You need to play this song and watch the little guy below...
Thanks to Dana Hook for this find :)
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Winning the Internet This Week!
You need to play this song and watch the little guy below...
Thanks to Dana Hook for this find :)
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Interview: Comicbook Writer/Artist Mat Heagerty + giveaway
Mat: Hehe, I dropped the extra “t” in early high school an attempt to set myself apart from the sea of other dudes named Matt, I guess. I just stuck with it.
Sharon: Poor T... Do you two keep in touch or did you make a clean break?
Mat: He still hangs out with my full name Matthew.
Sharon: What is the premise of Just Another Sheep? (how many issues will there be) And what were you trying to achieve in the issue #1?
Mat: Just Another Sheep is the story of Banning, a timid teen with some strange abilities, learning to think for himself in the late 60’s. It’s a 5 issue miniseries. In issue #1 I tried to introduce the key players and set up a really fun story.
Sharon: Why is the series called Just Another Sheep?
Mat: Banning our lead is a total follower. He’s so eager to fit in and be “normal” that he’ll listen to pretty much whoever has the loudest voice.
Sharon: Why is it set in the 60’s?
Mat: Now I certainly wasn’t alive during the 60’S, but as I see it, back then everyone and their mom was protesting or championing some cause. It seemed like a fun place to put an impressionable teenager. Also, I just love 60’s music and the visuals that come along with the era.
Sharon: When Banning ends up on a college campus, where he meets a group of students who are planning to attend a protest, he thinks: “Flapping around like a fish out of water, I was born in the wrong time.” why does Banning feel this way and what time does he think he belongs in?
Mat: Banning’s a loner bookworm obsessed with Beat poets. That movement ended in the early 50’s. Banning doesn’t know much about his father, but his mom told him when he was young his dad was a Beat. That’s something he’s really held onto.
Sharon: Oh, bookworm…*looks out at the flock and nods* We like bookworms, hopefully by the end of the series he’ll be more of a book lion!
Mat: He certainly grows a spine!
Sharon: Banning has a unique superpower of making others feel what he has felt before. In issue #1 he makes them feel some pretty bad stuff…can he make them feel good things too?
Mat: Yes, he can make people experience pleasure too! As long as he’s experienced it prior. And Banning is pretty darn inexperienced when we first meet him.
Sharon: *looks at the flock* Oh, we’re okay with that too. We have a dungeon… *coke can hits Sharon in the head* OUCH!
Katie: Don’t you dare finish that sentence! *whispers to Sharon* What is Mat going to think? He’ll never let Banning come visit *wink wink*
Sharon: Moving on Mat!
Sharon: You are a new dad! I saw the beautiful pic on your tumblr page. What important lesson have you learned since being a dad?
Mat: Thank you very much, I agree Ollie Right Heagerty is the most beautiful dudette of all time! Lessons? I’m not sure. But I am pretty sure that how much love I have for Ollie and my wife Blair is probably the meaning of life. Or at very least the meaning of my life.
Sharon: Lucky little girl ☺ make sure she’s a nerd because that’s cool.
Mat: It’s inevitable with my wife and I’s love of the geeky that some will rub off on her!
Mat: JD Faith is a comic book treasure! Somehow his pages just kept getting better and better and better as the book progressed. He currently has a graphic novel he drew called Virgil coming out from Image real soon. He’s going to be a big name in comics for a long while. Seriously go add him on twitter @JDfaithcomics, follow him on tumblr jdmakescomics.tumblr.com/
Sharon: OMG! He’s going to draw a comic called Junkyard Lambs!
Mat: I see a theme here...
Sharon: Banning has that whole nerdy sexy thing going on…what would a first date be like with him and does he kiss on the first date?
Mat: A first date with Banning would be so awkward, just painfully awkward. Does he kiss on the first date? If he wasn’t crippled by fear he would.
Mat: There are a ton, both as a kid and now, but if I had to say favorites as a kid it’d be Batman: The Animated Series, and X-Men. Nowadays I really like Regular Show, and Rick and Morty.
Rapid Fire:
Sharon: Coke or Pepsi?
Mat: Soda water?
Sharon: No can do with that answer. We have a friendly competition going on here and you have to choose…which can do you think is better?
Mat: Hehe, Well, Coke has won the soda wars I’m pretty sure.
Sharon: Captain Malcolm Reynolds or Captain James T Kirk?
Mat: Captain Mal!
Sharon: *high fives Mat* 10 coolness points for you!
Sharon: stub toe or poke eye?
Mat: Stub toe, of course.
