A Week in Writing #539 - Growing Pains

 Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

So, growing pains is the wrong expression, but moving into a new computer has its own issues. Mostly, it's how things work and where things are stored or aren't. We found out on Friday, for example, that some files on my old computer hadn't made it to the new one. That's why, for example, this week's audio podcast is missing the music we usually use. I remedied that today, I hope.

I've also lost some applications that I had been using, like Adobe Elements. I had managed to have a standalone version of the software, which I used for sizing pages, making peeks-of-the-weeks and thumbnails for the audio podcast. I at least knew what I was doing. Now I'm trying to find one that works similarly, but so far it's hit and miss. It took three of us to get the podcast thumbnail done for Friday.

I'm not sure if it's the new computer, but the camera kept glitching throughout the podcast. Not sure why, but it was sort of annoying. Our guest this week was Tony Fleecs, the creator behind Stray Dogs and Feral. It's available now on our Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/powerssquared/videos, but only for the next few days. It's also available in audio form. You can listen to it on our website or find the other platforms it's on at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps. Or, you can wait and watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) when it goes up on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST. The direct link is https://youtu.be/yc3rBrNrxCU.

There was a lot of activity this week on Trophy Unlocked, including two of my reviews. Today saw Beatles '64 go up, my thoughts on the recent documentary on Disney+. The Saturday Morning Review was also mine, this time for 3 Godfathers (1948); this is a Three Godfather's Christmas on the blog. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Sonic Adventure played on the Dreamcast.

The holidays have already had a bit of an effect on my writing. This Christmas we have three Advent calendars, the usual chocolate a day, but we've added in one that's a Harry Potter puzzle every day and the other is EXIT: The Game - Advent Calendar - The Missing Hollywood Star, the latter we play as a family. It's fun, but depending on how late we eat and how hard the Exit clues are, it can get kind of late to really start much.

That said, I did manage to get through two reviews this week and keep up with my Skylar rewrites. But I find myself asleep sometimes at the keyboard.

No new review from me this week, as we made our annual Saturday night shopping trek to the mall. We actually are pretty far along with Christmas shopping and actually didn't buy anything, but we like to go once a year at this time to see what's what.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #538 - A Bit of a Scare

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Had a bit of a scare this weekend. We bought new laptops recently and I'm just starting to move into it, transferring files from the old to the new using something called The Tornado. It's a bit of a slow process, but that's not the scary part. I was transferring a folder called "My Writing" which contains all of the Powers Squared, Trophy Unlocked as well as the J.D. Barrister books I've been writing for years, and several other folders. Well, when the transfer was over, all that was transferred and all that was left under the My Writing folder, on both computers, was Powers Squared and Trophy Unlocked. Everything else seemed to have disappeared.

A bit of panic set in, as I had backed up most of my work onto a thumbdrive, but I would have lost the rewrites I had recently done and am currently doing with Skylar. I waited until the transfer was complete (hours) and was able to find all of My Writing in a backup file, which I put back in the folder. I then backed up a couple of files on a thumbdrive this morning before trying the transfer again.

Speaking of Skylar, I've been making pretty good progress on it, even adding what I'll call touches to chapters I've already rewritten, hopefully making it better. I'm trying to do at least a chapter a day. The computer set up is sort of interfering with that, but I should be back to it soon.

No new review this week, though I have at least one to write for They Call It Sin and, if we watch it, the new Beatles documentary. That said, Trophy Unlocked's Three Godfathers Christmas continued with my review of Three Godfathers (1936) as the Saturday Morning Review. The Wednesday Game Day review this week was Trevor's review of Doronko Wanko.

Our podcast this week was a look back at 2024. In addition to tabling at a "major" Con, we also put out two issues, a trade and had tributes to Transformers, TMNT and Usagi Yojimbo. We also had five book clubs and several well-received taste tests, courtesy of Paul, on our YouTube Channel. You can listen to the podcast here and/or wait and watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 PT here. If you do watch, we hope you'll subscribe to the channel as well.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing, and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #537 - Turkeyless Thanksgiving and Other Tales

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Not the best Thanksgiving holiday. While it's not the meal that's really important, but family, let me tell you the meal is also important. Case in point, this year, no turkey for the Hankins on Thanksgiving Day. You don't realize how much you miss it until you can't have any. Long story short, there were questions on how much the turkey had been cooked, thanks to an electric issue, and when the carving started, there was blood, which isn't a good sign. There was more cooking, but was it enough? We decided, the four of us, not to risk it. Others ate it and no one got sick, but why take the risk? So, no turkey, stuffing and no next day sandwich, which is the real prize.

The trip back was long, 9 hours +, counting stops, helped to being longer by an accident in the Grapevine. Two cars went over the edge and a helicopter had to be called in to take one of the victims to the hospital. Meanwhile, we're sitting in traffic with no clue about what's going on. Not a fun way to end any trip.

Not a total loss, managed to find a couple of Black Friday Record Store Day releases, getting one at less that face value, so I can't complain too much about that.

Because of the holiday, not too much writing got done. I feel like I'm squeezing this in, as a matter of fact.

No new reviews, but my review of Hell's Heroes went up on Saturday morning. This year, Trophy Unlocked is celebrating the Christmas season with a look at various versions of the Three Godfathers story on film. Hell's Heroes from 1929 was the first chronologically that we watched and there is more to come, as this is a popular story to retell. Trevor's review of Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion went up on Wednesday.

Even though we were away, there was a new podcast, one that we had prerecorded a couple of weeks ago. Artist Rachel Wells, colorist Julia Canon and letterer Trevor Hankins, joined Paul and myself to discuss the new issue #23 "Family Affair, Part 2", which drops next Wednesday. You can listen here or watch on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 on our YouTube channel. The issue will be available in both print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

Also, got out the newsletter today. Most of the work had already been done, but there's always something that has to be corrected. If you'd like your own copy of The Hound Dags' Howl, you can sign up by enrolling at SRCC here. It's free!

