Comics

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About Meddling Heroes

My latest novel, Meddling Heroes, is now on sale in both paperback and e-copy. While the books find their way to local stores and libraries, you can order your copies at the links below.

This novel presents Roosevelt Pythagoras, a newly-released supervillain who must solve the mystery of his own murder before it happens. Does his villainy lead to his demise, or did one of those meddling heroes do it? He is joined by his defense attorney Eva Corson, who has more than professional goals in mind for this case…

Wait…why does the name Roosevelt Pythagoras sound familiar?

Other than the historical figures that the name draws from, Roosevelt Pythagoras was the mad scientist/protagonist of my short story “Flinch,” which received honorable mention in the 2018 New Millennium Writings Fiction Awards. If you haven’t read that story yet, I’ll be posting it here in the coming days.

And yes, there’s more!

As with my Greystone Valley novels, I’ll be adding information about the world of Meddling Heroes to this site in weeks to come. This supplemental information isn’t needed to enjoy the book, which stands alone, but helps to flesh out the world around Roosevelt’s adventures. You can check the Meddling Heroes section of this site for more.

Get ready for a world of zany comic book style fun! Meddling Heroes is now available!

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Meddling Heroes: Another World, Another Time

Einstein told the President to make a bomb. Instead, they made a man.

Meddling Heroes is a superhero murder mystery told from two perspectives: the world’s greatest supervillain and the woman who frees him from prison. Before we explore the characters in this drama, though, let’s break down the world in which it unfolds.

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My Favorite Panels: Lex’s Realization

All Star Superman

Comics are a visual medium, and one panel can leave an impression that lasts a lifetime. With that in mind, I thought I would run through some of my favorite comic book panels of all time.

I begin the journey with one of my favorite comics ever, All Star Superman. I think it’s the best Superman story ever written, and it may be one of the best comics ever. Any given page of this 12-issue series is a work of art, but my favorite panel is rather understated.

Read more at the Screamsheet!

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The MCU’s Incredible Character Arc for the Hulk (That We Never Got to See)

Gladiator Hulk

The Marvel Cinematic Universe marks a remarkable cinematic achievement. Despite a few missteps, the movies accomplished some amazingly in-depth storytelling, stringing together almost two dozen films to tell the stories of dozens of different characters. And for the most part, those characters got a reasonably satisfying conclusion by the end of Avengers: Endgame.

Of course, with so many different characters, the films couldn’t present everybody’s story in a satisfying manner. For example, let’s look at the Hulk. He has one of the longest characters arcs of all the Avengers and changes more than anybody…but none of the interesting stuff happens on-screen.

Read more at the Screamsheet!

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Thundercats, No! (Part 1 of 2)

Thundercats, No!

I don’t know why, but many people really seem to want kids’ entertainment to get re-imagined in a dark and gritty way. That’s one of the main complaints people seem to have about the upcoming ThunderCats reboot, which looks sillier than the original. While adult clamor for a darker version of ThunderCats (often ignoring that the awesome 2011 reboot was more mature and didn’t last more than one season), it’s worth noting that there is danger in going dark just for the sake of getting grim and gritty.

The ThunderCats franchise serves as a good example of why “more mature” often isn’t and why dark and gritty doesn’t necessarily make for better storytelling. See, the early 2000s had a ThunderCats reboot of its own in comic form. The resulting miniseries, ThunderCats: The Return is probably one of the worst comics I’ve ever read.

I don’t like to suffer through bad comics alone. So let’s take a look at this train wreck together, shall we?

Read more at the Screamsheet!

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The Golden Age Superman was a Badass Vigilante (Part 1 of 2)

Superman Action Comics #1

I had the good fortune of picking up Superman: The Golden Age, Vol. 1while it was on sale at Comixology.com a few weeks ago. I like the Golden/Silver Age stuff as a historical artifact of how comics shaped pop culture. In the case of Golden Age Superman, the results were really eye opening.

I knew that Superman’s early days were very different from the Man of Steel we know today. He didn’t have heat vision, couldn’t fly, and kryptonite wasn’t a thing yet. However, I didn’t realize how fully early Superman embraced his role as a man of the people – or how well the stories serve as middle-class wish fulfillment.

Read more at the Screamsheet!

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Wonder Woman in No Man’s Land: Anatomy of a Great Scene

Wonder Woman No Man's Land

For all its misses, the DC Extended Universe has mustered up a single film that took over the box office while also receiving strong praise from critics. Wonder Woman stands out at the only unqualified success from DC’s cinematic universe so far. It also provided one of the best scenes in any superhero movie.

Read more at Panic in the Skies!

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When Superman Defeated the KKK

Superman

Superman has fought many evils during his 80 years of existence, from Lex Luthor’s  kryptonite robot to Lois Lane’s attempt to become a singer. His bravery and determination have helped him come out the winner every time. However, none of them quite compare to his biggest victory: the time he defeated the Ku Klux Klan.

Read more at Time for Backstory!

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The Best D&D Comic Ever?

Fell's Five

Thanks to its roots in pulp fiction, the fantasy gaming genre goes very well with comic books. Sure, the mechanics and the fiction don’t always line up, and yes there are a fair share of duds out there. But overall, comics based on popular role-playing games is a consistent, if not high-profile, part of the industry.

There have been a lot of good fantasy RPG comics, from the fun albeit rough in quality Advanced Dungeons & Dragons series of the 1980s to 2016’s extremely fun Pathfinder: Worldscape, which mashed up the Pathfinder RPG with classic heroes such as Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, and Red Sonja. But my personal favorite RPG-based comic is the series that ran in the Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition days.

Read more at Panic in the Skies!

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Best of the Best

The final Awesome Adventures comic showcased how far Andy had come with his art – you can compare this comic directly to “The Discount Hitman” and see the difference.

I still have other scripts kicking around on my hard drive, but Andy discovered that writers can get a lot more fiction done in a shorter period of time than artists can. As a result, he’s switched over to prose writing and I’ve stubbornly refused to learn how to draw well enough to do a monthly comic of my own.

If you’re curious as to what Andy’s been up to since moving to the writing side of things, you can check out his website for more information.

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