Bunch of Reviews

Okay, here are several reviews I've done over the past few weeks:

Black Coat: ...Or Give Me Death #1 (of 4) - Ape Entertainment

G.I. Joe: America's Elite #25 - Devil's Due Publishing

Helios: Under the Gun #4 (of 4) - Dakuwaka Productions

Hero By Night #1-4 (of 4) - Platinum Studios

Okko: The Cycle of Water #2 (of 4) - Archaia Studios Press

Purity #3 (of 4) - Dakuwaka Productions

The Killer #3 (of 10) - Archaia Studios Press

The Secret History Book One: Genesis - Archaia Studios Press

The Sire #1-3 (of 3) - MikeBooks & After Shock Comics

Unique #1-3 (of 3) - Platinum Studios

Most of them were pretty good. I was impressed with Platinum's offerings more than I thought I'd be. Nice stuff.

B-Out

The Fun Continues

Well, today was a mess. We spent most of the day washing clothes, disinfecting furniture, and shampooing all our hair to get rid of the nasty little buggers mentioned in the previous post. Even after a very thorough shampooing and combing my brother still had some adults and eggs in his long, curly hair. We'll have to keep checking him daily now and give him another shampoo treatment in a week. What a way to spend the summer...

B-Out

Oh Fun...

Lice. My brother has adult head lice. Yuck! I had them when I was about 8, and this is the first time he's ever had them (he'll be 15 next month). He has long curly hair, which has been itching, but somehow we'd missed them before. My mom has been combing his hair out for the past week, so I don't know how. He has been itching a lot though.

Sigh. So today we have to go get that lice removal stuff, strip the beds, spray the carpets, etc. Fun, fun, fun. You know how after you have something crawl on you or see bugs around you start feeling like you have stuff crawling all over you? That's the way I feel right now. Yuck!

It's gonna be one of those days...

B-Out

Retraction

When the news first broke about the deaths of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel my heart was torn and I felt very sad for them. I had thought, as I'm sure most did, that someone had murdered the Benoit family. So I made a post remembering who I considered one of the best wrestlers of all time. I have since deleted that post.

Over the past 24+ hours the truth has come out, that Chris Benoit murdered his wife and seven year old child, then killed himself over the period of three days. He bound and strangled his wife Friday, smothered his son Saturday, then killed himself early Sunday morning. The bizarre thing is around 4am Sunday morning Benoit sent text messages to co-workers informing them of his physical address and letting them know where the dogs were and what door was open. At this point his wife and son had been dead for many hours and left right where he killed them. His wife was in a family room/office, his son in his bed, both with a closed Bible laying beside their bodies. Sometime after sending the text messages Chris went downstairs into the weight room and hung himself using a pully from one of the machines. No suicide note was left.

It just baffles me the mindset someone would have to be to commit murder such as Chris did. He obviously wanted people to find them all there like that with no explanation. It has been a very strange unfolding, and my heart continues to go out for the two innocent lives lost in this tragedy and to all the friends and family members left behind.

I respected Chris Benoit's abilities, but now I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to watch a Benoit match again. This horrific incident has marred the life of a man many loved and respected. I can't imagine what those people are going through.

May God keep the souls of those innocent lives taken.

B

The Weekend

Alright, I am going to seriously try and start blogging more again. I've sucked at keeping up with it the past several months, I just got so busy. Still am, but I feel I owe it to all of you who used to read the blog all the time.

This weekend I haven't gotten much done. Haven't been feeling well and just kind of took most of the weekend to recuperate and rejuvenate. I did get a bit of lettering and other work done nevertheless though.

In the world of comics, I have not bought anything for a while, so I am so behind on what's going on. I've gotten some review copies of indy books (most of which I've already reviewed and forgot to post about them. I'll add them later this week). Some of them were pretty cool. I really liked this book from Platinum Studios called Unique.

Lettering is still steady and I still have a backlog. I'm trying hard to catch up to everything, so if you're waiting on something please know I am working on them every spare moment I get.

Writing has really slowed down again. I got Aroquin off to a great start, but this past week or two I haven't been able to do anything with it. Same for Wannabez, though right now it's all in Scott's hands, who is working on the pages every spare moment he gets. Keep checking the WBZ blog for updates on that.

In the personal life, I haven't heard from Dad for a few days, don't know that I will again for a while.

My family seems to be pulling more and more towards California these days. Recently my brother and his friends decided that after they graduate in a couple of years they are moving to California to pursue music. Seeing that I'm headed there myself as soon as it's feasible this was great news for me. I wanted my mom and my brother to move out there with me when I did. I haven't been away from my brother practically since he was born, and I couldn't imagine living so far away from him.

Nothing much else is going on. Thanks to the internet, I've gotten to reconnect with a couple of people, so that was cool.

Work is work, and it keeps me busy, probably too busy. I'm finding that I am very much a workaholic. I feel like I live at this computer (at times I even eat in front of it).

Speaking of work, for readers of my SBC Reel, it is very late as it was supposed to be posted Friday. It may make it up tonight, but then it's moving temporarily to two days a week, Tuesdays and Fridays. It's just too much for me to keep up with three times right now.

I guess that's it then. I lead a pretty boring life at the moment sadly, so no cool stories to share. And I won't bore you any longer with my mundane daily tasks, at least not today!

