With A Silent Scream

I actually hesitated for once before hitting "publish" before submitting this week's Elephant Words contribution.

The photo this week was of a hotel room.

I couldn't help but be reminded of one of the lowest moments in my life. I'm not going to talk about it here, but those who know me well will probably know what I'm talking about.

 

And, so I found myself writing this poem.

The experience was a fairly cathartic one, but I found myself hesitant to share the results with the world at large. Still, I guess that's what being a writer is all about, bearing a part of your soul.

Viva Nu-Vegas!

I had no intention of writing a Slam Ridley story... 

I had loads of ideas...a poem...a song...something sweet and romantic about wanting to run off with the woman I love and maybe get married in Vegas...

But Slam had other ideas.

 

He's just one of those characters who'll muscle his way into your imagination and insist that you write about him.

 

So, this week's picture was of Las Vegas.

 

And, yeah, Slam insisted that this week's story be about him.

 

Don't blame me, blame Slam.

Young Gods OGN Part One!

Just realised I haven't posted this on here. Not sure how many people are reading this that don't read my LJ, dA, myspace or whatever as well, but just in case you've missed it, I recently released the first part of my Young Gods OGN to read for FREE online. Just click the ebook below to read it...

The Bunker

Okay, it's been a busy week here at Sharman Towers, somehow I managed to letter 49 comic book pages in three days. Not bad going really. However, it did kinda' result in this week's Elephant Words rather sneaking up on me again

Still, better late than never, although this was probably the toughest week for me yet, as this week's picture really didn't spark much inspiration in me at all. Nevertheless, as usual, sitting down to write saw me somehow coming up with something, and so you can read this week's story, The Bunker, here.

 

Also, I'm running a colouring contest over on my deviantArt if anyone's interested! Details here.

The New World

You'd think, when it's your turn to post the pic' on Elephant Words on a Sunday, that would make things easier. You're the first person to know what the picture is, and you don't have to post your story until the following Saturday. Plenty of time to work on something, right?

Well, yeah, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that...

 

This week's story was, therefore, written a good couple of hours after I'd usually post my contribution, and as I started typing I really had no idea where I was going with it. That it actually ended up having some kind of form and structure...and a point...is really rather a minor miracle.

 

So far both pieces I've written based on my own photographs have ended up being autobiographical. I think it's just hard for me to separate the pictures from what was going on in my life when I took them. In fact, I'd said to someone that there were no really strong emotions attached to this week's picture but I discovered in writing this piece that I was wrong. In many ways it follows on directly from the last piece I wrote based on my own photograph, Four Words, which was very much about the ending of one chapter of my life. This week's piece, The New World, is about the beginning of the next chapter, and my first steps into a much larger world (learning the ways of the Force...heh...no...becoming a professional writer and artist).

 

As always, your comments are welcome.

I Am Ninja

It's Elephant Words time again, and I find myself the Monday man for the second time, which leads to a very real "Write the first thing that comes into your head" moment. 

Anyway, here's my story this week - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/26/i-am-ninja/

 

And here's this week's picture - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/25/1300/

 

As always, comments are welcome.

My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms

Has it really come to this? That I'm using Bon Jovi song titles as the titles of my stories? Yes, yes it has...

 

Oh well...

 

Yes, it's that Elephant Words time of the weeks again. This week's picture , while brilliant, had me really drawing a blank until...well...until I just sat down and started to write this morning. I'm really not sure what to make of what I wrote myself, so I'll be interested to see people's response to it.

 

You can find it here: http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/20/my-guitar-lies-bleeding-in-my-arms/

The Dragon's Heart

And so that time of the week rolls around again... This one kinda' crept on me, I have to say. I liked this week's picture (here) and it should have inspired a thousand stories in me...but I really struggled this week...and then last night little bits and pieces started to come together, and somehow formed themselves into a whole today. 

So, here's my latest Elephant Words piece - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/14/the-dragons-heart/ Enjoy! And please let me know what you think...either by commenting here or on the site.

