A Week in Writing #627 - 25th Comic Book Club

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. Since it's August, hopefully you're also staying cool.

We had our 25th Comic Book Club meeting this past Friday with artists Julia Canon and Rachel Wells joining us to discuss Paul's selection, Maid to Skate, a manga by Suzushiro. It's always fun to listen to what others say about the works we choose. While it's a comic book club, most of the selections have been of the manga variety, which I think has more to do with the ages of all but one of the participants. I do learn alot, since oftentimes their references are new to me. As always,  you're invited to watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, listen to it on various platforms, found here, or wait to watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT. Rachel picked the next book, Dogs on Dates, a graphic novel by Luke Healy if you want to read ahead or join us for the next one.

Wednesday is also the day we're releasing the 28th issue of Powers Squared, "Agnes: Wreckage, Part 1." Powers Squared, for those of you who have missed out, tells the story of Marty and Eli, college-aged identical twins who discover that they were granted super powers by a magical kitsune when they were young. In this issue, while trying to assist with his research, the Marty and Eli Powers’ former science instructor Agnes Miller, accidentally took an overdose of the Viribus compound, a chemical blend found in the blood of people with superpowers. As a result, she now has powers that she can’t control and neither can Dr. Atlas. With nowhere to turn, he comes to beg Marty, Eli and Mocha for help. But will they answer the call? It should be available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

I have yet to start a review of A Girl in Every Port (1952), but my review of Dr. Who and The Daleks (1965) was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked. This all comes from our recent obessession with all things Doctor Who. We literally just finished the Tenth Doctor's (David Tennant) run. We're taking a break, but there's more to come with the Ninth Doctor, the Eleventh Doctor, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures in the queue.

It's sort of the finale specials of the Tenth Doctor that I'm blaming for not finishing the go through of Blackmail that I've been doing. Some nights, if dinner is late and the show runs over an hour, I get less than two hours a night to work on things. I am enjoying the go through, as I'm finding a lot of little things that need changing. I'm currently at 369 of 408 pages and the word count is up slightly to 90,174. As always, the goal is to get through it this week, but don't hold me to it.

So, I've got a review to start and finish, a new issue coming out, and hopefully, two OAPS podcasts to record this week (details after they happen) and the work on Blackmail to keep me busy next week.

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

A Week in Writing #626 - New Issue Preview

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

Powers Squared is coming out with a new issue on August 26th. To celebrate, our most recent podcast was devoted to a very brief preview of the issue, "Agnes: Wreckage, Part 1", the 28th issue of the book series. Colorist Julia Canon joined Trevor, Paul and myself to talk about it. Normally, we would invite the artist to join us, but we had a parting of ways after the lineart was completed.

In the issue, Agnes Miller, the boys' former science instructor at San Romero Community College, tried to help her paramour Dr. Atlas in his experiments. But an overdose gives her powers that she cannot control. In need of help, Dr. Atlas turns to Marty and Eli Powers for help. The issue will be available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

The podcast can be watched on our twitch channel for the next few days, or be listened to here, or you can wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday the 19th at 2:30 pm.

We've also noticed some sound issues with the podcast, and we're going to bring in some new audio equipment, hoping to rectify the situation.

We showed up officially as guests on the LA Comic-Con website, only some of the information is really old, like they have us with a Twitter account and we, Powers Squared, or myself, haven't had one for several years. I've asked them to correct. But it's still cool to see yourself on the website. Hope to see you there at the Con.

Speaking of social media, I'm hearing that Facebook is going to start requiring users to pay to post more than two posts with links a month, starting in December. For those of you who find this from Facebook, please know I won't be paying. You are free to follow me on Bluesky (@lionsroar91406bluesky.social), where I'll post the links, or on Facebook, where I'll post the links to this blogsite in my profile.

My plan was to work on Blackmail this week, and I did work on it most nights, though some nights is less than others. I've got less than 100 pages to go and I'm at 90,043 words at the moment. After this exercise, I want to go through it looking for certain subjects to be sure I'm not repeating the same thought too many times.

I'm currently working on a review of 99 River Street, a film noir from 1953. As always, no idea when it will be published, though I have heard that my Second Screening review of Citizen Kane may be getting a prominent publication on Trophy Unlocked. In the meantime, the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's for Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender.

Next week, more work on Blackmail and prep for the next release of Powers Squared.