Sharon: football or futbol?
Mat: Baseball.
Sharon: Who’s your team? We’re Braves in our house.
Mat: I grew up a Red Sox fan in Massachusetts, but now that I’ve lived in the bay area for so long I’m Giants all the way.
Mat: I actually had to Google this. But without knowing “Get Fuzzy”, I’m going with Satchel. It’s more fun to say.
Sharon: You don’t know Get Fuzzy? *takes coolness points away*
Mat: Hehe, I think it launched too late for me and comic strips. I was more the Calvin Hobbes era.
Sharon: Alien or Predator?
Mat: Alien.
JUST ANOTHER SHEEP #1
Writer: Mat HeagertyArtist Name: JD Faith
Colorist: Jon Cairns
Cover Artist: JD Faith
Variant Cover by: JD Faith32 pgs./ Teen
In 1969 a timid teen sets out on a road trip. His goal? Find out the origins of his bizarre super human abilities. Always the follower, his trip is derailed when he befriends a group of extremist war protesters. Variant cover by series artist JD Faith (Virgil) limited to 1,500 copies!
About the Author:
website-FB-twitter
website-FB-twitter
Mat Heagerty is a Bay Area comic book writer (bartender), rad dad, happy husband, and all around chipper dude. He is the writer of Just Another Sheep (Action Lab Entertainment), and my god there’s a whole lot more brewing under the surface. He’s not made for the digital age, yet here he is.
GIVEAWAY
That sounds great let’s do a twitter based one! We can make it 3 ecopies of #1 to 3 people.
Bonus free comic
Wrinkled is a supernatural mystery one shot. It’s about a rookie cop solving a murder mystery with the help of his grandpa’s Alzheimer’s induced visions.
Written by Mat Heagerty
Art by Will Tempest
You can download a free PFD of Wrinkled
Friday, September 25, 2015
Comic Review: Bob’s Burgers Vol. 1 Dynamite Comics (2015)
Writer(s): Chad Brewster, Jeff Drake, Justin Hook, Rachel Hastings, Mike Olsen
Artist(s): Robin Brigstocke, Bernard Derriman, Frank Forte, Tyler Garrison, Tony Gennaro, Kat Kosmala, Brad Rader, Hector Reynoso, Steven Theis, Damon Wong
Cover: Steve Umbleby
March 18, 2015
Format: 136 pgs., Full-Color, Trade Paperback
Rating: Teen+
Now you can read about the Belcher family (parents Bob and Linda, and their children Tina, Gene and Louise) with brand-new in-canon stories created by the TV show's producers, writers, and animators--and overseen by series creator Loren Bouchard! That's right, all-original stories that expand upon the fan-favorite animated series, including hilarious installments of "Louise's Unsolved Mysteries," "Tina's Erotic Friend Fiction," "A Gene Belcher Original Musical," "Letters Written by Linda," "Bob's Burgers of the Day," and much more!
Format: 136 pgs., Full-Color, Trade Paperback
Rating: Teen+
Now you can read about the Belcher family (parents Bob and Linda, and their children Tina, Gene and Louise) with brand-new in-canon stories created by the TV show's producers, writers, and animators--and overseen by series creator Loren Bouchard! That's right, all-original stories that expand upon the fan-favorite animated series, including hilarious installments of "Louise's Unsolved Mysteries," "Tina's Erotic Friend Fiction," "A Gene Belcher Original Musical," "Letters Written by Linda," "Bob's Burgers of the Day," and much more!
Once upon a time I was a fan of Brendon Small’s animated series, ‘Home Movies,’ which was a love letter to just how effed up childhood could be while still finding a metric ton of joy with friends and family. H. Jon Benjamin voiced Coach McGirk on that show, and with a voice like his I've been drawn to any show in which he stars. Enter ‘Bob’s Burgers.’
When the show debuted a few years back and that indelible, gruff voice rang out for Bob, I was pretty much a fan from the word go. All the better was the fact the series taps into the same vein of dry humor and absurdism that made ‘Home Movies’ so great, but this series is much more polished and a broader scope with regards to character and plot.
So when I heard there was a comic book series too, my interest was piqued.
The thing is that the comic book series doesn’t have a format resembling anything like the TV series. Rather than a solitary storyline followed along in traditional fashion, each issue is broken up into five sections, one for each member of the Belcher family. With that approach, each issue feels more like a collection of vignettes spotlighting each character. An interesting approach, but the payoff was lacking in parts.