CBG Fan Awards Nominations

Hmmm....you know...it's so long since Eleventh Hour Vol 1 came out...sometimes I forget that it came out on 2008...

Hmmm...wha? Oh, yes...the CBG Fan Awards are asking for nominations... This from their site....

"Between now and February 28, 2009, you, the fans, have the chance to nominate your favorites of the past year for the Comics Buyer's Guide's annual Fan Awards. Any comics material with a 2008 cover date or copyright is eligible for consideration. Creators are eligible only if they had work published with a 2009 cover date or copyright.

Again this year, we're offering a nominating round with the survey below.

The final ballot with the top nominees from each category will be available online in mid-March

Only vote in the categories you want, leaving blank the ones you don't. Please, only one nominee per category.

Feel free to mention this nominating ballot on other websites, but we ask those websites or posters to not give potential voters a list of what creators and projects they should vote for and which they should avoid. Such detailed listings amount to a request for ballot box stuffing. As ever, ballot box stuffing will result in discarding the ballots in question. This is a democratic process with everyone free to pick their favorites, not ones that they're told to vote for. Soliciting votes is allowed, but filling in the blanks for potential voters is not."

So, obviously, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but do go here and vote.

Marvel Heroes #4 and Motivation

For those of you that haven't looked at the latest additions to my deviantArt - Marvel Heroes #4 is OUT NOW across the UK.

It features a seven page Iron Man story penciled by the awesome Neil Edwards and inked by yours truly.

It's only £2.50 and you get a free Hawkeye bow and arrow set with it! Woohoo! Go buy it now! Oh...and don't forget to check out the uncoloured inks which I've posted on my deviantArt and let me know what you think.

In other news...it's that Elephant Words time of the week again (I know, it seems like only a week since the last one...).

I went for something a little different this week, mainly due to the fact that I am working like a mad man right now on a seven page Spider-Man story for a future issue of Marvel Heroes.

Chech it out here - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/08/motivation/

And this week's picture is here - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/04/bed/

"Elephant Words are the ways in which we describe or interpret the same thing in different ways.

Elephant Words is a burst-culture website, featuring daily flash-fiction.
Each Sunday, an image is posted.
Over the following week, each of six authors takes their turn to write something inspired by that image. "

I've just agreed to stay on for another six weeks of Elephant Words!

How the War Began

Well, it's the Elephant Words time of the week again...

This week sees a return to my more usual style, after last week's foray into the more personal, autobiographical realm.

So, you can find my contribution for this week here - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2009/01/02/how-the-war-began/

And the picture we had to use for inspiration this week is here - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/28/the-king-of-wishful-thinking/

Comments are, as always, welcome, either her or on the site, and if you like it please take a moment to rate it on the Elephant Words site.

I got a bit of a mixed reaction to last week's story, which is pretty much what I expected.

Four Words

Well, on Sunday I posted this picture of Aaron -

http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/21/a-boy-and-his-balloon/

- on Elephant Words. I was hoping it would inspire me to write something happy and upbeat this week, after three weeks of doom and gloom. However, as the week wore on, and I looked at the picture more, I found myself thinking more and more about when it was taken, and what was going on in my life, and so the end result ended up far from being happy and upbeat.

So, you can read my latest contribution here:

http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/27/four-words/

It's cold in here...

For those of you that are interested...

My contribution to Elephant Words for this week has just gone up, here: http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/15/its-cold-in-here/

You can find this week's picture here: http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/14/the-cryo-van/

This week was a bit rushed. It was my first time being the Monday man, and the picture didn't go up until fairly late last night. I'd intended to get up reasonably early this morning so that I'd have plenty of time to work on it before posting it up at lunch time. Suffice it to say that plan failed...

A New Dawn

Hi all!

My latest contribution to Elephant Words is now up here - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/09/a-new-dawn/

The image that we're all using for inspiration this week is here - http://elephantwords.co.uk/2008/12/07/image-07122008-sunset-galway-bay/

Comments welcome, either here or on the site.

