comics I drew nothing but comics day and night, hours on end for 4 years in every sketch pad I could find. I knew nothing of art boards at the time. But I also wrote the stories, creating my own characters (which I usually would draw rather than existing characters in comics) and making elaborate stories complete with crossovers and all kinds of neat stuff. Well, okay most of it was cheesy looking back on it, but it had its moments. At age 19 I gave up comics and drawing for various reasons that will remain private because it's a long story and one I don't care to remember. At any rate, two years later after failing to complete a mail order art course I finally got my butt to college and eventually received two associates degrees (Comp. Science and Bus. Mgmt) and a bachelor's degree (Bus. Admin.), which are helpful in any profession, but not where my passion lies. An interesting thing happened when I gave up drawing though. I started writing. Between 19 and 21 I had written a couple of books (non-fiction) I never bothered getting published, and looking back they weren't great to begin with. I even kept a journal and wrote a list of books I wanted to have written and published by a certain time. Most were non-fiction and related to self-help, religion and some other topics. But there were some fiction goals in there also.

About a year into college my English teacher, Stephanie Baker took notice of my writing and instantly became my inspiration. She had high hopes for me and really mentored me. She had success in various forms of writing from teaching to ghostwriting novels, to screenplays, etc., so she knew what she was talking about. She guided me to a revitalized passion I never knew I really had - Writing. I ended up taking several classes with her and continued to grow as a writer. She will forever be mentioned in any novels or projects I write that I am able to add a mention to. I began writing poetry, which garnered me awards and a few even got published. These will be available on my website once it's up and running (and if anyone would like to see them here then by all means let me know). Then I started writing my biography, but decided I needed to live more before I could complete it. So I turned to fiction because I had all these ideas and loved fantasy and other forms of fiction. In 2001 at the age of 24 I discovered Crossgen Comics via an ad in an issue of Wizard magazine I had picked up just to see what was going on in my five year absence. I was immediately drawn in and thus got back into comics almost exclusively buying Crossgen books. I had developed a love for the fantasy genre in my time away from comics and had finally read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So to see comics display a similar kind of fantasy (specifically Sojourn) was right up my alley and something I had never seen before because I had been one of those diehard 90's Darkhawk, New Warriors, Scarlet Spider and X-Force lovers and never ventured far from those kinds of books at the time. After Crossgen died out I got back into superheroes, but also discovered indy comics and have found some great books as anyone who reads my column knows. About the time I really got into Crossgen books though I also wrote my first comic scripts, which I submitted to Crossgen only to get a rejection letter a year and three months later! But in the meantime I had found an ad on Digital Webbing for writers who would be willing to start as editors for a small comic company. "Well this was right up my alley with my excellent scores in English", I thought. After all I had been an editor in college and I had seriously considered switching to an English major. So I applied and got the Associates Editor job thinking I would get to write and get published. LOL. First lesson learned. Over the course of the three years I edited there I had climbed the ladder in this small company from Associate Editor to EIC and partner, and had started writing four shorts that would appear in anthologies. Once I was in the EIC chair I had a great team under me and we were actually finally making it happen after many failed attempts and a lot of unnecessary drama. But ultimately it went out of business without ever publishing a title due to reasons I have touched on in another post, so I won't take this time to do it again.. Very sad times though. But I had been offered the EIC position in another company, who ultimately let me go a couple of months ago before publishing anything for reasons I also touched on in that same earlier post. When I left there I took the one title I had through them with me. But let's backtrack a little bit. Though I was editing for those companies that was not all I was doing. After I realized at the first company that the priority there had nothing to do with getting my own stuff published regardless of my station I set out trying to get collaborations together to pitch to various companies. Now let me preface this by saying I'm a poor man. I can't afford the rates most of these artists want to charge. And let's face it, most of them aren't worth half of what they're asking. Not all of them, but some are just delusional. Some, on the other hand, should be pro and still put their necks out there for good stories. God bless you.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I tried to get my ideas out there and published for four years. I have worked with various artists. Most didn't work out. I would find them on various sites or I would post an ad on DW. I got some really great artists, but some would disappear never to be heard from again after completing beautiful pages and never sending them to me. Some just didn't mesh well with the material. Others needed to be paid, some flaked, others are waiting until they have free time. All in all without a lot of cash up front it is very hard to find an artist to work with you. And that's a necessity for a lot of publishers these days, to have finished pages. Makes it easier for them to review and it shows how hungry a creator you are.