While Tina, the eldest daughter, steals the show in each issue through her wildly imaginative (and mildly erotic at times) fan-fic, Bob actually gets short shrift in each issue with his meager offerings appearing as custom-made burger menus. It's a nice nod to the recurring gag on the show, but it's such a let down when the title character of the series is barely an interlude in each issue.
At the end of the day, the book serves better as a coffee table book than a graphic novel. The artwork holds true to the TV series, what stories are in its pages can enjoyed in no time flat, and ultimately the book feels more like a companion piece for collector's and fans of the show. If you're a die-hard fan of the show, you'll want to check it out, but if you've never seen the show before, then you're better off skipping it.
3 1/2 stars
When the show debuted a few years back and that indelible, gruff voice rang out for Bob, I was pretty much a fan from the word go. All the better was the fact the series taps into the same vein of dry humor and absurdism that made ‘Home Movies’ so great, but this series is much more polished and a broader scope with regards to character and plot.
So when I heard there was a comic book series too, my interest was piqued.
The thing is that the comic book series doesn’t have a format resembling anything like the TV series. Rather than a solitary storyline followed along in traditional fashion, each issue is broken up into five sections, one for each member of the Belcher family. With that approach, each issue feels more like a collection of vignettes spotlighting each character. An interesting approach, but the payoff was lacking in parts.
While Tina, the eldest daughter, steals the show in each issue through her wildly imaginative (and mildly erotic at times) fan-fic, Bob actually gets short shrift in each issue with his meager offerings appearing as custom-made burger menus. It's a nice nod to the recurring gag on the show, but it's such a let down when the title character of the series is barely an interlude in each issue.
At the end of the day, the book serves better as a coffee table book than a graphic novel. The artwork holds true to the TV series, what stories are in its pages can enjoyed in no time flat, and ultimately the book feels more like a companion piece for collector's and fans of the show. If you're a die-hard fan of the show, you'll want to check it out, but if you've never seen the show before, then you're better off skipping it.
3 1/2 stars
Gef Fox
Selah Janel Talks about horror ( Mocha Memoirs Press Fall Into Horror Blog Tour + giveaway)
Meet Mocha Memoirs Press in their
Fall into Horror Blog Tour
Follow the tour and meet their authors and books!
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Mocha Memoirs Press, LLC is a genre-oriented publishing company. Their vision is to provide an outlet for outstanding speculative and romance stories that often fall beneath the radar of traditional publishing houses. They seek to provide quality stories that invigorate the reader’s literary palette like a good, strong coffee. Like great coffee houses, they offer a variety of flavors. They publish stories in the following genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance, including the sub-genres of steampunk, cyberpunk, diesel punk, alternate history, weird westerns, and mash-ups.
Author Selah Janel talks about her love of horror
I was also an outrageous scaredy-cat and was unable to look at even the commercials for horror films on television without having a panic attack and having to hide my eyes and plug my ears. Plus, it was the 1980s, so every sitcom had a freaky deaky Halloween episode and you were told at school every day of all the four thousand ways you could be abducted, kidnapped, poisoned, drugged, beat up, or razor-bladed by candy. Then there was that time I was nearly locked in an ancient burial site during a family vacation, but that’s another post, entirely.
That part of me was a strange dichotomy my parents could never quite figure out. Things terrified me, but I kept sneaking off to be near them. They’d find me reading the box backs of movies I’d never be allowed to watch, I may have run an underground library for RL Stine and urban legend titles out of my locker in middle school even though the stories freaked me out something fierce for a while. One parent readily sheltered me because they knew they’d just have to deal with the nightmares later, and the other told me family stories passed down from German relatives, and believe me, no one does a scary story like older Germans.
In my adult years it was working in haunted houses and then designing for them that fully plummeted me into a love of horror films, because I realized I had options and tons of subgenres to explore. I’d slowly wandered into literary horror in college through Anne Rice and Ray Bradbury, slowly wading towards the likes of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, and Nancy Collins.
In my adult years it was working in haunted houses and then designing for them that fully plummeted me into a love of horror films, because I realized I had options and tons of subgenres to explore. I’d slowly wandered into literary horror in college through Anne Rice and Ray Bradbury, slowly wading towards the likes of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, and Nancy Collins.
I’m the type of person that’s always going to be contemplating the what if’s – both the wonderful and the terrifying. There’s a possibility in the horror genre that entices me…that bit about waiting for the other shoe to drop and finding out what kind of shoe it is, even if I probably don’t want to really know. That tension is electric, and there’s some outrageously high drama in ghost stories and urban legends that we don’t get anywhere else. It reveals things about us as people, and the fact that these archetypes are constantly being reinvented and recycled says something about the genre, proves that it isn’t just schlock, but something that hits us at a primal level.