Some editing this week on Skylar as I'm reading it through one more time looking for inconsistencies and missing words, etc. Hopefully, I'll be done by year's end, if not sooner.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #536 - Under the Weather

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

This was a slower than expected week for me. Wednesday night into Thursday I came down with a cold or something similar. I'm guessing I caught it from one of the half-dozen workmen we had in the house. While I won't go into details, part of our house is 75 years-old and with it comes 75 year-old-wiring, which turns out to be woefully dangerous. It really wasn't until today before I felt whole again, as they say.

I did manage to work on both The Hound Dogs' Howl newsletter, as well as finish the reviews as I was working on: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1974), which came out as this past Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, and Three Godfathers (1936), which will be coming out in December as part of our salute to Christmas. If you've been reading Trophy Unlocked, and you should be, you might remember a few years ago, we did a salute to A Christmas Carol, reviewing several different versions from a silent retelling A Christmas Carol (1910), starring Marc McDermott, to a more modern one, A Christmas Carol (1984), starring George C. Scott with several stops inbetween.

This Christmas we're doing the same with movies made based on the novel The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne (New York, 1913) but you'll have to stay tuned to see which films I mean and in which order they will appear.

And mine wasn't the only review on Trophy Unlocked this week. Trevor's review of the video game Please, Touch The Artwork 2 on what I like to call Game Day on the blog.

I had hoped to do some more on Skylar this week, but I really didn't have the energy.

Even though I was not feeling great, I still managed to do the Powers Squared podcast on Friday night. It was our November 2024 team meeting and while we talked about the comic book, we also talked about moving to Bluesky, which prompted a discussion about AI. It was a good conversation and you can listen to it now here, or watch it when it comes out on YouTube on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST, here.

As far as Bluesky goes, you can follow me @lionsroar91406.bsky.social or you can follow Powers Sqaured @powerssquaredcomic.bsky.social. lt would help as we're starting over, so to speak.

Next week starts the holiday season, so you'll have to forgive me if my input drops after Wednesday. Lots of driving, food and shopping to be done. Hope everyone has a Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #535 - Deleting Twitter and Not Looking Back

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

This week, not only had I moved our accounts to BlueSky, but we also deleted our Twitter account. Again, concerns over AI is the main reason. It's slow going rebuilding a following on a new platform, but it's a decision we made and I'll stand by going forward. If you're interested in following me, on BlueSky, I'm @lionsroar91406.bsky.social and Powers Squared is now @powerssquaredcomic.bsky.social.

On the subject of Powers Squared, I'm happy to report that our new artist, Jen Moreno, turned in 8 really good looking pages for Issue #28. I hope we're in good hands going forward.

Our two former artists, Julia Canon and Rachel Wells, joined Trevor, Paul and myself for our 16th Comic Book Club, wherein we discussed Happy Kanako's Killer Life, Volume 1 by Toshiya Wakabayashi. After that we recorded, for the future, a preview of Issue #23, "Family Affair, Part 2". That podcast will come out on Black Friday, and the new issue will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 4. You'll have to wait to see that one, but you can listen to the Book Club here or watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PST here.

While I enjoy doing podcasts with the creative team, I'm at least twice as old as any of them and sometimes feel like Roy from the old The Mickey Mouse Club, which was before my time. All the young mouseketters would introduce themselves, then this older man would come out; Roy. You know he had less than nothing in common with Annette Funicello. Again, this was all before my time, but I've seen videos from that era. I don't have the same points of references the others have and they, for the most part, don't have mine either. And, to be honest, no one tries to make me feel that way, it's just how I feel sometimes.

I finished going through my rewrites on Skylar, so now it's down to the denouement, which I started to work on too late to make any real progress on it. I know how the book will end, but it's the getting there that I'm working on.

On to the subject of Trophy Unlocked. My review of Bombshell (1933) was the Saturday Morning Review. I picked that one to go up because last week was the anniversary of the release of Jean Harlow's first big starring role, Hell's Angels (1930) and she was on my mind. I'm still amazed about the impression she made in such a short time. Earlier in the week, Trevor's review of Sheepy: A Short Adventure went up on Wednesday, what I like to hashtag as GameDay.

I'm currently working on a review of Blade, which we watched on Friday night. I won't give anything away, but I drew the short straw.

I've already started working on the next newsletter, as it's due the Sunday we get back from the Thanksgiving holiday, but more on that next week. So, I'll be working on that some more next week and finishing up Blade and hopefully the second draft of Skylar. There's also some finishing touches to be put on the next release, like loading it on a couple of platforms.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #534 - WonderCon and BlueSky

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Big things are afoot for Powers Squared. The biggest news is that we will be tabling at WonderCon in 2025 (March 28-30). This is a big step for us, but I think we're up for it, especially after tabling at LA Comic Con. I've already added it to Events on our webpage. Much more to come in later posts.

Secondly, Powers Squared and I are both leaving Twitter (X). It's not so much what happened Tuesday, though that does contribute, but it's their AI policy. I don't want to post images that will train AI. If you're following me, it's @lionsroar91406.bsky.social and if you've been following Powers Squared  @MartyandEli, it's going to be Powers Squared at @powerssquaredcomic.bsky.social. I hope you'll follow both of this on this new platform.

On the subject of Powers Squared, Paul and I discussed issue #23, only as it relates to unboxing proofs of issues #23. A couple of weeks ago, I found a mistake that probably should have been caught earlier. A glass that was supposed to be refilled, was full. I know it's minor, but you want it to be right. As it turns out, both proofs, one for Ka-Blam and the other Artithmeric, each arrived a day or so apart, and we didn't have a guest lined up, so it seemed like something new we could do. This issue comes out on December 4 and will be available in post physical and digital and links will be available in The Campus Store on our website. If you're curious to hear our latest podcast, OAPS #269, here or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PST here.

The peek-of-the-week, and yes, we do it weekly on the website, is a pencil of the cover. You can look at it here.

Yesterday was the first Neurodiversity Comic Con. I heard it went well. I've added some photos on our website on the Events page; to see them scroll down below WonderCon. Powers Squared was one of the sponsors.

Finished two reviews this week: one for The Thirteenth Chair (1929) and the other for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; the latter should be up on or before the upcoming holiday. No new review this week, as we rewatched Chicken Run this weekend. As I write that, I realize we've never reviewed that title before, hmm.

