Writer's Blog!

Hello everybody!  I would like to draw your attention to a little charity auction going on right now.  My good buddy Stephen Bryant of SRB Productions is putting on a charity to help raise money to fight against childhood cancer and other illnesses.  He has established a nice auction filled with great artwork, comics, books, and jewelry from many talented individuals, including yours truly. I have put up a lot featuring a signed issue of Star Crossed Galaxy #1, as well as three exclusive, never before offered prints!  You can check it out here , or check out the other stellar items up for auction right here .  As stated, all items from my lot will be signed by me.  If you are wondering what the auction is all about, check out this interview with the man behind the curtain, Stephen Bryant !  Thanks to everyone who bids, or at least spreads the word.  It is for a great cause, and i...

I know I haven't been around much, but there's a good reason.  I am now an official contributor of PCM Tech Help Show.  If you like my articles and reviews, check me out there.  I am literally doing the same thing at PCM that I do here, only now I get paid.   Check it out here ! The big question is, where does that leave my blog?  From now on, the blog will be used mostly for news on Star Crossed Galaxy, and for anything going on with my life that I feel like posting.  Or anything that would not be totally appropriate for PCM.  Like if I rant about parking meters, or something. But today, I would like to take a minute to announce that I will officially be heading up to Detroit Fanfare from October 26-28.  I will be in artist alley selling copies of SCG, as well as Twilight Pop Presents.  If you are up that way, make sure to stop by and say hi.   Well that's all for now.  Make sure to stay healthy and hap...

                    Proof that cupcakes win every  argument Mass Effect 3 was released back in March, and with it came a furious tempest of outrage aimed at the ending to the would-be great sci-fi epic.  Mass Effect 3’s ending was littered with plot holes, narrative inconsistencies, confusion, bleakness, and disrespect to the fans and the lore that came before it.  Now, Bioware has the right to shit on their game if they want to, but the fans understandably outraged over an ending that not only destroyed the entire galaxy, but also abolished every choice you have ever made for your Commander Shepard, right down to the character’s gender (“The Shepard?” Fuck that).  Due to the sheer power of the outcry, Bioware elected to calm the storm and release a new extended ending.  This ending would feature additional cutscenes and epilogues that would further expand and clarify the existing ending rather than c...

We Have Found God. Turns Out He’s a 10 Foot Tall  Steroid Addicted Fester Addams. I know I am not the only one on the internet who hates prequels.  In concept, a prequel is about as pointless as it gets.  The common prequel starts off with an established piece of backstory from whatever it is prequeling, and then proceeds to take the viewer right up to the earliest events of the original story.  So it’s basically telling a story that we already know with an ending we’ve already seen.  What a waste of time.  When I heard that Prometheus was a prequel to the prolific Alien franchise, I was disheartened.  However, if you hate prequels like me, put your fears to rest. Prometheus is not a prequel to Alien.  Prometheus is in fact its own story.     Prometheus is about the search for the origin of human kind.  All across the world, ancient civilizations mapped out the existence of a distant planet.  This planet may b...

We all knew this day was coming.  Ever since the end of the credit roll in Iron Man back in 2008, we all knew that one day, The Avengers would assemble.  That day has now come.  However, gathering these heroes together is no easy feat, as The Avengers is not simply its own movie, nor is it simply the continuation of five movies that came before it.  It is also a movie that carries the weight of four separate film franchises on its shoulders.  The task ahead is not easy, not to mention the scale of the hype that has been building for four long years.  The Avengers could only go two ways.  Either it was going to be the greatest super hero film of all time, or it was going to be the most disappointing film venture in the history of cinema.   When I review a movie, I try not to nitpick.  What I try to do is analyze what the movie did right or wrong from a more academic level.  That’s kind of the problem with Avengers.  I cannot ...

Yup. It’s that time again. C2E2 has come and gone. Last year, C2E2 became my first comic convention that I actually participated in. It was a great show, and Star Crossed Galaxy and Twilight Pop Productions had a huge turnout. As for me, I was a rookie looking to drink all the knowledge and experience everyone else had to offer. This year, I was a little more seasoned. I had a better booth, more freebies and more products to sell. It all started on Friday morning. I didn’t sleep a wink the night before. I was nervous about oversleeping and missing the train. I also couldn’t stop thinking about if I had packed enough supplies for the show. After convincing myself that I was just fine, I ate a half a bowl of raisin bran, showered up and headed off to the train. Last year I went with my pal Andy, which made the trip go by rather quickly. This year I was going solo, and without my i-pod. I was pretty screwed. Fortunately, I was sitting next to a pretty cool guy and we ch...