I also entered every writing contest I came across and submitted to various companies only to get the ominous rejection letters. I almost got in with Epic with a story I am releasing as a web comic, but has also caught some minimal attention with Platinum (and I'll be submitting it to Image next week), but while I was working on the revisions they requested they closed the doors and thus my dreams were shattered. I was torn up at that point because I had spent hours on message boards talking with the editors of Epic and reading their posts to make sure I didn't miss a beat.

I did get quite a few compliments on some of my stories on the Top Cow and (then) Roaring Studios boards (now Dabel Brothers Productions) from pros and fans alike. Troy Hickman of Common Grounds fame had some very nice things to say as did the Dabel Brothers whom I greatly respect and admire.

So after many failed attempts at getting teams together and several rejections later I finally found some artists who would work with me. It's been a very slow and painful process on some of my stories to see them go through several artists. But I have yet to complete a package of complete art to send off anywhere. I have several projects being worked on as I type this, and next week marks the first complete package I'll be able to send out. I printed out the pages the other day and nearly cried at seeing my words on the art in print. It was beautiful and a dream come true.

As for Platinum Studios, I heard of them first on the Scryptic Studios forums where Lee Nordling frequented for a while, but hadn't really given them much thought. Then Dan Head, the owner of Proletariat Comics where my web comic will be debuting had told me he had been submitting there and that Lee and company were very open and willing to work with you. So I tried my hand with four submissions. Roughly about 8 weeks later they turned those down but requested to see some scripting samples from me. I sent in the web comic scripts in their original form and that landed me an assignment, which turned into my first paid writing gig!

Who's to say what will be my first published work? But the important thing is my writing is finally taking me where I want to go and my perserverance and dedication is finally starting to pay off.

Any advice I would give would be to stick with it. Keep writing and keep creating. Go back and read your stuff and revise it. Keep pitching it anywhere and everywhere. Don't get discouraged or lose hope. If this is truly your dream then allow it to drive you and don't allow naysayers or other obstacles to prevent you in any way, shape of form. The day you do you've lost. This happened to me with art and I have struggled for 5 years to recapture my original passion for it and I have yet to find it. But luckily I didn't let that happen with writing, regardless of the people who thought and still think my dreams are just that. Dreams.

Don't get me wrong, I have a few core supporters who truly believe I could be a great singer, writer, artist and actor, all the things I love to do and have been blessed with a talent for. But the majority think I should be satisfied with a nice 9-5 job somewhere and never reach beyond what they've limited themselves to.

Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with people who work 9-5 jobs. Heck, until I got laid off I did it. I'm saying IF they had a dream and had the talent to make it happen, but they settled for a mundane life out of fear of failure or whatever then I have a problem with that. I have seen far too many people with potential to be GREAT in a lot of areas settle and have been unhappy and unfulfilled their entire lives. I intend not to be one of those people. I have to succeed lest I die. And that's my advice. Keep the dream alive and ignore EVERY negative and degrading comment that EVER comes your way. If you have real talent and real heart you can make it, and you will if you push it and keep it alive.

Okay, coming off the soapbox now. :) That is my journey in a nutshell thus far. I have VERY big goals set for myself, and I'm taking you all along for the ride. Buckle Up!

B-Out

Clearing Things Up

It has come to my attention that my agenda or my purpose for having this blog isn't clear, or rather that I didn't do a great job of defining it. I wrongfully assumed people would just read my profile, but if people look at something on the net and it looks kind of boring or bland they don't bother to stay around. Okay, that's fine. I admit that the look and feel is kind of bland, but I haven't had time to add the bells and whistles. But that's no excuse, I realize. The least I could do is throw up some cool pics or something, right?

Anyway, moving on. My name, obviously, is Brant W. Fowler, and I wear many hats. Predominately what made me decide to start this blog is my hat as columnist for The Comic Avalanche (now I'm a co-owner and the web designer also). See, in that column I feature indy creators, titles and studios. But I had no forum to discuss my own projects or mainstream content. Then I started thinking that everyone else lets their opinions be heard, so why not mine, right? Okay, so I started this blog with the intent of doing just that, mainly focusing on comic related stuff I couldn't cover in my column. And to get people to conversate with me about this stuff.