My review of The Cat's Meow (2002) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this past week. But that wasn't the only review on the blog; Trevor's review of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed was the Wednesday Game Day review.

Did some work on Skylar and actually wrote some on it, but it is far from finished.

While I haven't launched query season, I did sign up to get a link to a video seminar about query letters. If and when I look at it, I'll let you know what I learn.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #533 - Busy Week but Fall Back Looms

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I'm sort of happy to have last week behind me. Congrats to the Dodgers, but those games pushed everything back in my house. And then there was Halloween, which, while fun, was also a bit of disruption as well. And, of course, looming ahead this week is the great fall back, which means it'll get dark earlier and that could affect me, since it has in the past. But that'll be next week's post.

On to this week and let's start with Powers Squared. At the moment, we have two artists, Julia Canon and Jen Moreno, working on separate issues. While I thought that would be a good idea to get more work done, it also means they'll both want to be paid, and deservedly so, for their work. Julia is finishing her work on issue #27, which is a standalone Billy and Raven story, and Jen is working on issue #28, which is the first of a two-parter that we're aiming for 2026. After a slow start, Jen has shown some real talent for sequential storytelling and we're very hopeful going forward.

So during the week, there was a lot of reviewing of pages from both with comments and some revisions, so good for the future of Powers Squared.

This week was capped by our newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which we send out once a month. I'll put in my plea here for readers to subscribe. It's easy, free, and can be done here. (You get a free digital copy of Issue #1, an added inducement.) We covered the usual topics, including our tabling at LA Comic Con, our bookshelf debut and our support of the Neurodiversity Comic Con, which is happening next week. We also do a salute to twins, this month being  animators Tom and Tony Bancroft, whom we met at Lightbox and much more. Info on subscribing (enrolling at San Romero Community College) can be found here.

Our Friday podcast was a salute to 40 years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You can watch it here on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST or listen to it now on our website or one of the other platforms you'll find there as well.

Still working on my review for Elektra, which I need to finish. And I might be reviewing The Thirteenth Chair (1929). That said, my review of The Man with Two Faces (1934) was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked. However, it was far from the only review that week on the blog. Paul continued his tribute to Resident Evil games with a second look at Resident Evil Village for the PS5, and on Halloween his review of Silent Hill 2 (2024) went up.

And let's not forget Skylar, I managed to work on that novel for a couple of nights. Some rewrites, but mostly updating per my own edits. I am finding that my chapter numbering in the first draft was pretty inconsistent; I think I had three chapters with Chapter Twenty-Nine as the header. More to come on that.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing # 532 - First Time at LightBox

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

This past Saturday, yesterday, I attended the LightBox Expo in Pasadena with Paul and Trevor. They are old hats at attending, but this was my first time to go. If you've never been, the main floor is like a giant Artist Alley, with nice tables, etc., and from what I could tell original artwork, not glorified fan art that you find at many Cons. The emphasis, though, is on animation, so it's a chance to meet and talk to animators, character designers and some voice actors.

There were two panels that I wanted to attend, but was not able to get a ticket for. I know the excuse is to blame line management, but in this case, I think they're not very organized as you're told one thing will happen when something else does. We were told to come back in thirty minutes when they would have the line up but when we came back early, there were already too many people in line for us to get tickets. And, another time, someone from the Expo moved the line we were in only to abandon us and leave us out of the running for tickets.

But otherwise, we had a good time and did make some connections that we're hoping will turn into guests on our podcast.

Speaking of OAPS, this past Friday we had a conversation with Ramon Gil, a comic book writer, artist, creator and teacher about his career and the Neurodiversity Comic Con that's coming up on November 9 at the Gillen Brewer School in New York. Gil is curating the event. Powers Squared is a sponsor and while we won't be in attendance, we have donated a couple of our trades to be auctioned. You can listen to our conversation here or wait and watch it on YouTube on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

And, on the subject of trades, I'm happy to announce that our first trade has made its bookstore debut at the Talk Story Bookstore in Hanapepe, Hawaii. So, if you're going to Kauai, please be sure to drop by.

On the subject of Powers Squared, some good work done, but no pages ready to share just yet.

My review of Island of Lost Souls was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I've been assigned to do the review of Elektra (2005), which we watched on Friday. Saturday night was a MS3K Night after all the walking at LightBox. While my review may have ended horror month, Resident Evil Month continues with Paul's review this past Wednesday, a Second Look - Resident Evil 7: Biohazard with more to come.

I've also been working, slowly it seems, through the rewrite of Skylar, but I am working on it most nights.

So, this coming week, more of that, my review of Elektra and work on the newsletter The Hound Dogs' Howl, which comes out next Sunday.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #531 - Lots and Lots (Reviews and Videos)

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I'm still very much in the editing mode on Skylar and at the rate I'm going, I think I will be for the next couple of weeks. In addition to various other things, I'm getting through a chapter or two a night on the nights I'm writing. Some nights, like Fridays and Saturdays, I'm writing, but not at night and not always on this book.

I was thinking earlier in the week about my promise to start querying for an agent again, now that LA Comic Con has passed. Not sure which book to query yet and I still have to write a good paragraph summation. But thinking about it doesn't get it done. I'll have to do better on that one.

Currently, I'm working on a review for Island of Lost Souls. This will be the final Halloween review of the month for Trophy Unlocked; so I have a deadline to complete, hopefully tonight or Monday. My review of Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) was the Saturday Morning Review on the blog but far from the only review this week. It's Resident Evil Month, so two reviews went up during the week, both written by Paul. On Tuesday it as Resident Evil 6 and on Thursday it was Resident Evil: Revelations 2. And you might be saying, wow that's a lot of reviews for one week, they couldn't do another one, but you'd be wrong. Today, Paul's review of My Hero Academia: You're Next went up as well.

Staying with the Resident Evil theme but unrelated to Trophy Unlocked, our Friday night podcast was Resident Evil Retrospective (RE4R-RE8), part 2 of a videogame retrospective Paul started last year. You can listen to it here (Play Loud) or watch it on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 PDT on our YouTube channel.

