Home of Luke Forney

My latest at DSF: http://digitalsciencefiction.com/zot-and-the-cozy-science-fiction-future/

From a couple days ago, my latest article: http://digitalsciencefiction.com/ebook-short-science-fiction-kelly-hamilton-and-harrell/

My second article at Digital Science Fiction is up, on the conclusion of NASA’s space shuttle missions.  I hope you check it out!

More and more, modern comics and graphic novels seem to get wrapped up in a sense of literary pretension.  Whether it is a litany of “This is a graphic novel, but it’s okay because its literary,” or “This graphical novel is bad because it lacks literary merit,” literary snobbery seems to be on the rise with this growing literary art form.  Not that “literary” graphic fiction is bad; far from it, it has helped the genre grow, and presented some of its truest classics, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman to Frank Miller’s Sin City, or Watchman, V for Vendetta, From Hell, or most anything else by Alan Moore (my personal favorite Moore is his run on Swamp Thing).  Yet, that is only a part of what the genre has to offer.  So, focusing on heroic fiction within graphic/comic literature, here is the beginning of the anti-pretension project, focusing on the least “literary,” and most downright fun, that heroic graphic fiction has to offer.

            Westerns…and Aliens

            Outside of Lonesome Dove, not many Westerns are lauded for their greatness, yet the popularity of the genre can’t be for no reason what-so-ever.  Yet, if we take Westerns, we can add the one element that is even less “literary,” aliens, and what do we get?  The upcoming blockbuster film, Cowboys & Aliens, based on the 2006 graphic novel, created by Scott Mitchell Rosenburg, written by the brilliant Fred Van Lent with Andrew Foley, and penciled by Luciano Lima.  Cowboys & Aliens is a wonderfully fun idea, with strong heroic characters and a fast-paced plot.  Fans of westerns are hard pressed to find good graphic fiction (one exception is Gus & His Gang by Christophe Blain), and science fiction is growing into a market dominated by superheroics, but to find both together is a true treat.

            Captain America

            Captain America: The First Avenger is racing to movie theaters, and the availability of work on the unabashedly patriotic and brightly-costumed hero is at an all-time high.  Ed Brubaker (whose run can be found conveniently in Captain America Omnibus, Volume 1) had a very extensive run on the hero’s book, making huge changes that are impacting the character years later.  Cap has also been featuring in multiple Avengers titles (check out his role in the hardcover New Avengers, Vol. 1), and has been key in all of the major Marvel events, from House of M to Civil War to Secret Invasion.  New readers might jump on with the just-relaunched Avengers, or check out Avengers Prime for a more traditional Avengers book.  A new all-ages Captain America book is also available, Captain America: The Fighting Avenger.

            Manhwa

            Never heard of manhwa before?  Neither have most people.  This is digging deep into the “non-literary” bin.  Manhwa is a style of South Korean comic art.  If it helps to think of it, manhwa is to South Korea as manga is to Japan: a very popular, country-wide prominent comic art style.  A popular creator of manhwa is Hyung Min-woo, who is currently achieving an increase in popularity state-side for his comic Priest, which inspired the recent movie of the same name starring Paul Bettany.  While some of the earlier volumes have gone out of print, TokyoPop has recently released Priest: Genesis, an omnibus collecting the first three volumes of the series.  At a very decent price, this is the perfect jumping on point to the series, which is an engaging tale in its own right, as well as being a neat foray into a story from a region of the world that isn’t well-known for its literary output here in the United States.

Next time, in The Anti-Pretension Machine, Part 2, we will address other “less literary” masterpieces, such as Ed Brubaker’s Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire, some fantasy content, and a new work by the estimable Steve Niles, known for his breakout vampire hit, 30 Days of Night.  See you then!

“The Anti-Pretension Machine, Part 1” originally appeared at Rogue Blades Entertainment’s Home of Heroics on 7/11/2011, along with a number of pictures showing the collections discussed above.  If you’d like to see the full article with all of the pictures, head over to RBE’s Home of Heroics.

I managed to fall of track on getting work done, with lots of non-writing things to be done, but Minotaur is back up and running, and should be ready to send out very soon.  The first stop for the manuscript is Dark Horse Comics, who requires three things for a submission: signed submission agreement, complete synopsis, and full script.  The signed submission agreement is ready and waiting to be signed as soon as the other two parts are done.  The script is for the complete story/issue if that is the entire length, or the first eight pages of the first issue if longer.  Since, if all plans go as hoped, Minotaur will quite a large series, the eight pages are what’s needed.  Luckily, with the internet problems from before, I guessed that I needed far more than that, so the eight pages are well beyond completion.  All that’s left is the synopsis.  As I said above, I want Minotaur to be a large series, so the synopsis is a bit of work.  It should be hammered out in the next couple days, and then Minotaur will be off to Dark Horse.

Once that’s done for a bit, it will be time to return to “Old Death,” a completed short story originally written for Rogue Blades Entertainment‘s Assassins: A Clash of Steel Anthology (the RBE webste appears to be down, so no link to the anthology’s page.  Sorry.)  I’d like to spruce it up and send it out again, and then maybe work on a ghost story I’ve been thinking about.  Busy times!