I launched this blog as soon as Posterous launched and I've held on to it for quite some time but times do change as well as priorities. The information that used to be found here will hence forth be located here:
http://superpoweredfiction.com/
I want to say thank you very much to all of you who've followed me and participated from time to time. It is my hope that you will continue to do so in my future endeavors on other sites...
Caine Dorr
@BlaqueSaber
...Super Powered Fiction dot com HERE
If your not familiar with Deathstroke (Slade Wilson) he's the baddest mutha in the DCU. A bit like a freelance Captain America who works for the highest bidder, DS was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez and has a long standing history with the Teen Titans (at least the pre - New52 DC Teen Titans). He's the kind of guy who can beat Batman because he thinks twenty four steps ahead and all ready has the caped crusader neutralized before a single batarang is thrown.
The first eight issues were written by Kyle Higgins who also writes Nightwing and they were great! Higgins wrote an older (DS is always portrayed as an "old soldier" but he's even older with Higgins) operative who's doing a bit more struggling to stay on top. They were fast paced, high octane action with a gun and a sword.
With issue nine Robert Liefeld (yes, the image co-founder) takes over both on art and story.
Rob's Deathstroke wasn't bad. I won't call it great for the two simple reasons but it wasn't bad at all and I'll probably pick up issue ten even if only to learn about Zealot in the New52.
STORYTHE GOOD
The action quotient is still very high and Deathstroke is still the baddest mutha in the DCU. I think Rob does a great job at sneaking in some elements from the old DCU bridging the gap between the Deathstroke we all know and love who took on the Titans and lost and the Deathstroke in the New52.
One such element would be Sister Zealot.
THE BAD
I understand why Rob did it. There were bound to be (plenty hopefully) of fans who would begin reading the book with issue nine now that Rob took it over so he'd need to set his story up with a fair amount of "origin" elements in it and he did exactly that. It feels like a number one issue.
OVER ALL
I'd call this a fairly decent read, particularly for Deathstroke fans, with lots of promise for more. I plan on buying issue ten.
Digital Ink becomes Digital Comics Inkwell.
The focus here at this site changes from being my one and only blog to being where I blog about comics. These will be my thoughts, opinions, and the cool stuff that people accumulate along their travels.
I'll not be blogging about anything other than comics here from this post on. If you would like to stay up to date on my writing then you'll need to follow my authors blog, a wordpress blog, over at cainedorr.com. You can get to it by clicking here.
My Webcomic can be read here.
My tumblr can be perused here.
My Webserial Podcast here.
I'm a fan of "time travel" stories in pretty much all methods one can craft a story. I think time travel works best in a visual medium such as movies, television, or comics so you can see the elements of the past or the future in an interesting way.
If you enjoy time travel stories as well then chances are we've enjoyed a few of the same stories over the years:
In BACK TO THE FUTURE a flux capacitor, which is what makes time travel possible, is installed into a Delorean sports car. The steel construction assisting in the process, and the Delorean giving the time machine a touch of much needed style.
In SOMEWHERE IN TIME Christopher Reeve uses a tape-recorded message to place him into a trance that has him traveling in time basically in his mind (although it feels real to him and the audience).
In 7DAYS alien technology is reverse engineered so that a single chrononaut can be sent back seven days in the past and change the world for the better.
In each of these examples the writers remembered that just because a device sends you back in time that same device doesn't necessarily move you across great geographic distances as well. the Delorean can actually drive, or fly in later sequels, but most of the time a time machine is stationary.
In Back to the Future the doc talks about going back in time to witness the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He'd actually have to operate the Delorean (or train in 3) from California to Philidelphia in order to make that happen.
Reaching 88 miles an hour will propel you back in time, but not across the world.
In 7 Days Mr. Parker (the Chrononaut) climbs out of the pod that he uses to navigate the time stream and he has to call in back to base and say "conundrum" in order to let them know that there's been a disaster and he's traveled back in time. They have to come and get him with some sort of transportation.
If the disaster is across the world, there needs to be more transportation that takes him there - such as to a submarine under the sea. The pod only goes back in time.
There is a lot of time travel fiction that ignores this rule. The trailers for LOOPER seem the be the most recent. Of course, I haven't seen the movie but it looks like a very strong character drama with a bit of action and scifi thrown in to make it interesting.
My guess would be that the technology will not be explained to the viewer (it rarely is in this type of movie - my favorite attempt is in TIME COP: "The technology is explained in the binders in front of you, you won't understand it any better than I did."). In the trailer, and in fact the basis for the entire story, we see urban city mobsters transporting people who need to be assassinated back in time to an "out of the way" place such as a farm or a river bank.
When time and space are both traveled by a time machine it always bothers me and it causes me to have less of an ability to "suspend disbelief" that is often required to enjoy such movies. I hope it's not very noticeable in Looper if at all.