On the subject of podcasts, next week, we're having Ramon Gil on the show. Ramon is a comic book creator, but also one of the principals behind Neurodiversity Comic Con next month in New York (November 9). Information about the event can be found on our website at Events. We were invited to table, but it was a little far for us, but Powers Squared is an additional sponsor of the Con. We go live at 6 pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared.

Since my last post, we've also put up two new videos on our channel both from Paul, Oreo Coke Collab | Taste Test Special, which explores the flavor combination with cookies, soft drinks and Slurpees with Paul as your Tasting guide; and A Tale of Two DeLoreans | LACC 2024 BTS, some behind the scenes footage we shot, which also happens to feature the Back to the Future DeLoreans that were at the show. One was promoting the musical and the other was a reconditioned car from the films.

On the comic book front, we're in a waiting game for pages, but that too should change next week as we're expecting pages from both Julia Canon and from Jen Moreno, both currently artists on different books.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see back here next week.

A Week in Writing #530 - Back to Reality

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

This is my first real post-Con week and sadly, the glow wears out quickly. It's a different feeling that I usually get when we go to say San Diego Comic-Con. Not totally unrelated, but different. And strangely, when I attend a Con I get more questions at work about it. This time, no one in my department even asked about it. Someone at work, in another department, did ask a couple of days later, but you kind of hope that it's a conversation for at least the first day. But alas...

We have been very busy with the videos about the Con on our YouTube channel. First up was Paul's LA Comic Con Haul video, wherein he talks about his experience and what exclusives he bought and who he got autographs from/spoke to. That went up on Tuesday. On Wednesday was our podcast from the floor, OAPS #264 LIVE From LA Comic Con 2024, that was followed on Friday with the Under The Radar | LACC 2024 Panel video. Paul edited two recordings, one by Erik Arreaga and one by my wife Nancy, together. We ended the week with the podcast, OAPS #265 LA Comic Con Wrap Up (feat. Lucas Scheffel). The audio can be heard here and the video will be available on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

Interesting story, we were planning to talk about the experience on our podcast, who wouldn't, before Lucas offered to ask us questions about it. Our videos with Lucas are always fun, so we thought that would be an interesting twist. So, when that goes up on YouTube, I think we'll be pretty much done with L.A. Comic-Con.

Did we get the fever to do more Cons? I would say yes. We've reached out to a couple and we'll see what comes of it. I know we're on the waiting list for Artists' Alley at Ontario, and we've applied to both WonderCon and SDCC. In fact, I wrote to SDCC on Monday and got an almost immediate reply, telling me that submissions would have to be postmarked by October 11th. Since I had the day off, it was relatively easy to comply, but I'm glad I asked when I did.

I got back to my rewrites on Skylar and I believe I only got through five chapters, so less than expected.

For Trophy Unlocked, I'm working on a review of Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), which I need to complete because that's going to go up on Saturday, as part of our horror in October salute. My review of The Vampire Bat was the Saturday Morning Review and Paul's review of Resident Evil: Revelations was the Wednesday Game Day review. More horror and Resident Evil to come.

This week, I have that review to finish and more work on Skylar and I should probably start work on the newsletter.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #529 - Report From the Front - Tabling at L.A. Comic-Con

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

This week, Powers Squared took a step that it had never done before, that is tabling at a "major" Con; and I intentionally put major in quotes. While L.A. is a major city, L.A. Comic-Con does not have the same reputation as say San Diego Comic-Con, or even WonderCon, though the last event was a bit of a disappointment.

Friday was the first day of the Con. As you might imagine, no one really slept well the night before, mostly due to anxiety; we were delving into the unknown for us. We had been told that we would unload and then get our badges and were expecting that when we got to the Convention Center. However, there was a long line of cars that wasn't moving. Getting out to investigate, I was told I'd have to check in first and when I went to check-in, I was told that I'd have to have the badge first.

We left the car in what was supposed to be a turning lane to go get our badges. I told the guy behind us that we would be leaving the car there and he was cool with it, as he was aware and his wife was getting their badges. Picking up the badges wasn't hard, though it's a long walk from the back of the convention center, through the garage to the front lobby. The only hitch was, even though I had informed the Con and had been told it would be taken care of, initially, there were only two badges, when I had requested four, but that was easily overcome and off we went.

Badges in hand, we got our pass, took the truck up and unloaded all the stuff we'd brought. Unloading wasn't hard and then we moved the truck. We had been told parking would be $25 and it turned out to be $30.

After setting up the booth, we took some boxes back to the truck and waited. We had been introduced to the floor manager, but when I tried to approach him later, I couldn't catch him. We had brought four chairs and didn't need the two assigned to the booth. I wanted to get rid of them, but not be charged for missing chairs or some such thing. We spent the day with the chairs, to make a long story short.

Being on the booth side of a Con is a much different experience. Time moves very slowly and especially so when there is little foot traffic. We did manage one sale and got three people to sign up for our mailing list. I don't think there were many sales going on around us, but for all we'd put into it, the results weren't great to say the least. But it's the first day of the Con, right?

We had brought a laptop to make a stab at recording our Friday night podcast, but due to connection issues, we ended up calling in with Paul's phone hooked up to a microphone and two headsets. I haven't seen the results, but they're available here to listen to and will be uploaded for Wednesday's premiere on our YouTube channel.

Saturday was a longer day than Friday and was somewhat uneventful for our booth. It was chibi shirt day, as we all wore chibi shirts of the four main characters, Marty (Paul), Eli (Trevor), Mocha (my wife) and Dr. Atlas (me). It actually helped with the pitch, as I could use my shirt to explain Dr. Atlas being in the story.

If you look at the description of our neighboring vendors, you might get the wrong impression of the people behind the table. To one side of us was a company that published spicy romance and erotica books and on the other side was a couple that published images of the boss cat back at their bookstore. Our pre-apocalyptic comic book was wedged in between. We could literally watch people look at the books and the oh and ah over the cat images; and, of course, passing us by in the process.

However, we did sell 3 issues (all #1) and 1 trade, so sales were way up from the day before.