Hey everybody! I thought I would pop in and say howdy. Also if any of you loyal readers (all 3 of ya) happen to be in Chicago this weekend, take note that I will also be there! Yes, I will be at C2E2 in Artist Alley this Friday through Sunday selling copies of my comic book series Star Crossed Galaxy. I will also be promoting TwilightPop Productions, selling copies of the most recent issue of TwilightPop Presents and just generally hanging around. So if you happen to be in Chicago, or even at the show, stop by, say hi, purchase some good reads, and profess your love for my blog. Also I will freely sign anything. Mostly copies of my comics that I sell you, but I am willing to sign boobs like all great celebrities should. Moobs are okay too, as I am an equal opportunity signer. So there you have it. C2E2 this weekend. I will be sitting in Artist Alley at table F19. And of course, I will absolutely write up a full report on how the show went when I return, just like last year....

Bioware announced today that they will be adding a new DLC extended ending to Mass Effect 3. This extending ending will add new cinematic sequences and epilogues for those looking for further closure to Shepard’s story. Any combat? No. Do we get to kill Harbinger? No. Does the Normandy crew get saved? No. Do we get to live happily ever after with our love interest? No. Do our choices matter? No. The only thing this DLC will do is explain the ending. Wow. That’s it? Good to know you were listening Bioware. If you were listening, you would know that clarification is not what we needed. We needed a real ending that fits consistently with Mass Effect and its lore. Clarification will not work, and this is why. The Final Battle In case you don’t know, let me give you a brief rundown. Mass Effect has been a trilogy of games that have emphasized choice, individual freedom, and player empowerment. You are Commander Shepard, and throughout the trilogy, you the player force...

Finally, enough time has passed for me to cool down and evaluate Mass Effect 3 with a clear head. It is no secret that the game has come under considerable fire lately, specifically over its ending. You can see that I have already written a few posts here that demonstrate both the best and worst of ME3. Mass Effect originally started out as a sci-fi action/RPG based on classic sci-fi films of the 70s and 80s. It was to take your hero, Commander Shepard across a trilogy of adventures, allowing you to make hard choices, the results of which would culminate in its third act. A lot of hype was built up around Mass Effect 3, as it carried the weight of not just one, but three games on its shoulders. Mass Effect 3 really is a great game, a great game that suffers from monumental problems. Problems that I never would have expected coming from Bioware, of all studios. In fact, I think Mass Effect 3 may very well have become a vessel of Bioware ineptitudes in many ways. It is also an...

Only days after writing an open letter to Bioware about how disappointed I was with the ending of Mass Effect 3, here I am writing up a defense letter. Am I consistent or what? The truth is, I feel really bad for Bioware right now. Sure ME3's ending was confusing, anticlimactic , and flat out disappointing. When the two most popular interpretations for the endings are either a) a dream that does not exist in reality and therefore never happened, or b) completely illogical nonsense that makes no sense to anyone, there is a serious problem. However, the ending is not the only part of the game. Mass Effect 3 is a great adventure nearly all the way through. I really enjoyed playing it. The reason I decided to write this defense letter was because I saw a Twitter post from Jessica Merizan, community manager at Bioware. On her tweet, she asked what the fans' favorite mission in ME3 was. I wanted to respond her because I have a pretty great story behind why my favorite mis...

Dear Bioware, I just wanted to step in and voice my concerns for Mass Effect 3. I feel it is necessary that I give my opinions because I think that with all that has happened over the last few days, it would be good for you guys to hear from a clear head. There seem to be a lot of angry fans out there, and while I am not angry, I am disappointed. First of all, I would like to begin by saying that Mass Effect 3 was immensely enjoyable. It was brutally intense and the story was better written than I could have ever hoped. I also really appreciated the more emotional side to the story. I felt that ME2 was a bit emotionally shallow in comparison to ME1, but for ME3 I am not afraid to admit that I cried more than a few times. That being said, the ending really was a kick in the head. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what was going on. It seemed like Shepard was being indoctrinated. If that is the case, I applaud the ending, at least to some degree. It was cool how you designe...