Elephant Words

For a writer, I don't write nearly enough, so when a spot opened up to join the team of regular contributors over at Elephant Words I jumped at the chance, knowing it would force me to write something every week.

The idea behind Elephant Words is that every Saturday one of the six contributors posts up a new picture on the site, and over the ensuing six days the group take it in turns to write a short piece of fiction inspired by the picture.

You can find this week's picture here...

...and you can find my contribution here.

I was really quite nervous about doing this as it's an age since I've actually written any prose, it's all been script work for me over the last couple of years.

Joe Quesada Explains the Marvel Knights Mission Statement

Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, Joe Quesada, answered my question about the Marvel Knights line of books, and X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT in his latest CUP OF JOE column, #27:

CUP OF JOE #27

Here's the text:

Rivka writes:

Hi, Joe,

I think there's some confusion about the mission statement of the Marvel Knights line, and which books are Marvel Knights books. It seems that Marvel Knights today is different from yesteryear. Some of the MK books are outside continuity, such as Silver Surfer: Requiem, and some are in-continuity books, such as Angel: Revelations and Magneto: Testament. There is also the Ghost Rider: Trail Of Tears which is not out of continuity so much as pre-continuity.

Could you please clarify that Marvel Knights today publishes some books that are out-of-continuity such as Sub-Mariner: The Depths, and some that are in continuity? That today, the MK category encompasses both kinds of books?"

All the Best,

Rivka

JQ: Rivka, this is a great question and you've kind of nailed the answer. There are some MK books that are out of continuity, while some are definitely in. I would consider Battlin' Jack Murdock and Magneto: Testament as stories that are absolutely in continuity, as was Daredevil: Father.

Here's a little background info on Magneto: Testament. When the project was originally being planned, it was going to be an X-Men solo character mini-series. Then the script started to come in, which was extraordinary, and we started to see the art, which is beautiful beyond belief, and then we started to rethink the marketing and launch of the project.

We thought to ourselves that we really wanted to give this story more of a "boutique" look, and the MK imprint has become our boutique imprint for special stories. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's "spectrum" mini-series were a good road map for this. So, this is why Magneto: Testament has the MK imprint, but imprint aside, it is definitely in continuity and was always planned to be that way.

X-Men: Magneto Testament #1 REVIEW

Title: X-Men: Magneto Testament Part 1 of 5

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Lettering: Artmonkeys’ Natalie
Production: Paul Acerios
Asst. Editor: Alejandro Arbona
Editor: Warren Simons
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Cover Art: Mark Djurdjevic
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Special Thanks: Mark Weitzman and the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Reviewed by: Rivka Jacobs

X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT is the definitive origin story of the comic book character Magneto. Judging by issue #1, this might be one of the most significant, impressive and heartfelt limited series Marvel has ever published.

As many know, but some may not, Magneto is a character created in 1963 by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. He was introduced as the villain, the foil, the adversary for the team of teen-age super heroes known as the X-Men, led by X-Men founder Charles Xavier.

From the start, the X-Men were not the usual band of super hero vigilantes chasing criminals. They were a new race, a new offshoot of the human species, called mutants. They not only fought the "bad guys," but they had to fight prejudice, hatred, and cruel bigotry as well. With the introduction of the sentinels, mutant-hunting robots, in issue #14, Stan Lee inserted the possibility of a Holocaust, of genocide against mutants, into the Marvel Universe.

The X-MEN comic book was canceled in the late 1960s, but revived in 1975 by Len Wein, Dave Cockrum, and Chris Claremont. Chris Claremont then helmed the X-Men books from 1975 to 1991, one of the longest, most imaginative and productive runs in the history of comic books. One of Claremont's most important and creative decisions was to give the character Magneto, who before was a typical one-dimensional Silver Age antagonist, a back-story. In UNCANNY X-MEN #150, Claremont introduced the fact that Magneto had lost his entire family during the Holocaust, and had been a Jewish prisoner in the death camp of Auschwitz.