Sunday was our last day and possibly the best day we had at the Con. We sold 17 issues, most to one person, and 1 trade. We also had a panel to attend, Under the Radar, which was a good experience. John Barber came up from San Diego to moderate. Steven Prince (Monster Matador) and Erik Arreaga (Chingona) were panelists along with the three creators of Powers Squared. As was the case the last time we had this panel, the panelist outnumbered the attendees most of the time.

We had heard that packing up at LA Comic Con is the worst, so we planned ahead and got off the floor before it got really bad. We would have made a quick getaway, but we couldn't find my keys. I wasn't sure what had happened to them and they didn't show up until we got home and were in my backpack, which we had searched several times on the way out. Tricky keys.

A big shout out to my wife, Nancy, who pitched in and did so many things for the Con, from setting up the booth to passing out business cards that I know it wouldn't have worked as well without her.

You can see images of our tabling at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/events. Scroll down one event to watch the slideshow.

Even though we were busy all week, we did manage to keep Trophy Unlocked going, with Paul's post of Resident Evil 5 on Wednesday and my review of Little Shop of Horrors on Saturday morning. Given the circumstances, no new reviews for me this week.

I also managed to do a little rewrites on the next story, but not much as time was short getting ready.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #528 - Happy Birthday and then Happy Birthday!

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

The birthday stuff is real. I had mine on Wednesday the 25th and then my sons had theirs on Saturday the 28th. I only mention it since it did impact writing this past week, as we actually went out to dinner twice in three days. We had a good time though, which is what really counts, and I got some cool gifts along the way.

The real story is LA Comic-Con, which seems to be rushing at us like a freight train. I think we're about as prepared as we can be, but there is bound to be something we missed. But it's a necessary step in the process of trying to grow our audience, which is what I hope happens as a result.

If you're going, were in Small Press SP304. And if that wasn't enough, we're participating in the Floor Tour, organized by Don Nguyen, who has been a guest on our podcast. The flyer is pretty self-explanatary:

And, if that weren't enough, we're also part of a panel: Under the Radar. If you remember, we did this same panel at LA Comic-Con back in 2022. This time, we've upgraded the moderator, from me, to John Barber and the guests are pretty impressive as well, Erik Arreaga (Chingona) and Steven Prince (Monster Matador).

And there are also these three stragglers, me and the boys behind Powers Squared.

We had a pre-panel discussion on Friday's podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. Erik wasn't able to attend, but we had a good discussion with John and Steven. You can listen to it now here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube Channel. Our better yet, you could attend the panel in person to lend support.

The rest of the time, I spent editing Skylar. I'm finally at the part where I need to do some more writing to tie the story up. That may have to wait until after the Con.

No new review from me this week, as we went out for dinner on Saturday. But there were still reviews on Trophy Unlocked, with a Wednesday Game Day review of The WereCleaner by Trevor and then the Saturday Morning Review was also his for The Wild Robot, which we squeezed in on Friday afternoon.

The next week will probably be Powers Squared-centric, as the Con is coming and I also have to work on the newsletter, which, like this missive, will be delayed one day because of the Con.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week, only on a Monday.

A Week in Wrting # 527 - Editing is My Favorite Part of Writing

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course writing.

I've spent most of my writing time this past week editing Skylar. This is my favorite part of the writing process, since I feel that I always want to make it better. While I've been working on this book, for what seems like forever, it is interesting to read passages that I haven't in months. I haven't quite gotten to parts that need major revisions or new content, though I do think that's coming at some point.

I was spending the rest of my time working on t-shirt displays for LA Comic-Con, which was basically sizing images and QR codes. Speaking of LACC, I believe we've purchased almost everything we're going to need for the show, but there is still some signage that needs to be dealt with, including pricing.

I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous about the Con. There are so many unknowns involved. I'm hoping that all the planning will pay off and we'll have a pretty much smooth operation, but there are other factors I can't yet imagine, since we've never done anything like this before.

Some of that was covered in our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, this past Friday. It was our September Team Meeting with artist/colorist Julia Canon, artist Jen Moreno and Trevor, who letters the books. You can listen to it here or wait until Wednesday and watch it on our YouTube channel at 2:30 pm LA time. These are usually some of my favorite podcasts, though some of the best conversations happen after sign off.

Next week, the podcast will play host to John Barber, Erik Arreaga, Steven Prince and the creators of Powers Squared for a pre-panel virtual meet and greet. The six of us will be moderator and panelists at Under the Radar, at LA Comic-Con. I believe I'm the only one who has spoken to everyone involved and want to be sure we all know each other a little better before the panel. That will be next Friday at 6 pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared. Be There and Be Squared, as we say.

Okay, no new review from me this week. The plan was to watch something I'd recorded, but since it was Batman Day, we decided at the last minute to watch Batman: Hush and I won't be the one writing that review.

My review of  We're in the Money (1935) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, but it was far from the only one this week, as on Thursday, Trevor's review of Transformers One was published and Wednesday was Game Day with Paul's review of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which was also the 1600th review on the blog.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #526 - COVID/Flu Vaccinations

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

As I've mentioned before, Powers Squared will be at L.A. Comic-Con in October. That was part of the reason we decided this past Friday to get our Covid and Flu Vaccinations. And while we were aware that there would be side effects, none of expected that it would pretty much lay us up for Saturday. The vaccines are a good idea for everyone, but just beware it's going to kick Covid and the flu, but your own ass a little bit, too.

So, if you're going to be attending L.A. ComicCon, please look us up using this handy little map.

And, if you're coming on Sunday, please check out our panel, Under the Radar. It's at noon on Sunday in room 406A. (And, yes, I'm aware Steve Prince's name is mispelled and the app will be updated.) We're going to have a podcast with all of the participants on the 27th, so that might be fun to watch.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we had a good session on Sunday afternoon, going over sketches by our new artist, Jen Moreno. She started work on Issue #28 "Agnes Wreckage" (working title) and Paul and I had a call with her going over the pages. Good stuff.

Because of the side-effects, mentioned above, no new review this week from me. We instead watched Shorts 2, a collection from Mystery Science Theater 3000. My review of The First Auto was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. And, if  you missed it, like I did, there was a Wednesday is Game Day review of 20 Small Mazes, written by Trevor.