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

A Week in Writing #625 - Stay Cool in August

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

I guess I should also say, staying cool, as August seems to be getting hotter every year. AC is truly a wonderful thing.

I spent most of the week on Blackmail. I'm trying to do a couple of chapters a day. I'm currently up to Chapter 34, page 282/409 and the word count is at 90,047. Going through it with a fine-toothed comb is what I'm trying to do. I'm enjoying it while at the same time trying to take out duplicates, you know describing the same thing twice, and moving wording around, adding here and there. I might be done with this by the end of the week, but that's the goal.

Got some templates from L.A. Comic-Con and put out our first post about the event. They gave me Canva to use, which I, of course, never have. It's a little like setting up business cards, but a little less forgiving. I wasn't sure what I was doing until I saw another artist put his out.

I think it's eye-catching. I've also done one each for Powers Squared and The Blade of Mircales:

They match the banners we'll have up for the show.

I think we're in pretty good shape with supplies, but I want to check on business cards before we get too much closer.

We've put the final touches on the lineart for Issue #30, and our artist is going to start in on Issue #31 soon.

Speaking of new issues, Powers Squared #28, "Agnes Wreckage, Part 1" should be coming out on August 26th, though we're still putting all the ducks in a row. The peek-of-the-week, this week is the cover, minus colors and lettering, so you might want to check it out. There's a new one every week.

In the issue, when Agnes Miller tries to help Dr. Atlas with his research, an overdose of the Viribus compound turns her into a monster with uncontrollable powers. Dr. Atlas needs help, but unfortunately for our heroes, there are only three people he can turn to.

As I wrote last week, the guest we had lined up for Friday's podcast bailed, so we had to come up with something new. We revisited Doctor Who and the franchise rabbit hole we find ourselves going down, with 9th, 10th and 11th Doctors, Torchwood and now The Sarah Jane Adventures all on our "to watch" list. You can watch our podcast on our twitch.tv channel for the next few days, listen to it here, and/or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch on our YouTube channel.

The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this week was Trevor's for Mortal Kombat (1995). I did finish my review for The Big House, and tentatively started one for China Clipper. As always, no idea when these will appear.

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

A Week in Writing #624 - The Week After

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

I can't say I got as much writing done this past week as I wanted to. Part of that was do to recovering from San Diego Comic-Con and just sort of taking some time off. This was also newsletter week, so what time I did spend on writing was mostly taken up with that. One of the things we announced in the newsletter was the release at the end of the month of Powers Squared issue #28, "Agnes Wreckage, Part 1". We're looking at August 26th. If you'd like to be notified, we do send out The Bark for such ocassions, if you're subscribed to the newsletter, which you're always invited to do.

Our artist has been sending pages throughout the week, mostly the last two pages of the next issue. Our procedure is that she sends sketches and we give comments. Sometimes it's one and done but a lot of the time it takes multiple back and forths, but I think we're just about done with the lineart for issue #30.

One thing we managed to do this past week was watch The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX, which is apparently the preferred way to watch it. My review went up today on Trophy Unlocked. But, of course, this was not the only review this week on the site. The Saturday Morning review was Trevor's review of Ballerina (2025) or as it is also known as From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. We recently got into the John Wick franchise, and, of course, watched them all and have spent five of the last six weeks going through them, one by one.

I started a review of The Big House yesterday, so I hope to finish that in the coming week.

Our podcast this week was OAPS #362 - SDCC 2026 Recap, in which Trevor, Paul and I discuss our recent trip to SDCC, from panels to merch. It's available on our twitch channel for the next few days, or you can listen to it here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel. We still have, I believe, one more video before we totally move on from the Con.

I regret to announce that our scheduled guest for next week cancelled on us, so we're left a little bit hanging at the moment. I guess it's better to know now than say Friday afternoon, but it's still a disappointment, since we've had it scheduled for several weeks now. While I won't name names, I will say that I don't plan to ask them again to be on the show.

I had an update I wanted to make to Blackmail, and that has led me to re-reading it, which I've started to do, and so I'm currently giving a third or fourth go-through, making changes and edits as I go. I started on Friday and now I've gone through 8 chapters, so prepare yourself to be hearing about it for the next few weeks.

So, this coming week, we're going to start sending out formal invitations to creators we talked to at SDCC. I also need to finish my review of The Big House and I want to work some more on Blackmail.

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