Writer's Blog!

Comic Book movies have been around for a very long time, but 2000’s X-men is what caused them to flood the market. Bryan Singer showed us that super heroes could be portrayed in a realistic setting. Eventually, the trend of attempting realistic super heroes peaked with the gritty Dark Knight saga from Christopher Nolan. Although I love Nolan’s take on Batman, I feel that it strays too far from its comic book roots, whereas Burton’s take on Batman wasn’t ashamed to admit it was based on a comic book. Neither were the Superman or Spiderman films. And with Marvel more concerned with portraying their heroes realistically, it would seem that real comic book movies were diminishing. This is the number one reason Green Lantern is so refreshing. The story begins with an imminent danger approaching our galaxy, The Parallax, which is essentially, the personification of fear. The Parallax itself feeds off of the fear of others to enhance its own power. The only beings capable en...

Star Crossed Galaxy is now available for your Kindle through Amazon. Get a copy for your Kindle for only 0.99! You really can't beat a deal like that. Personally, I am very excited! My comic book is available on one of the biggest online retailers out there! Awesome!!! If you don't have a Kindle, remember that Star Crossed Galaxy is still available for purchase from Indy Planet, Drive Thru Comics, and Wowio in both digital and printed versions. Follow the links to the side for your desired destination. Don't forget to pick up your Free Comic Book Day Preview for Twilight Pop Productions titles including your first look at Star Crossed Galaxy #2. Oh and when Twilight Pop Presents #3 comes out, there may be something special in there for Dee'arra fans. Or there may not. You never know. Wink!

I remember when I first saw the trailer for The Hangover back in, what 2009? Doesn’t matter. Anyways, I thought the movie looked pretty funny. How could it not be? It had Davis from Tru Calling, that massive douche bag from Wedding Crashers, Riley from National Treasure, some other guy I never saw before, but seemed very funny, and was directed by the guy who made Old School. Little did I know how much fun that movie would be, and that I would know every one of those actors by name before my second viewing. The Hangover was an incredibly fun and funny movie. Sadly, the Hangover Part 2’s trailer didn’t fill me with confidence. I laughed and all, but there was the unmistakably strange sense of familiarity. Other than the offensive reminders that this is totally a sequel (lines like, “It happened again!”), this could have been the trailer for the first movie. When I saw the negative reviews confirming my suspicions of a rehash, I avoided the movie. One of my friends,...

Well I was looking through some old stuff here and there, and I found old sketches of some Star Crossed Galaxy characters before we were Star Crossed Galaxy. I believe the original title was either Dead Planet or Black Planet. I don't remember which, just that it was a designation for a planet that is completely devoid of all resources and life sustaining capabilities. It had (and still has) relevance at the time. Later the title changed to Oracle, then Oracle Crusade, then Star Crossed, and finally, Star Crossed Galaxy. These were drawn by me in 2007. I drew up Cull, Paige and Taurus. Cull was originally named Dermont Cull. After that he was Jedidiah Cull and lastly (and thankfully) Joseph Cull. I remember he was originally both a Captain and a grease monkey. He would build robots and things like that. He had a robot pet named ROC. Later, certain traits were taken from Cull and ROC and put into a new character. More on that guy later. Another little known fact about Cull is that h...

Film Noire is a genre that is neglected way too often in the film scene lately. I think the last really good Film Noire movie was the Departed. Even that didn’t have the same flair as the great films of the past like The Maltese Falcon and even the more sci-fi Blade Runner. It seemed, like so many genres, that the best of Film Noire was behind it. However, video games are an entirely different matter. The film industry no longer sees old school science fiction movies and westerns as profitable, but game developers still gave us Mass Effect and Red Dead Redemption. Now, we have LA Noire. LA Noire may very well be one of the most talked about games this year. With their incredible new technology that utilizes the actual face of actors while they perform their lines, allowing the players to see every minute detail in the performance, is one of the highlights of the game. The influence of the classic film noire movies of yester-decades could only be more obvious by putt...