B-Out

Lettering Updates

This past weekend was a full load with doing pre-press and lettering correction on three books totaling around 160 pages for Rogue Wolf Entertainment. Now I'm onto another issue for them I started already, Redshift #3.

Tomorrow I'll have the 9 page Mojo Smith and Grandma Crow for Matthew McLean done.

Here's some interesting news. One of the five entries I lettered for Platinum's Comic Book Challenge made the top 50! Troy Bowen's Nine Unknown Men. So I'm excited about that.

On the docket over the next couple of weeks I've still got:

Blood and Devotion logo for FE Comics
Corrections on Fracture #1 for FE Comics
Lightning Squirrel 3-4
Academy of Heroes #2
A short for Approbation Comics
and a few more smaller projects, a few I'm finishing up, and a couple I may be taking on.

And that's it for now I think. I've probably left out a few things that escape me at the moment.

B-Out

Dad

So yesterday was Father's Day, and of all days my Dad emailed me then. First time I had talked to him in two and a half years. I wish him a happy Father's Day and ask how he's doing and all that. Then he emails back asking about my life and everything, to which I'm a bit taken aback. This is the longest conversation we've had in years. So I tell him and again ask about his. That's when I find out.

Before I continue I need to set this up just a bit. my Dad has worked civil service (as an electrician) for the Air Force since before I was born. He primarily worked on F-15 Eagles (which I got to sit in the cockpit of a couple of times). In recent years he's had a desk job. So when he tells me what he tells me I'm shocked.

Turns out he's been in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia to be exact) since August for a year PCS and I didn't even know about it! Well, as you can imagine, I don't know whether to be upset or concerned for his safety. I don't know what the current conditions are over there (I'm terrible about keeping up with current events) but I know they're not great.

So anyway, it was good to hear from him, just a little jarring considering the information I received.

B-Out

Sigh

Well, I'm not going down without a fight, but it doesn't look good for Wannabez. A few projects skyrocketed last night and shot from 80+ to over 120 and 130! My peeps just ain't votin' this time around (save the few that did, and to you I extend the utmost gratitude!).

It's not over yet, with a little less than EIGHT HOURS to go. But it's Sunday and people usually have better things to do on their weekends than sit around the computer voting for little ol' me. So we'll see how it plays out.

I feel good about the project regardless, and there has been some interest in it. So we'll see what happens from here. The important thing is this 12 page #0 issue will be published regardless, even if it is in an anthology. I'd still like to win though!

As for Totem, it's in a similar boat. I haven't checked the most recent votes, but it was in jeopardy just as much as Wannabez if not more at one point.

Both of these projects will eventually get out there, I can guarantee that. We've both come way too far with these particular projects (and both have been through way too many setbacks) to give up on them now.

Thanks for all your support, and if you haven't voted yet, THE CLOCK IS TICKING.

(click the title post to go to the thread to vote for Wannabez - for Totem check previous posts!)

B-Out

Less Than 30 Hours!

There are only about 36 and a half hours to VOTE FOR WANNABEZ in the Small Press Idol Contest. So what are you waiting for?

Check these out:

Page 5 Revised
Page 8 Revised
Page 10 Revised
Sample Grayscale Image from #1

Voting ends 11:59pm Est June 10th. PLEASE VOTE!

Now head to wannabez.brantfowler.com and post a YES!

And while you're there, VOTE FOR TOTEM TOO!

Thanks! :)

B-Out

Storming Bad!

If I don't answer emails right away tonight it's because we're getting a nasty storm complete with large hail right now, which means power may go out. Just so you know...

B-Out

Wannabez Round 3 - We Need Votes!

Check out the latest post on the Wannabez Blog for details!

B-Out

Wow, Been a While!

I keep saying I'm gonna do better about posting, and the more I say it the more time elapses between posts. I'm really sorry about that, folks. Things have been so busy I just keep forgetting.

Small Press Idol round 3 deadline is tomorrow and we're (The Wannabez team) not ready! Scott and Ross are working hard getting them there, but time is against us. We'll make it, but the pages may not be grayscaled like I'd like.

Adversely, the Totem pages are done, though we're awaiting final approval on the lettering from Cary, who I understand is having computer problems.

I also lettered five projects (a page each) that entered Platinum Studios' Comic Book Challenge 2007. So hopefully one or more of them will place. They all five had solid art and decent stories, so we'll see.

I have reconnected with the artist on Aroquin, my failed entry in last year's Small Press Idol contest, and things are starting back up there. I'll update more when there's more to update.

I completely missed my column this week, even with two weeks to get it done. I just completely spaced and forgot about it until the end of the week. I'll try to have one this coming week, we'll see.

Things have been going well with SBC. We have brought on a whole bunch of new reviewers and such that are doing an excellent job. We also are getting more feedback, though not as much as I'd like. I can see us growing tremendously over the next year though, so watch out!

Lettering is keeping me really busy. I am behind on a few things still, but I have gotten quite a bit done also.

I'd love to shoot the breeze and just talk about season finales, books, movies, etc., but right now I really don't have the time sadly. I will continue to try to remember posting more. Please stick with me, I miss the interaction this blog used to provide.

B-Out