On our Friday podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, we interviewed James Salvani, a comic book artist and writer, best known for his work on the Darkwing Duck comic books. He talked about his career as well as his new Kickstarter for Pirates: A Graphic History. (That's a link to the Kickstarter).  If you'd like to hear the podcast, you can listen here, or you can wait and watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

To round out the week, I started editing on Skylar. This is my favorite part of the writing process, editing my own work, and trying to make it better. I've gone through about 154 pages so far and that will be my primary project next week.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #525 - 10 Years of Weeks

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Well, I'm going to consider this my 10th anniversary for writing this blog. I think the first post came out on September 1, 2014, but my first A Week in Writing was the 7th. If you're looking for some retrospective or a detail of what I've learned in that time, I'm going to disappoint you. What I've learned in the past ten years is not to give up. You've got to keep trying, keep moving forward and not stop. If your dream is to write, then you've got to write.

Before getting on with it though, I do want to thank my son Paul, who has been the editor on this blog for its entire run. It would be gibberish without him.

Since this blog is supposed to be about the past week, we're going to discuss that.

While this blog is celebrating it's 10th anniversary, we just did our 260th On the Air with Powers Squared. Since we've had him on the show seven times before, we decided to celebrate the milestone with Lucas Scheffel, a comic book creator from Australia. We talked about his projects, his recent con appearances and even his son's own book Pepperoni Man. But in a change of pace, we also discussed "Family Affair" Parts 1 and 2. You can listen to our conversation here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel.

During the week, we reviewed Julia's sketches for her final six pages of Issue #27. I believe I mentioned this previously, but Julia and Jen will be trading jobs on the book. Hopefully, we can get the issue completed by the end of the year.

Let's move on to Trophy Unlocked. This week, I had two reviews on the blog. The Saturday Morning Review was mine for Chaplin (1992). On Saturday, we went to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, so I wrote the review for that film and it went up this morning. I also started a review of Professional Sweetheart, but I'm not done with that one yet.

Since we were going to review Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, I thought I would take a look at my older review of Beetlejuice. At the end of the review was an outdated link to Warner Bros's Archive site, so I removed it. Apparently, removing that led to the blogger.com people pulling the review, referring it saying it "was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines..." Huh? Editing is a violation of their guidelines? Apparently, we were spamming??? Anyway, it apparently righted itself and the post is back up.

And, if that wasn't enough, I believe I've finished the first draft of Skylar. I'm hoping net week to start editing. I believe there are still holes, but it's time to get on with it.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #524 - Finally Getting Up to Speed

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

For whatever reason, the last two weeks have been a slog for me trying to get anything done. Late starts and falling asleep haven't helped. But this past week, I feel like I got back into it and made some real progress on things.

But let's start with the newest issue of Powers Squared, "Family Affair, Part 1", which drops on September 4. In this issue, Marty and Eli must get ready for something they've been trying to avoid, seeing their parents, Peter and Peggy Powers. And it turns out that their parents have secrets of their own. The issue will be available in both print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

We also recorded a preview of the issue with colorist Julia Canon joining Paul, Trevor and myself. It is scheduled to be released the same day that the issue comes out. Hear it now here or watch it later on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

Speaking of podcasts, next week will be #260 for On the Air with Powers Squared, or five years, so be sure to check it out next Friday, September 6 at 6 pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared.

That leads me to the newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which came out today. It's not hard to write, but it does take some time and I have to come up with a couple of news items besides just pointing to past podcasts. This time, I wrote about Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, twins comic book writers and creators from Brazil. While you should join the mailing list, you can also read it here if you'd like.

Still getting ready for our turn at L.A. Comic-Con. I don't yet know where on the floor we'll be, but the panel I proposed, Under the Radar, will be Sunday at noon in room 406 B. We're planning on a pre-Con podcast with the participants and moderator on Friday, September 27.

There always seems like there's something else to do to get ready and I'm afraid we're still putting together the pieces. I would imagine things would be going together quicker and cheaper if this wasn't our first major Con. Hopefully, the next one won't take so much set up. Hopefully, there will be a next one.

We have all the books. This week, we bought sample t-shirts to hang up. Again, we're not selling them at the Con, but I've reduced the price on each to $20 and there will be a 15% discount, so I hope that is enticing enough to hopefully make some sales during the Con. Still need to buy the dolly for all the stuff.

Finished my review of Lady Be Good this week and began the process around The First Auto. My review of High School Confidential! (1958) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. When we were picking one, I thought it might be appropriate since school was starting all over the country.

And I also worked on Skylar this week. Though I never wrote a 1000 words a day, that's a goal, I did complete the first draft of a chapter I wanted to write, so I made progress there as well.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing # 523 - Another Slow Week

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

This has not been another red-letter week for me, when it came to writing. This week's excuse: the DNC and watching speechs after dinner and sometimes until almost 10 at night. I'm not going to get political, but that's my excuse this week.

The main project, which did take time, is trying to revise a "handout" that I'd like to make available at LA Comic-Con, describing our books. I use the word handout loosely, meaning something to have available at the table for passerbys to puruse, in case they want to look, but not speak. Prep continues in big and small ways, including ordering s-hooks to use to hang sample t-shirts from. We settled on the samples, now I'm trying to lower the prices before I order any.

We did receive an invite to participate in the first ever Neurodiversity Comic Con on November 9 in NYC. That, as they say, is a litttle too far for us. We are donating a couple of hardback trades to the cause, but it would be a little too expensive to participate in person. If you're interested in the con, you can find more information here: http://www.diversitycomiccon.com

We're still prepping for the next issue of Powers Squared  to be released on September 4. Paul and I spent a few minutes getting the book up on Kindle and GlobalComix. Family Affair, Part 1 sees Marty and Eli preparing for a visit from their estranged parents, Peter and Peggy Powers. And even though the boys have their secrets, their parents have some of their own. You can read a review of the issue: here.

This past week's podcast starred Trevor as we discussed Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Trevor has been reading the long-running comic book series, which is a good thing for a podcast about a book series. You can listen here or watch it on YouTube on Wednesday.