But then I got to thinking that since my website is being redesigned I could use this to discuss my works and my experiences as well. And that's what I've done ever since. I have also talked about off the wall stuff just to spark conversation. Maybe I was wrong, but I was under the impression a blog didn't really need to have a specific purpose. It seems to me that blogs exist so people can say or talk about whatever they want. Maybe I'm wrong.

So to clearly define what this blog is about, it is about my journey in comics, my thoughts and opinions on comics and all of pop culture, and anything else my heart so desires, which could range from sites I think are cool to what I had for dinner last night. It's supposed to be fun, entertaining and stimulating. Well, two out of three ain't bad. :)

My next post will describe my experience in getting my first paid writing assignment.

In the meantime, whatever you guys and gals think would make my blog more interesting or more visually appealing to you please tell me. The black and silver will stay, but maybe I can still spice it up a bit. In my next post I am actually going to post a page from a project I have coming up, so that's a start.

Until then...

B-Out

It's Official!

I received my first check from Platinum today, so I am officially a paid writer! This is a milestone for me, so I'm stoked. I've far from reached my ultimate goal, but this was the next step I wanted to achieve. So post and tell me how happy you are for me. :) Sometimes I wonder if anyone even reads this thing.

I still can't really talk about the project, but I can tell you the tentative name of the project and, of course, that I'm working on it. It is called Lab Rats, so keep an eye out for it.


Not much else to say at the moment. I have been up for about 20 hours and am pretty wiped out. This is the second day I've done this trying to finish up on some projects. Let me say that some of the lettering I've done recently is hot. I really surprised myself. I have a long way to go still, but I get better with every page (or at least Kep says so). These most recent pages I've done, that I can't show yet, have a lot of cool SFX and some pretty cool captions if I do say so myself. I'll keep you all updated on that and all my projects in the coming weeks.


I read Rich Johnston's column last night in which he discusses the illegal downloading of comics via bittorrent clients. What are all your thoughts on this?


Good ol' JR got FIRED last night by LINDA McMahon! Didn't see that one coming. In recent weeks we've seen Jericho, Hardy and now Jim Ross get fired, so I wonder if they'll show up on Smackdown or if the WWE has something different and *gasp* unique in store?


I am now on the interview staff for silverbulletcomics.com, so you now have one more place to read my words, if you read them in the first place. :)


Okay, I'm getting really bored of talking to thin air. Actually talking to air is better because at least it whistles at times. :) Seriously, this is a call out. I don't care if you want to tell me all my thoughts, opinions and viewpoints suck and are totally off the wall. I don't care if you want to berate me for hating Warren Ellis's "Fell" or for wanting to try out for American Idol (which I didn't get to do because I got laid off last week). Just respond, please! I know you all (if there's actually anyone there that is) visit other blogs and messageboards and post 'til your heart's content. I am giving you an open forum here, free license to tell me I suck (just keep it as civil as possible), so what are you waiting for? If what I talk about bores you or doesn't interest you then tell me what it is you'd rather I talk about. If I don't want to talk about it I'll just tell you YOU suck and forever alienate you. I have nothing to lose because it'll be no different than what it's like right now. :)

So take your best shot, give me something to talk about, or just ignore this and go on your merry way. Whatever you choose it's cool. I started this blog, however, in order to spark conversation and get people talking (specifically to me) about the stuff I bring up and other stuff as well. So give me a reason to continue this blog, please. I have many more things to do than post my thoughts and opinions for myself alone.

Please don't misunderstand me. I know the blog is fairly new, and I know it takes a while for people to warm up to a new place to post and all. And I'm not mad in the least bit. I come across like that a lot in person as well, when it's hardly ever true. Honestly, I said all that to get you all riled up enough to post. I may be ruining the effect by stating this, but I'm hoping it will have yet another adverse effect. I guess only time will tell.