Will post again very soon...
The four largest comic book publishers have in fact endorsed digital comics. Marvel was the first (with a storefront where you could only get older comics for a flat fee upon signing up) but they have all fallen in line as of last year.
All but Darkhorse have used Comixology's comic book store format and simply re-branded it for their own purposes. Darkhorse has developed their own. DC stared a digital day and date release schedule (meaning you get digital comics on the same day that you get printed comics) and now we are seeing comics made specifically for the digital format with DC and Marvel. I believe that other publishers are all ready releasing "day and date" like DC, or are soon to start doing it.
Digital comics are still hampered by print comics though. Digital comics are still largely formatted for the print release instead of the screen. Digital comics are still largely priced in line with print release. Digital comics are still largely distributed in line with the print release. There are other issues I'm sure that are also getting in the way of digital comics growth.
Digital growth? I'm talking about experimentation. Experimenting on formatting, packaging, pricing, releasing and more. Everything can be examined to ensure that the end users experience with a digital comic is the best it possibly can. Digital comics don't have to be 2.99 and they don't have to be 22 pages an issue.
That's not happening though. Why? Well MARK WAID covers it here but essentially the four largest comic book publishers are fearful that if they do something to drastically effect the retailers who carry print comics then it will cause a serious negative effect on access to comics and quite possibly motivate those who still buy via print to stop buying or be in a position where they can no longer buy them. Causing a large loss in revenue.
Whether or not this would actually happen is debatable but I have the answer to keep it from happening. Are you ready? Okay here's the answer:
Ka-Blam print's comics on demand. One at a time (or whatever). I've purchased several comics from them and it's been great. They are real comics printed the way comics should be printed. Those who want a print comic can get it through Ka-Blam, including retailers. Simple. Here's how it would work:
The four large comic publishers are now free to design/develop comics for the screen and not the page. Things like packaging, formatting, bundling, releasing and pricing can now be free of the paper comic publishing needs because Ka-Blam will now handle that.
On any given week the publishers get Ka-Blam their digital files by Monday which is also the day that retailers can pre-order. The files sent in will be print ready, or easily converted to print ready. On Tuesday the next week (or month or whatever) Ka-Blam prints comics. Retailers orders are printed first, high volume next, and then everyone else.
On Wednesday the retailers receive their comics and put them on the shelf to be purchased. On Wednesday digital comics can be purchased on multiple sites all over the internet as well as the apple and android marketplaces. By Thursday or Friday people who would prefer to get printed comics but don't have a comic book shop near them can get them at home in the mail.
This solves all kinds of problems:
Action late 80's/90s style (but without the mandatory topless woman shot - sadly).
If you liked:
and this
Then you'll like LOCKOUT
I mean do I even need to give you a synopsis with pictures like those? Really? Okay there's a chryo prison in space. The president's daughter, on a humanitarian mission to check on the chryo process is taken hostage. An ex-CIA agent is on route to become a resident but at the last minute they change why he goes up there, arm him to the teeth and set him loose.
I don't often post information of this nature but it's not often that MAGNUM P.I. makes it's way on to NetFlix. You all probably know of the TV show about the Hawaiian private detective who lives in the guest house of a very rich novelist and drives his fire engine red Ferrari around. If you don't, drop what your doing and go here now.
Your back? Good.
I was at the exact right age to totally get hooked on Magnum P.I. when it was a first run TV series. However, being a busy kid I wasn't able to stick to the TV every night it was on to see every episode. Later (about a year ago) I got my hands on the DVD set and realized that there were largely two types of episodes with Magnum.
1.) Straight action/adventure stories - some with clues to make them detective stories and some not.
2.) Goofy comedic episodes where they played off of strong themes: such as 30 year old adolescents.
The goofy episodes didn't resonate with me as a kid so I was very surprised to find that they existed at all. I can even remember a conversation I'd had with someone about how they hated episodes with flashbacks to Vietnam. The entire time I was thinking that those where the exact episodes that I loved the most.
One of my all time favorites is J. "Digger" Doyle which aired in the first season:
"Magnum tries to impress a beautiful fan of Robin's that he befriends by showing her Robin's Nest, only to learn that she is actually a top security expert hired by Robin to test the estate's security after receiving a threat on his life."
This episode is rumored to have been made as a "backdoor pilot" for a series staring Erin Gray, the "expert" they speak of in the above episode. Digger and Magnum have plenty of chemistry, just as much as Erin had with Gill Gerard on Buck Rogers.
The Terminal Tempest has come to a plateau of sorts. I'd intended to write a novel now that featured all of the characters I'd introduced but other things (good things) have cropped up in the mean time so I'll need to put it on the back burner.
One thing that cropped up has to do with Commander Knight though (the first character I introduced). I set up a sort of "casting call" for the Commander (Mac to follow) and you can read about it here.
Here's a glimpse...
