Pixels Art Show
I had one of the busiest weekends imaginable. Friday night I was at the taping for the Daughter of Ghoul show. You’ll see me playing guitar behind Janet Decay in their Halloween episode. The next day I had band practice for Church in the morning, the Lakewood Zombie walk in the afternoon ( to say nothing of the time spent getting made up in between the two), Heroclix at Comics Are Go! after that and the Shining over at the Lorain Palace in the evening (Which got cancelled! Booo!). Finally, on Sunday after Church I had a booth at the Pixels art show in Elyria. I set up the binder full of Violent Blue, along with the sample comics, my Novel and a few of the pop culture Bible studies I’ve done. there was also art that’s appeared on this site – something to catch the eye of passers by.
While at the booth, I also spent some time working on a pave for “Knight to Remember”, a series I’m doing for Angel Lite comics. I never seem to get any Violent Blue done at these things…. and really I find I don’t have much time for drawing when I’m at a show anyhow.
A quick apology for not promoting these events up here. It’s been such a busy week both at work and with events like these. We’ll explore the Zombie walk later this week, but for now, here are the photos from the art show!
Composite Superman!
Way back on Saint Patrick Day, we Jessie ran a game over at Warzone where the characters had to either wear green as their primary costume or be irish. I watched the rules clarifications on Facebook and saw that green skin was okay.
I figured Everybody would be using Green Lantern, Green Arrow or the Hulk (I wasn’t wrong by the way) I wanted something different, so I pulled my Composite Superman.
This is one of those characters I grew up reading about in DC’s Who’s Who, and has really been my favorite figure out of the Superman set. I was always a little surprised at how well he plays. For 180 points, I suppose he’d better be a decent charater, but still, it’s always a surprise at how effective he can be, both with the shape change and more importantly a really deep dial, about nine clicks in all. It’s not just about satying power though, he even managed to take down a Hulk.
Also on the team were Quicksilver and Vision. Quicksilver was another really pleasant surprise with his arrogant attack – essentially hypersonic with flurry. I kept using him as a hit and run. He’s everything I could want from a Flash figure….except HE’S NOT THE FLASH!!!! Arrrgh!
I threw the Utility Belt on Vision. One of the first times I really came to appreciate it. The belt made the difference a few times on whether or not the attack succeeded. Still, it’s kind of funny to see Vision with the belt on when you’ve got Composite Superman who’s half-Batman in the first place! I’d almost think he had more right to it….even if Vision needed it more. I can kind of see that discussion going something like this :
The best team-up ever!
I’m just saying, someone needs to make this happen.
They would totally carry this story in Taylor’s comic shop in Violent Blue!
Screwtape Letters part eight
Part our of my Screwtape Letters series. And don’t forget, new Violent Blue tomorrow!
Just…don’t forget.
Normally we’ll do an essential Violent Blue on Wednesdays. Today is different.
The September 11th attacks happened days after I got married. I was on my honeymoon and I remember it more vividly than usual.
Pearl Harbor wasn’t during my lifetime. That’s still not a good reason to forget it, but a lot of us do. A lot of years, I do.
I won’t forget September 11th. Forget the politicizing, the conspiracy theories. Just remember the victims, and don’t forget, there are people out there who mean us harm, there always will be as long as we remain the greatest bastion of freedom in the world.
Zolastraya and the Bard
Zolastraya and the Bard is quintessential 80’s fantasy. I’m not sure exactly where this was sold, but it wouldn’t have surprised me to see it in hobby shops and role playing game stores as well as comic shops.
I have issues two and three in the series and it’s a fun read. black and white indie fare, with passable artwork. The creators said they went with a more norse theme to distinguish themselves from the more typical Tolkienesque fantasy you would find in D&D or Forgotten Relms. If that was the intent, they failed. It feels EXACTLY like an RPG session. That’s not however, a BAD thing. It’s interesting to note, Zolastraya is also the authors cosplay, and features on several covers, not to mention in some of the notes in 
the back.
Zolastraya is on the run from the other Norse gods because she wouldn’t marry the god her father set her up with, and adventures ensue.
I found them both in quarter bins, many years ago, but a quick web search reveals they are available here and there online. I found the first three at https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=240101 for less than a dollar each. They’re worth that if you’re already putting in another order.
And don’t forget to check out today’s Violent Blue!
Lorain County Zombie Walk
Out for a Zombie walk this weekend with my girls. I handed Maddie the camera and she took most of the photos you see today. (I had to stop on the way there for batteries for the camera, no armor but still made up. The lady at Drug Mart almost had a heart attack – she had been talking to the customer in line before me and didn’t even look up at me as she rung up my AA’s. Then she lifted her head, saw me and SCREAMED. She told me she thought I had been in a car accident)
It was a decent day, we got rained on for a few minuets, but not long enough t o break up the heat – and really, none of that rain touched me in my armor!
Of course I was doing a Zombie Iron Man this time around. I had kind of planned on this for the Avon parade, but changed my mind at the last minuet, and saved it for the proper Lorain County Zombie Walk. One of the key things with me were my props. A Batman head and a Spider-Man skeleton chained and slung over my shoulder. Spidey was a lot heavier than I had anticipated. But it was important to me to have other characters with me like the spidey skeleton and the Batman head. The best costumes and makeup tell a story. You take one look at that and you understand what happened. Without the props, I’m just some yutz in an Iron Man costume and fake blood. I found it interesting that people reacted far more strongly to the dead Batman than to the dead Spider-Man. It was also fun that a lot of people didn’t see Spidey until I had passed by. They’d take a picture of me and then I’d walk by and they would suddenly whip the 
camera out again to photograph the back with the dead Spider-Man!
Lydia also had a prop. She wanted to be a zombie Rapunzel from Tangled. Rapunzel always has her pet lizard Pasquel….and we weren’t going to ruin Lyd’s plushie so I made her a skeleton Pasqual.
I wasn’t the only super zombie though, we ran in to our friends Riley and her husband Derrick along with Stephanie and Marse (you may remember them from Herophoria) all dressed as Gotham villains. We also saw all of the guys from Hauntville (Where I worked last Halloween) and out friend Crystal with her sons.
As we wandered the block, I got pounced on from behind by one zombie hunter who then ran around me blasting me with her pistol. Another hunter came up to me and went “Oh that’s just not fair!” then proceeded to bash me with batons, blocked by my gauntlets before a quick repulsor blast back. It’s a fun time, people stay in character and you get to play like you’re a kid again. We loved seeing the Ghostbusters and the Monster Dolls, and had fun walking around. It’s all for a good cause as well, proceeds going to the second harvest food bank so no one has to go to bed hungry with their stomach growling like a zombie.
There’s one more in Lakewood at the end of the month. We’ll see if I can coax Maddie into going again (Lydia decided there was too much walking, and not enough brain eating). In the meantime, we’re heading back to the club in today’s Violent Blue!
Man Thing!
Really, the utility belt is a cool fun idea, but when you can slap that thing on anyone, it gets a little weird….especially when it can copy just about any powers imaginable. Jessie was playing his Man Thing out of the ASM set with the utility belt, copying the Power Cosmic. This is what immediately came to my mind :
Another Lydia artwork!
Lydia is back with a picture of her family. you can see Mommy, Daddy, along with Maddie and Lydia here!
Head over to Violent Blue to see what’s going on there!
Argo City Comics 