I love Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree and try to read it every fall. It feels like autumn in a book to me. It’s a near-flawless history of Halloween (some of the history is admittedly a little off), but emotionally it’s perfect. There’s an underlying current of why people love Halloween, but it could also be used to express why people are attracted to the horror genre. Way back when, we had to fear predators coming to get us, we weren’t guaranteed that we’d see another day, we felt at the mercy of the cosmos because we weren’t sure that the sun would rise again. It’s that thin line between today and tomorrow, safety and danger, life and death, that makes the horror genre what it is, and is probably why I could be freaked out and drawn in by it as a kid.
As a writer, I love playing with that line, whether it’s real-world anchored horror or otherworldly creatures, or a mixture of the two. Part of the reason I’m so drawn to Lovecraft-type themes and vampires is I like the thought of shaking up how we perceive the universe and the people in it. The fact that my characters are going about their lives and then some little thing happens that changes everything in a sentence or two is an incredibly powerful concept to me. I personally love characters that you wouldn’t expect to show up in stories like that: maybe they’re in historical settings, maybe they’re frustrated teens, who knows? At the end of the day, everyone is affected by those same what if’s, so it’s interesting to see how various people would react.
In some ways maybe that helps me fight for the control I didn’t feel as a kid when I watched trailers for Nightmare on Elm Street or The Blob on TV. Maybe it’s a way of immersing myself into the October magic that doesn’t quite feel the same now that I’m not a kid. Either way, I love the genre, and I’m proud to be part of the tradition.
Plus, it just gives the relatives one more thing to be confused about.
As a writer, I love playing with that line, whether it’s real-world anchored horror or otherworldly creatures, or a mixture of the two. Part of the reason I’m so drawn to Lovecraft-type themes and vampires is I like the thought of shaking up how we perceive the universe and the people in it. The fact that my characters are going about their lives and then some little thing happens that changes everything in a sentence or two is an incredibly powerful concept to me. I personally love characters that you wouldn’t expect to show up in stories like that: maybe they’re in historical settings, maybe they’re frustrated teens, who knows? At the end of the day, everyone is affected by those same what if’s, so it’s interesting to see how various people would react.
In some ways maybe that helps me fight for the control I didn’t feel as a kid when I watched trailers for Nightmare on Elm Street or The Blob on TV. Maybe it’s a way of immersing myself into the October magic that doesn’t quite feel the same now that I’m not a kid. Either way, I love the genre, and I’m proud to be part of the tradition.
Plus, it just gives the relatives one more thing to be confused about.
Mooner
by Selah Janel
Like many young men at the end of the 1800s, Bill signed on to work in a logging camp. The work is brutal, but it promised a fast paycheck with which he can start his life. Unfortunately, his role model is Big John. Not only is he the camp’s hero, but he’s known for spending his pay as fast as he makes it. On a cold Saturday night they enter Red’s Saloon to forget the work that takes the sweat and lives of so many men their age. Red may have plans for their whiskey money, but something else lurks in the shadows. It watches and badly wants a drink that has nothing to do with alcohol. Can Bill make it back out the shabby door, or does someone else have their own plans for his future?
The Other Man
by Selah Janel
by Selah Janel
All Andrew wanted was the typical American dream: a good career, a nice house, and a loving family. Instead, he has a dead-end job, a cramped apartment, and children who remind him of creatures out of a sci-fi movie. He’s also well aware that he’s not the only man who inhabits his wife’s thoughts and daily life. How can he put up a fight when he’s reminded of the competition every time Bethany turns on the CD player? After one eventful evening meal when expectations, disappointments, and secrets collide, life will never be the same.
About the Author:
About the Author:
Selah Janel is the author of three e-book titles for Mocha Memoir Press, as well as other stuff. You can read about her pioneer vampires in Mooner and her world-ending invisible friends in The Grotesquerie.
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GIVEAWAY
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Book Review: DARK SECRETS, A Paranormal Noir Anthology + giveaway
Participating Authors: Rachel Caine, Cynthia Eden, Megan Hart, Suzanne Johnson, Jeffe Kennedy, and Mina Khan
ISBN: 978-1-942840-05-3
Six award-winning authors bring you this spellbinding collection of stories about dark desires, mysterious worlds, and danger that lurks in the shadows of the night. Where nothing is black and white; where things might not be as they seem; where magic and mayhem rule.