One more note about Powers Squared, I realized this morning that the newsletter is only a week away, so that's something else I'm going to have to work on this week.

Even though I haven't really worked on my backlog of reviews to write, and frankly, I may skip some, my review of What! No Beer? was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked.

And I did do cursory work on Skylar, but nothing to write home about.

I do plan to start sending queries again but I'll probably wait until after LA Comic-Con, as I don't need more disappointment in my life.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #522 - Personal Changes and Fighting the Tired

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I don't want to get into it right now, but things are changing that may lead to changes in finances. and I I'm talking, of course, about Powers Squared. I've been financing it and after a while, that will probably have to stop. I'm hoping we can do a Kickstarter next year and raise some capital to continue when the self-financing pool gets shallow. More details forthcoming but that's all I'm going to say about it now.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we had our 15th Comic Book Club meeting on Friday. Julia Canon and Jen Moreno joined Paul, Trevor and I to discuss Marvel’s Secret Reverse by Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! There was a 4-to-1 on recommending the book, but you'll have to listen to or watch the podcast to find out the split.

Still doing some prep work for L.A. Comic-Con, which is now less than two months away. The books I've ordered have arrived, as has a display rack for the books. There are still odds and ends we need to purchase, but the list is getting shorter. Today, as an example, we ordered a cloth to go over the table if and when we're away. I will, of course, publicize the location when I know it, and that might not be until after September 1st.

And I still don't know the date and place of the panel, Under the Radar, but I will, of course, publicize that as soon as I know.

A surprise Saturday Morning Review for me, my review of You've Got Mail was selected. We had originally thought about it as a possible drive-by Christmas movie, but it's really too drive-by to really count for that.

I did finish my review of Daughter of Shanghai and have begun, barely, one for Lady Be Good (1941). Again, not sure when either will appear.

I worked for three days on Skylar this week, and while I made a change in the storyline, my three days of work amounted to about a 1000 pages total. I'm trying to power through being tired to work on it, but sometimes the tired wins.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #521 - Getting Ready for L.A. Comic-Con

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

It may seem like it's still months away, actually a little under two, but that doesn't mean there aren't panic moments in getting ready for our table at L.A. Comic-Con. The most obvious is getting the table paid for. I had paid for the half of the cost several months ago and had, I believed, until August 15th to pay the second half.

Now, wouldn't you expect to get an invoice asking the amount due? Or, an email reminder to pay and how to pay it? With about a week to go before the deadline, I had gotten neither. I had spoken to a representative of the Con and had exchanged emails, so I thought I'd try him. When I didn't get a response (and I'm impatient by nature), I tried to call him on the phone we had spoken on. Well, that number was no longer in service. What did that mean? Was he no longer there?

I tried the phone number that was on the original receipt, and again, that number was no longer in service. Well, now I'm getting into full panic-mode and I wrote the person who had sent me the receipt, then the info email for the Con, and I even reached out to the Con on their Facebook page, explaining what I was trying to do.

I did receive an email, from someone else at LA Comic-Con, who sent me an invoice and was able to pay the amount due. I even got a phone call from the contact I had spoken to. Apparently, the Con offices were moving and they were getting new phone numbers.

Not sure if there is a lesson in there or not.

On other L.A. Comic-Con news, my panel was accepted. Under the Radar will return to the Con. Again, it will feature the creators of Powers Squared, but will include Erik Arreaga, the creator behind Chingona, and Steven Prince, the creator behind Monster Matador. The moderator this time will be an upgrade, as John Barber, the Editor in Chief at Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide. I don't know the day or time or place just yet, but I'm pleased it was approved.

Now, if that wasn't enough excitment for a week, I also decided to order additional copies of our issues for possible sale. I decided to have at least five copies and reordering some allowed me to make updates to the existing issues on the printer's website. We had not only made some edits on the first five issues, but had also add the SRCC print bug to the covers. Turned out to be seven issues and for whatever reason, the printer's website was taking the uploads, so I had to save them in our dropbox and send them links. Well, the dropbox is practically full now and I keep getting fun messages to upgrade.

The podcast this week was very different than previous ones, as both Paul and Trevor were at a Megadeth concert and we were scheduled for a team meeting. I had the great hope of being able to run it solo, but despite copious notes I ran into an issue and artist/colorist Julia Canon took over. It was odd to be on the guest end of the podcast for a change, but I thought it went quite well. You can listen to it here, or wait and watch it on Youtube on Wedensday afternoon at 2:30 pm PDT here.

Based on this week's peek-of-the-week, I also updated the website for the new issue and adding a synopsis that will possibly be changed, but at least it's showing that it's coming. Since the peek is a pencil of the cover, the preview also features the pencils for the cover and pages 1 and 2. I don't want to play with the peek and then give it all away, now do I? That doesn't seem to be fair.

Well, all that didn't leave much time for anything else. I did make some updates to my review of Daughter of Shanghai, but I wouldn't say I got much done. This week's Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked  was Trevor's review of Descendants: The Rise of Red, a Disney+ movie.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #520 - Newsletter Week (and not much else)

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Being this was the last week of July, I spent time putting together The Hound Dogs' Howl, the monthly newsletter from Powers Squared. While, the newletter sort of writes itself, there are bits that need attention. This month's was writing the section on twins. If you subscribe (and why aren't you?), you would know that we do a focus on twins, real and fictional. Since we had met the Gibbs Sisters, twins who write together, including graphic novels, at a networking event at San Diego Comic-Con, I thought they would be a good choice.

If you're interested, you can read the newsletter here or, better yet, enroll at San Romero Community College here and receive it in your inbox the first Sunday of every month.

Other than that, I didn't really do much writing. Call it the post-Con bends or something, but it takes awhile to recover from the experience.

Last night, as an example, we had had dinner and watched a rather short film, Daughter of Shanghai (1937), but as soon as I sat down afterward to write, I pretty much fell asleep, and it was only 10. Not a productive night to say the least.

While there were no new reviews from me, Trophy Unlocked continued, wrapping up X-Men month with Paul's second look at Deadpool (Game) and finally, on the 31st, his review of Deadpool & Wolverine. The Saturday Morning Review this week was also his review of My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission.