David O. Russell, the helmsman of the upcoming film adaptation of the much beloved video game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune , has backed out of the director’s chair. When Russell was brought aboard, there was a lot to be happy about. He was the director of Three King’s which was a good movie, and The Fighter , which was just a flat out amazing flick. However, when Russell began talking about where he wanted to take Uncharted , it was clear that this ultimate boon was more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Russell’s ideas clearly had very little to do with the Uncharted franchise. Sure he had Nathan Drake as the main character, but that’s about it. His story involved Drake and his father and uncle traveling the globe looking for buried treasures. The Drake’s come from a long line of treasure hunters, you see. It was just in their blood. Mark Wahlberg was set to star as Drake with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as his father and uncle respectively. So the premise of t...

There has been lots of information swirling the web about Mass Effect 3 recently. Tons of new delicious information about the final act of the most ambitious RPG video game series ever made has caused puddles of saliva at the feet of every sci-fi gaming nerd to have been intelligent enough to play these amazing games. I am a massive fan of the franchise and of Bioware (though their business strategies of late have caused me to become a little concerned), so there is naturally a pool of my own drool engulfing my feet up to my ankles. Mass Effect is the best game I’ve ever played. Being such a huge sci-fi fan, it’s no surprise that I would say that. Mass Effect 2, although amazing, was a bit disappointing to me. It lacked a lot of RPG elements and the story suffered from some amateur writing mistakes. I was also not fond of their decision to abandon literally every single aspect of Mass Effect 1. I understand it is an import aspect of the second act of the hero’s journey to te...

I’m going to be straight here. I never liked Thor. Out of the entire Marvel Comics cast of characters like Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, the X-Men, Hulk; Thor lacked the non-gayness of the rest. Yeah, I kind of thought Thor was a bit faffy, sue me. However, I never doubted his importance to the Marvel Universe. As one of the first and most important of the Avengers, I can certainly understand why people like him. I find the mythology of Thor outweighs the execution. Until today. Thor revolves around, guess what: Thor! He’s a brash, arrogant, selfish, and vain young man who is a bit of a warmonger. This would-be king of Asgard is banished from his realm after his faults cause irreparable damage to the balance of peace in the 9 realms. Thor now must find new meaning in his life on the boring and mundane world of Earth. Let me start off with the positives of Thor. Thor is a great character, no doubt better than his comic book counterpart. He has some...

Star Crossed Galaxy #2 has got a free preview available through Drive Thru Comics. Click here and get your free copy that hints at where issue 2 is heading. Also Twilight Pop Presents #2 is available which includes some SCG pages for your viewing pleasure. More info should be coming on issue 2 as it nears completion. Make sure to visit the Twilight Pop Productions Blog and join our forum too. Fan feedback is always welcome!

I love video games. For as long as I can remember, I have been an avid gamer. From Nintendo all the way up to Xbox 360. For the longest time, I thought games were nothing more than a fun and challenging way to spend your spare time. My opinions of games changed around the time a purchased a PlayStation console some time in 1998. I had bought Metal Gear Solid as my first game for the system. I was amazed by the story, the conflict, the dark hero, the themes, the music, everything was pitch perfect. I am not ashamed to admit that Metal Gear Solid made me cry a little. I have never before felt such emotion in a video game before. Later that year, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64. Once again, I was taken on yet another emotional journey filled action and adventure. The depth and complexity of both games stories made me realize something I had never considered before: video games are in fact art. Little did I know that more than 10 y...

So I finally broke down and played Dragon Age 2, a game I was fully prepared to hate. I heard so many negative reviews from both fans and critics, it seemed to me that Bioware had lost their flair. I was disappointed in Mass Effect 2, not to say it was a bad game, just that it was lacking in several key areas. However, Mass Effect 2 was receiving stellar reviews across the board. Dragon Age 2 was not. Is Dragon Age 2 really as bad as the reviews may lead you to believe? The answer is a firm and definitive no. Dragon Age 2 follows the exploits of the Champion of Kirkwall, a Fereldan refugee fleeing the Blight. Hawke is either a man or woman. Unfortunately, players are not allowed to choose their race like they could in Dragon Age Origins, which is honestly not a bad thing. It would have taken away some of the novelty of DAO if you could. DA2 is a different game completely. Instead of having a silent protagonist, Hawke is a fully voiced character with dialog options ala Mass E...