B-Out

A Quick Word About Image Comics

So I'm gearing up to do my reading for my column sure that I have some winners. I decide to focus on some Image titles this week since they have been putting out some new ones that everyone seems to love. So I pick up some of them. The covers are a little odd, but okay. So I take them home, sit down and open them up. Immediately I am turned off by the art. But I push on, determined to find a good story within. About four pages into Godland #1 I can't read any more. Not only is the art terrible, with many out of proportion and out of perspective shots, but even the lettering has errors, and seeing as how it's done by Comicraft that's just unacceptable. But more than anything is my disappointment for the writing. Joe Casey is usually an okay writer in my book, but this story is for one overdone, and he doesn't even try to do anything new with the concept really. And it feels like a throwback to the Golden Age, but a poorly done derivative that doesn't even meet the standards of those classic stories. So that one's out, because I only cover books I like. But I've got several other Image books, so surely there's something right? Next book I pick up is the acclaimed Fell. Now in all fairness I am NOT a Warren Ellis fan. Hate me for that, I don't care. I personally think he is overrated. Secondly, I get crime noir. I also get deep, satirical, moody type stories. But again, four or five pages into this and I've already lost interest. I try to push on and give it a shot, but every piece of dialogue is so removed from the next. It's just like Mr. Ellis took a bunch of words from the top of his head and tried to string them together in some sort of coherent manner, only he forgot the coherent part. Couple that with what tried to be an artistic creative freedom and ended up looking like the scribbles of a teenager, and this one's out as well.

Next up is Ferro City. Ok, this one isn't so bad. Not really my favorite kind of story, but a little faith is restored. Then it's Iron Ghost. Okay, that one's kind of cool. How about Strange Girl. Loving this art style. And Indigo Vertigo, it's okay for what it is. And finally, Grounded. This is a great story. Now this is retro done right.

So my faith in Image is somewhat restored, but I'm still worried. Why you ask? For two reasons. For one, if they're idea of good stories and art are in books like Fell and Godland then they're on a path I'm not sure I want to follow. I honestly think if anyone really is getting into those books they are doing so only because they are different or because of who's writing them and not because they are actually good. It's a shame books like Small Gods get cancelled while drivel like this makes it to the racks, let alone off Erik Larsen's desk.

Reason number two for my concern is a fear that in a move to be different and stand out that Image is taking any book that has a unique art style or story telling style, while not necessarily determining whether they're good or not. Here's a clue, Image. Just because an art style is different doesn't mean it's good. A while back I had dealings with a so-called Manga artist who swore up and down I didn't know what good manga was when I told him his art wasn't up to par. The fact of the matter is my brother is very into manga, and while I dislike the style of art and story telling manga is, I do recognize good manga art when I see it. His was no better than the awful portraits that hang on many a pre-schooler's refridgerator. And Image seems to have a good sized refridgerator as of late.

I am hoping the new Art Director Image has landed will bring some sense to the publisher, because I have mad respect and love for Image and hope to someday do dealings with them. But I want Image to be better than it is, and putting out books like the aforementioned and many others I wouldn't even consider picking up is not the way to do it.

Granted, there are a few good titles coming out of there, but not enough to sway things in their favor. But you say, sure, but they ARE one of the TOP FOUR companies in the business. True, but that doesn't mean the stuff they put out is necessarily good. It just means a lot of people buy a lot of rubbish like Fell and Godland and pass it off as genius. That and because they also have Top Cow and TMP producing books as well, including some fan favorites like Darkness, Witchblade and Spawn.

So I hope that Image will once again be the alternative for people who are sick of reading Marvel and DC, or just need a break from the Big Two. Image used to be that, then they got sidetracked along the way. Hopefully they will find their way back. Only time will tell.

And as far as which books I will cover in my column? Well, you'll just have to wait and find out tomorrow!

Chili, Idols and Bullets

With a title like that you just have to read it, huh? Lol. Actually I'm bored, so I thought I'd post a little before heading to bed. Not for lack of having nothing to do, mind you, but rather of not really feeling like doing any of it. :)

So it's almost 8am and I've been up since about 1 (fell asleep after Friday Night Smackdown). I just finished up a little web design and am ready to crash for a few hours. It's finally turned cold here, and rainy too, so I'm sitting here in my robe freezing my butt off. I can't put on socks because of a stupid severely in-grown toenail. Yeah, I know that's gross. My antibiotics ran out, so the next step, when I have the money, is to go get the stupid thing cut out. My problem is I am petrified of needles. Once when I was about 6 or 7 it literally took 4 people to hold me down to give me a shot in my cute little buttox, no joke. Once a dentist I had told me if he hurt me with the shot to bite him. I did. We never went back to that dentist, and I'm sure he was glad. But I have no other choice. I haven't worn socks or regular shoes for nearly two months now and it's getting to cold to wear sandles. That and my little brother tells me it looks like a tomato. Time's up.