In later years, Chris Claremont would reveal that Magneto had served in the Auschwitz Sonderkommando (UNCANNY X-MEN #274, EXCALIBUR vol. 3 #14). And that his family had been driven from their homeland and hunted to their deaths, with no one coming to their aid (UNCANNY X-MEN #199).

Three years ago, editor Warren Simons began planning a series about Magneto's origin. He pitched his idea to current Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, and Mr. Quesada was completely supportive. It took three years to get the project off the ground, put together a creative team, do the research, and find a window of opportunity in the publishing schedule.

The result, X-Men: Magneto Testament, is not only the definitive account of Magneto's origins, but a sincere and careful attempt by the creative team to portray Magneto's Jewish youth and the Holocaust with accuracy and respect. Typed in white on black, on the last page of issue #1, is an essay titled: "Afterward: A Few Words About History," by series writer, Greg Pak.

Mr. Pak says: "We've done our best to remain true to these elements while fleshing out the rest of our hero's experiences based on research into the actual historical record. Longtime readers will notice a wealth of surprising new details -- for example, for the first time we're revealing Magneto's birth name. And sometimes, because the comics record is contradictory or conflicts with historical fact, we've had to choose one detail over another. But at every step, we've done our best to remain true to the key moments that have contributed so much towards making Magneto the deeply compelling character we know today."

Magneto Testament #1 opens in the city of Nuremberg, in the year 1935. The young Magneto's family is trying to live as normal a life as possible, in this Bavarian city that was so central to Nazi ideology and propaganda. The young hero is only nine years old, and still attending school, when we first meet him. We see a brief glimpse of what it's like to be the outsider, the alien, a physically average boy who is emotionally abused by his teachers as well as his fellow students.

We also see a young girl, a Gypsy girl, named Magda, forced to clean the trash off the streets with her mother. Since the Gypsies of Germany were overwhelmingly Sinti, we now know that Magda was a Sinti. The young Magneto becomes smitten with this girl, and she with him.

But the dark clouds of the Nazi storm are rolling in, engulfing the young Magneto and his family, and by the end of this book, issue #1, the boy's world has already changed forever.

The story is not a memory, or told by Magneto, but is about Magneto, and always we see things from the young hero's point of view. It is a remarkable achievement.

Greg Pak, in particular, has done an outstanding job. He spent long hours reading about and researching the historical era, and the comic book canon, and as a result, Magneto Testament feels authentic and honest. Mr. Pak brings his cinematic sensibilities to this story. With some of his previous Marvel work, it seemed like he was a comic book writer who happened to be an award-winning film maker. With Magneto Testament, Mr. Pak is a film maker writing a graphic novel told in five parts, and has successfully integrated his entire creative and academic background for this project.

Carmine De Giandomenico's art is refined yet dynamic. There is a purity of purpose and clarity in each panel. The characters live and breathe, their faces full of emotion.

Matt Hollingsworth has done an exceptional job on the coloring, using colors as another narrative device that expands or sometimes counterpoints the action. I suspect that the colors will continue to play a big role in the story, as we get closer and closer to Auschwitz.

The art and writing, the pace, the stylistic choices made, elevate this series beyond the usual origins saga. Issue #1 is a moving and powerful book that never forgets, not only is this a Holocaust story, but the story of Magneto, and the man the boy will become.

I highly recommend issue #1. I highly recommend this entire series.

X-Men: Magneto Testament is, in all respects, a history-making achievement.

Below are some links to interviews with the creative team of X-Men: Magneto Testament:

newsarama.com

comicbookresources.com1

wizarduniverse.com

comics.ign.com

comicbookresources.com2

My Inking Portfolio

More inking...

Red Sonja inks page 2 by *CrazyEnglishGuy on deviantART

The Beast Within

The Beast Within by *CrazyEnglishGuy on deviantART