On the business side of things, I submitted my panel and ordered books for L.A. Comic-Con in October; and we wrote follow ups to people we met at SDCC, some of whom we'd like to have as guests on our podcast.

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, we did recount our experience at SDCC, but more from an attendee rather than as a professional. I covered that in last week's post, which I hope someone found useful, or at least interesting. You can listen the podcast here or wait until Wednesday to watch on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) here. Paul is also working on a video detailing our experience at the Con. Links when those go up.

Nothing else to report, but there's always next week to right the ship.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing, and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #519 - Report From the Front - San Diego Comic-Con 2024

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Just got back from this year's Comic-Con. While SDCC can be brutal and unforgiving at times, it is still one of my favorite things we do every year. There is so much, too much, to do and see (and buy) at the Con, also called the Show, that it would be impossible to go through everything here, but I will try to share what I learned in the panels related to writing that I attended in hopes that something I learned might be of use.

How to Get News Coverage, this panel is moderated by Rik Offenberger, the editor at First Comics News, and a creator in his own right with the G-Men series of books. The panel is meant to help comic book creators, but much would be attributable to other media as well. 

Rik mentioned there are two types of marketing that a creator needs to do: first, is to the Comic Shops to buy it and secondly, to the Comic Shops to help them sell it.

When doing a press release, many on the panel wanted the press release to be in the body of the email and have links to the images. They don't want you to send them the comic book yourself.

Know the outlet that you're sending the press release to. If they cover comic books of a different genre than yours, don't send it to those outlets.

A press release should be about something that is about to happen, like the release of a book. It is important to send them as part of an EPK, or Electonic Press Kit, which should include, in addition to the Press Release:

• Bios of the creators
• Images
• the Cover
• Synopsis of the Book

Note: If the press release asks a question, it should answer it as well.

Also, Rik made the point of trying TV News to get coverage. TV news has to fill in with stories about puppies, why not a story about you and your work? And if you can get that coverage, it can really help you seem more legit to other outlets as well.

What to Know When Selling an Animated Series, moderated by Siobhan Murphy (manager, The Gotham Group). One thing to note that most of the people on the panel represented channels like Nickelodeon or platforms like Marvel and Disney, which wouldn't really be open to something from the outside, however, they do get pitches.

If you do get the opportunity to make a pitch, again, make it to an outlet that would be interested in your story.

Their advice:

• Know your stuff
• The shorter the pitch, the better. Your window will be about 30 minutes, so you want your pitch to be 15 minutes because you want to be conversational.
• Don't flesh it out too much with not everything filled in
• Practice makes perfect
• If you get notes, don't freak out about them
  
• Why now? Why you?

Once you've made your pitch, the person you gave it to will then have to pitch it internally.

Pitches most likely will be over Zoom.

And remember, you're never done pitching yourself.

The final panel was Pitching Your Comic to Publishers. This was a panel made up of a combination of editors and lawyers and was more of a getting your foot in the door with a new project, not necessarily one like Powers Squared that has been around for quite a while.

What Creatives think trade publishers want in a pitch:    

• Story
• Art
• Creative Team

What Publishers Want in a pitch:

• Story
• Art
• Creative Team
• Target Audience
• Marketability
• How it Fits in with Publisher's brand
• Will you be a Good Partner?
• Cost and Revenue Analysis

Thankfully, they don't expect you to provide everything they're looking for.

The project should must have the same number of pages in each issue and be PG-13.

In Writing Your Pitch, be sure to include:

• Title
• Contact Info
• Story Hook
• Project length (parameters)
• Genre, intended Age Group
• TELL the story
• Character Bios
• Artist Attached
• Thank you

Thinks to remember about a pitch:

• Should be Inviting
• Written in the Active voice
• Have Clarity
• Be brief
• Exciting
• Check grammar and spelling
• No Marketing needed

All Cliffhangers need to be addressed in the pitch. They're supposed to be cliffhangers to the reader, but not to the publisher.

For Art with your Pitch:

• Professional Art Only
• One Splash Page
• Character Designs
• Five pages of sequential Art (consecutive pages)
• Clear Storytelling
• Contact Information

Be sure to follow the Publisher's Submission Guidelines. Follow them like the letter of the law. Be sure to follow their technical specs as well.

The panel then discussed what a partnership will look like:

• Do you know how to be a project manager?
• Are you a good communicator?
• Do you hustle?
• Do you strategize well?

As an Indie Creator:

• You will be required to submit "Final Files"
• If the Publisher has to rework your files, that costs the publisher time and money they didn't budget for
• They won't want to work with you again

4 Point Criteria system for Approvals:

• Is the STORY well told?
• Is the ART good?
• Do the Creators have a large fanbase already and do they HUSTLE
• Is the Concept Marketable?

You need to have at least three of those four.

Most importantly, know what's in the CONTRACT:

• What rights are you giving up?
• What do you get paid? And when?

Pitching to more than one publisher at a time is OKAY and acceptable practice. If you wait to hear back from someone, you may never hear back.

10 Reasons Your Project May Be Rejected (and there may be more):

• The project is of a genre the publisher doesn't have a track record with
• The project is for an audience the publisher doesn't have a track record with
• The project may deal with topics the publisher wants to avoid
• The project is of a length that makes it unlikely to be solvent
• It's in a format the publisher doesn't do
• The company has a project in development that is similar to yours
• The publishing slate is full
• The project has production issues which make it onerous to work with
• The publisher doesn't think they can execute the marketing the book will require
• Doesn't fit in the publisher's overall vision for its line

How any or all of that helps you with your projects.

While we were away, X-Men month continued on Trophy Unlocked. Starting with Tuesday, it was Paul's Second Look - Deadpool 2 (All Three Cuts), on Thursday it was my review of Dark Phoenix, followed on Saturday by Trevor's review of The New Mutants.

And finally, while we were gone, the show went on with Julia Canon and Jen Moreno co-hosting an episode called  Artist Takeover!! Chill Art & Yap Stream While the Bois Are Away. It will soon be available listening on our website and on Wednesday can be viewed on our YouTube channel, if you missed the live Twitch broadcast.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.