So after that nice subject let's talk about food, shall we? First of all you should all know in case there's ever a cause for celebration and you cook me food, that the only meats I eat are turkey and chicken. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, and it's not because I have more fondness for animals with four legs. Plain and simple, I just don't like the taste or texture of any other meats. Nuff said.

So last night I had meatless chili. Not so weird, right? Very spicy meatless chili. Delicious. Now my habit I'm about to share with you is where it gets wierd. Whenever I have this scrumdiliumptious chili the first night I can't stop eating it no matter how full I get. Initially I'll only eat a bowl or two. But every hour or so I go back and eat a couple of spoonfulls. I do this anywhere from two to six times. Still not THAT wierd, right? Here's the kicker...I eat it COLD! After the first bowl it's into the fridge with it. And being the lazy bum I am I just eat it straight out of there, and I like it. I do meatless lasagna the same way, but it's not quite as good. And who doesn't love cold pizza?

Anyway, so I went through about a half of a pot last night and I'm still hungry. Very odd. My stomach will catch up with me later today and I'll be VERY sorry. Happens every time and yet I still don't learn.

Okay, so enough about my odd eating habits. Idols. Yep, idols. Specifically American idols. Specifically American Idol, the hit reality show that I SO want to be on. Yes, we've been through your mocking. Get over it. I've always been the odd one in any group, so I don't care what other people think. Spent too much of my youth being miserable because of that.

So anyway, the last audition takes place this Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada, a 30 hour drive from me or a $500 flight. Well, my car's broke down and I'm broke, so I don't get to go. It was my last chance to get on that particular show because I'll be 29 next season. Sucks. I still have other avenues, but that was a fast track and I'm not getting any younger. So I'm totally depressed about the whole thing and not sure how to handle it, so here I am sharing it with the entire free world.

But that's not all. I got laid off the other day. So now I'm broke with no income. I have the option to come back later, but that doesn't help right now. And I have yet to receive a check for my writing services that should have been here by now, so I'm not in a good mood, but yet I try to stay peppy and upbeat for all of you, and for my own sanity.

How about some good news? I do have some of that, believe it or not. I just landed an interview gig with Silver Bullet Comics. It's not a paid thing, but I do get a discount if I make it through the probationary period. Plus I get to talk to some cool people and have yet another place for my writing prowess to be displayed. It's a step in the right direction.

I also may have some more lettering gigs coming up, one possibly a paying one, so that's good too. I have so many writing projects in the works it's not even funny. I am collaborating with so many people, so surely something's gotta stick somewhere, right? It's only a matter of time.

Haven't heard back from Marvel yet, but it's only been a couple of weeks, so it's no sweat. I'll keep you all posted.

I'm working on a cool new web design that you're all gonna love. Actually I'm working on a couple of cool ones. Stay tuned.

I guess that's about it for now. If you know of someone wanting to donate for someone to make it to American Idol email me. Lol. Just Kidding...sort of.

'Til next time, the Gonzogoose is signing off before I just start rambling on and on (heh, start?).

B - Out.

I HATE My Job!

Really I just wanted to share that. Don't know why, I just felt like screaming it to the world. I would much rather write for a living. Or anything creative really.

See, I work in a call center, the kind of place I swore I'd never go back to. But circumstances dictated that it was my only option at the time, and now, for the time being I am stuck there.

The thing is, I hate being on the phone non-stop. It's not the work, because it's a piece of cake. I mean all I do all day is sit on the phone in front of a computer. How hard can that be, right? I mean there's a lot of information we have to learn, and there are constant updated and everything, but overall it's a pretty simple job. So why do I hate it so much?

Well, for one the pay is not that great. I've made better not doing much more than I'm doing now. My last job paid very decent money and monthly bonuses, but I was forced to leave it for a few reasons. One was because of a death in the family and I had used up all my days off. Other reasons are more complicated than that, but suffice it to say I don't miss it, just the pay!

Another reason I hate this job is because of the schedule. It's hard to plan anything around it because our shifts could change with a week's notice. And I don't get home until 8:30 pm as it is, which I really don't like. It messes up the day and night, and leaves little time for much else.

And the final reason is I just don't like what I'm doing. It's boring, monotonous and oddly exhausting. But I am stuck there until something better comes along.