MARION, MISSING by Rachel Caine
Valentine is a detective with two major problems: he's been offered a kidnapping case that will probably get him killed, and his partner won't let him turn it down. He owes her that much … since his partner's a ghost, and he blames himself for her death. A dark, haunting noir mystery of love, hate and loss.
FEMME FATALE by Cynthia Eden
PI Mick Swayne has seen it all—his clients have included liars, thieves, and even killers. He thinks he can handle anything and anyone. Then she walks into his office. Savannah Moreau is beautiful, seductive, and…a vampire? The gorgeous vamp hires Mick to help her track down a killer who is hunting in Chicago, but as Mick slips deeper into Savannah’s paranormal world, he wonders if he can really trust his new client…
DANCE WITH THE DEVIL by Megan Hart
When the devil starts the music, you'd better get ready to dance.
Kathleen Murphy has sold her soul to the devil. Fame, fortune, success...everything she's ever dreamed of is hers, and all she has to do is the devil's bidding. When love comes knocking, the last thing in the world she wants to do is involve Jake in her twisted world, but the devil's started up the jukebox and Kathleen has no choice but to learn the steps
THE CONSORT by Suzanne Johnson
Faulkner Hearne, the captain of the ruthless Fae Hunters, finds his duty at odds with his heart when he’s ordered to capture the consort of Faerie’s cruel Prince of Summer when she flees across the veil into modern New Orleans. Can Faulk turn Liandra over to a certain death at the hands of the prince, or will he risk a war with Faerie in order to save her?
An all-new novella set in the Sentinels of New Orleans multiverse.
HEART’S BLOOD by Jeffe Kennedy, a Twelve Kingdoms novella
A dark fairytale retelling of a princess robbed of rank, husband and even her name.
Nix is nothing. The Princess Natilde—her former waiting woman—attacked her on the journey to wed Prince Cavan, stripping her of everything and taking her place. With no serving skills, Nix becomes a goose girl. Perhaps if Nix keeps her promise never to reveal who she really is, Natilde won’t carry out her vile threats. Prince Cavan entered his arranged marriage determined to have a congenial, if not loving relationship with his future queen—for the sake of both their kingdoms. But, his wife repels him more each day and he finds himself absurdly drawn to the lovely Nix.
With broken vows, anguish and dark secrets between them, Cavan and Nix struggle to find the magic to restore what’s gone terribly wrong... if it ever can be.
THE DJINN IN THE MIRROR by Mina Khan, a Djinn World novella
A paranormal Cinderella story with a young witch as the heroine and a wicked, sexy djinn instead of a fairy godmother.
Dahlia, the step-daughter of a power hungry wizard, promises to free a djinn trapped in a mirror if he rescues her from impending death. But Ashmael the djinn has his own agenda: to trick & seduce his way to freedom. The only problem is he ends up falling for Dahlia. Can he win his freedom and save the girl?
This is a solid anthology of quality stories. All the authors were new to me except Caine and Khan so it was a great chance to sample some authors I've been meaning to try.
All the stories are considered urban fantasy and there are varying degrees of romance depending on the story. They all have a dark edge to them, some darker than others, but they all have happy ever afters.
Marion, Missing is a noir mystery set during the segregation period, and. P.I. Valentine is a white man and his P.I. partner is Tilde, a black woman. Caine does a great job of touching on the racial tensions of the times and expressing Valentine's deep guilt and eventual forgiveness of himself.
Femme Fatale isn't as complex, and not as dark as the others. It is pretty straightforward with some dark humor.
Dance With the Devil delivered the darkest emotional punch. The plot kept you guessing and your heart will break right along with Kathleen. I was worried there was no way this one could turn out happy, but Megan Hart pulled it off.
The Consort had the most humor and romance. I love fae stories and have always wanted to read Suzanne Johnson's series. It is the world building that attracts me (and sexy fae men, duh!) and this story delivered.
Heart's Blood had a horror element to it. I loved the contrast of the innocence of Nix and Prince Cavan pitted against the evil of Princes Natilde. Well told with a heavy fairy-tale feel.
The Djinn in the Mirror has me wanting to find a magical mirror with my own djinn! Great mixing of an urban setting and djinn mythology. Ashmael is toe-curling sexy and Dahlia is an underdog heroine you can root for and be very jealous of...
At $.99 you would be a fool not to grab this one. Whether you love urban fantasy or PNR, you will find something to love in each story.
4 1/2 "Dark and dangerous" Sheep
SharonS
GIVEAWAY
$120 Amazon GC & Gothic Lace Choker & Earring Set
All the author bios and links are past the break...
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