So anyway, I just thought I would share that tidbit of information for anyone out there who cares whether I like my job or not. But really I brought it up to encourage myself and others to not settle for the mundane and limited ceiling 9-5 jobs can restrict you to if you are secretly or publicly yearning for something more as am I. Hold fast to your dreams and make steps towards them EVERY single day of your life or before you know it you will be 30, 40, 50 and never have achieved that which you set out to do. I plan on achieving, succeeding and becoming exactly what I have set out to do regardless of the setbacks and roadblocks in my path. I make steps daily, something I haven't always done. But now I am focused. I have had a taste of it and have met others who do what they love for a living. That is my goal. It is one of the purposes that drives me through each day. I must reach; I must obtain. If I don't I will be miserable and my creativity will die.

Don't believe it? I've seen it happen. Nearly everyone in my family had talents and dreams, whether it be vocal ability, artistic ability or athletic ability. Each one of them talked about dreams and wondered and daydreamed about them daily. But each got caught up in the everyday toils of life and never reached their dreams. They all live mundane lives and struggle with what their lives could have been. Very few of them are happy, and they continuously search for something to fill that void. I won't-I refuse to be like them. I can't be. I just can't.

So I implore you to follow your dreams at all costs and with every fiber of your being. Don't let your dreams die, or with it will die your heart, your passion, your purpose. Get up, stop procrastinating and make it happen. I will join you in your labor for that better life where dreams truly do come true.

Let us meet on the other side of the rainbow where the mythical pot of gold lies; where our dreams become reality. It is there where we will find our passion realized; our dreams fulfilled.

Let it be so.

B-Out.

This and That

Man, I had this long post and my browser closed out on me. Oh well, I'll just hit the highlights then.

Jessica Alba's new movie, Into the Blue, came out yesterday, but I haven't gotten to see it. As you can guess I'm a huge fan (who isn't?) of the actress. But not just because she's a knockout. I have actually been a fan since she was on the new Flipper TV show several years ago. I'm glad she's finally getting her props.

Kirsten Dunst (Star of Elizabethtown, which takes place in my home state. Unfortunately all of entertainment, including comics, always seem to depict most Kentuckians as hillbillies, which is not the case) apparently leaked that the new villains for Spider-Man 3 would be Venom and Sandman. This is hard to believe considering what we know about the inclusion of Topher Grace and the rumors of The Chameleon. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. Man, this seems like Deja Vu. Have I mentioned this before? Anyway...

Finally caught an episode of Lost this season and I have to admit it's a decent show. Very mysterious and it keeps you on the edge of your seat with bated breath waiting to see what happens next. Great characterization as well. But if you are inpatient at all you'll probably lose interest.

Smallville opened up the season with a less than stellar episode in my opinion. Luckily the teasers for the rest of the season looked a lot better.

Finally on the TV front, Reunion seems to be on hiatus until November, which sucks since I have really gotten into the show. The bad thing about a hiatus like this is by the time it comes back on you've forgotten half of what happened. The show was only three episodes in. Why they would halt it like that I'll never know.

Well, it's October 1st and the next to last audition city for AI started giving out wristbands today. Unfortunately I am not there, which means if I want to audition at all I'd have to either drive for 30 hours next weekend to Las Vegas, the final city, or fly, costing me nearly $500.00 for the flight alone! This is my last year to try out as I will be too old next year. Still hoping for a miracle, as foolish as it may sound to audition. But I don't care what people think, so it's all good. :)

In this week's installment of Joe Fridays, Joe Quesada answered a question of mine in a decent amount of detail concerning competition, and what makes a decent competitor for the Big Two. You can read the entire installment at Joe Friday. Here is the snippet with my Q&A:

NRAMA: Moving on, “GonzoGoose” has another lengthy and multi-part, but interesting follow-up to a previous exchange in this space…

“You mentioned how bad you feel it is for the industry that there is no real competition, citing the past triumphs and ultimate failures of companies like Valiant and CrossGen. My question then is in three parts.

”First, what, in your opinion, would make a company successful enough to realistically compete with Marvel and DC? Is it just good stories, unique directions, or what?”

JQ: Well, first let me say a couple of things about those comments and a couple of apologies, because reading them back, I realized how much could be interpreted incorrectly or taken in a negative context. See, when we do these Joe Fridays, it’s a lot of time out of the day and most of the time a lot of questions. I try to answer them as quickly and as honestly as I can and sometimes you look at stuff as you read it back on the ‘net and go, “Shoot, that wasn’t very clear.”

When I spoke of Valiant having no name talent besides Barry Smith, I should have quantified that remark.

First, I was referring to Valiant after [Jim] Shooter, which is when the company began to truly take off commercially. Yes, much of it on the back of some stuff he created, but he was already gone at that point.

I also forgot about Bart Sears who was hugely popular at the time. And Valiant did have some established very talented creators like Don Perlin and Bob Layton, but as talented as they were, they didn’t have the type of marquee name that would guarantee a million-selling book. But the beauty of Valiant was that they were able to market their talent and ideas and make them into million sellers. They created true excitement around their product despite who was working on it. To this day I have never seen anything like it, unknown characters, relatively no superstar creators and in some case complete unknowns and yet people were very interested in what was going down.

And by the way, as someone who was there at the time, I still feel that some of those characters, had the company been able to stay the course, could have been as popular as some Marvel icons if they had had the time to gestate like so many classic properties have. To this day I still feel that Bob Layton’s X-O Manowar could have been a true classic given time and proper guidance.

NRAMA: “GonzoGoose” continues…

”Secondly, then would you not consider companies like Image, Top Cow, Devil's Due, Aspen, etc. real competition? I know they are not quite as big yet, but one can't ignore the success of Image and Devil's Due in particular, past or present. What would bring these and others to the forefront?”

JQ: Well, that’s where the second part of this clarification/apology comes in. All these companies have done well from time to time, but I still feel like there is a cohesive vision that is missing. Aspen may have that going on and I feel like they are poised to do it but they don’t have quite enough titles to do it just yet. Also, Mike [Turner] is doing work for DC and us, so it does lock up his time.

That said, they are a perfect example of a company that at least is aware of their message, they just need time to grow. This isn’t a slam on anyone and I don’t think it comes as a surprise to any of these publishers. Defining what you are or in some cases redefining what you are is the toughest thing that you can do. Devil’s Due I guess you could define as the license company, but that’s not exactly what I think fans are looking to hang their hat on when they want to make that investment.

Comic fans love universes, worlds that they can sink their teeth into. In that fashion, CrossGen was absolutely on the mark, unfortunately I just don’t think anyone was truly responding to the idea behind their universe. But when it comes to defining yourself to the market, CrossGen was the first company since Valiant that came out of the box and said, “Hey, here we are and this is what we do.” Actually when I think of it, it actually took Valiant about a year or two to truly define what they were, but you all get the picture.

NRAMA: The final part of “GonzoGoose’s” question serendipitously touches on that very subject. He asks…

”Finally, in order to be a truly competitive and successful comic company, is it necessary to have a cohesive universe, or do you feel creator owned companies can ever be realistic competition?”

JQ: I think inherently, that is the big problem with creator-owned universes unless you all decide to be creator-owned within one universe. Yes, I feel it helps, I think fans dig it and it allows you the flexibility to tell bigger stories when you need to. Sure, a guy like Frank Miller can do creator owned forever and he’ll be fine, but the world of comics is littered with people who jumped into the creator pool either to find out that it wasn’t for them or until they lost their shirts.

Look when the comic’s industry was at it’s deathbed six or so years ago, it wasn’t the creator-owned books that drug it out of the fire, it was the corporate icons (so to speak) that came to the rescue and started to bring in much needed revenue into the industry. It would have been great if a Spawn or Savage Dragon could have done it, but they just don’t have the clout of Spider-Man and Superman.

This is not a knock on creator-owned because I love so much of it, but the hard truth is that the industry needs all sides of it working properly to survive. Heck, we don’t even have to like each other, all we have to do is work at our highest level and things will be cool.

Not much else to say today. I was up half the night working on some lettering for an upcoming project of mine I'll elaborate in greater detail about later. I was also helping set up a store for Comic Avalanche. I'll also expound on that when it's ready to go.

The new design for my website, BrantFowler.com, is coming along nicely and better captures my tastes and personality I think, combining a metallic look with an artistic look, giving it the feel of someone who is both creative and logical/strong-willed, etc., which fits me. As soon as it's ready to go I'll announce it here. I may even have new artwork up there. I will definitely have new lettering, web design, logos, a forum and some other cool stuff!

And that's about it. If I don't post anymore today, CHECK OUT MY COLUMN TOMORROW! :)