Archive for the 'Superheroes' Category

Rum & Comics

Constance Ash August 24th, 2008

In Cuba around 1863 the Bacardi family began to distill rum.  Their logo is a bat, modeled on the families of fruit bats that nested and swooped through the Bacardi cane plantations and distillaries.  Among Cubans, fruit bats are considered bringers of good luck.   The same bat logo is still employed today by Bacardi.

bacardi bat logo

Bob Kane’s Batman arrived in 1939 — he’s nearly 70. One wonders if there was any bit of subliminal influence from Bacardi to Kane’s Batman logo? There was an awareness of Cuba and things Cuban, particularly rum and music, back in those days that’s difficult for people who came of age in the post-embargo era to realize.

Batman Comic Logo

Comicon International 2008 — Dr. Horrible, The Dark Knight, and me

Kevin Andrew Murphy July 30th, 2008

Back from Comicon. Also back from Westercon. Thoughts….

First off…wow. Comicon was amazing. In over twenty years of attending, Comicon’s managed to outdo itself again, mostly by dint of those who came, both industry types and fans. I don’t know how many, but numbers of over 200,000 were rumored and probably underestimated.

Second thought, what’s up with the art shows at all the cons? At Comicon, I saw more winged kittens in the art show than superheroes, or for that matter, any comic book characters. Yes, I understand the cottage industry of marketing to dragon and cat fetishists, but seeing the same dracokitty art recycled from Westercon to Comicon was surreal given the difference of the rest of the convention.

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Wild Cards: American Hero & other interactive web fiction

Kevin Andrew Murphy February 2nd, 2008

Tor’s new Wild Cards website has been spiffed up and updated, with information on the mass signing in Albuquerque today with most of the Inside Straight authors. Moreover, Tor has just launched the American Hero website, the fully in-character blog and promotional website for American Hero, the superhero reality television show taking place in the Wild Cards universe and a central part of the plot of Inside Straight.

There are twenty eight characters on the show and we’ve got illustrations for all of them from the amazing Mike Miller. More, all of the authors have been writing confessionals from the standpoints of their characters. Up now for Week 1 are Joe Twitch (created and written by Walton Simons), Spasm (created and written by Daniel Abraham), Drummer Boy (created and written by S.L. Farrell), and Rosa Loteria (created and written by yours truly).

Rosa Loteria portraitGo over and take a look. Ask the characters questions. Of course, the contestants are all busy with challenges on the show, but who knows, some of them might answer. (Mine are Rosa Loteria and The Maharajah.)

This is also kind of exciting as an author since it’s a new publishing venue. I’ve seen website expansions to the content from movies, most notably the rather amazing Donnie Darko site which had some neat fiction which expanded the movie, and likewise the (now long defunct) website for the Point Pleasant tv show. But this is the first time I’ve seen extra web fiction content being done for a series of novels and anthologies, especially author created and owned.

Anyway, please take a look and see what you think, and also, let’s talk about the web as a venue for new fiction in general.

New Wild Cards website live

Kevin Andrew Murphy December 16th, 2007

I’ve been mentioning it earlier about the new book coming out, but Tor has just launched the new website for Wild Cards, www.wildcardsbooks.com

There will be more added in the coming weeks, including bio with yours truly, but the preliminary launch is focusing on Inside Straight, which is coming out next month and as with all things publishing, may have early copies in some stores now.

There’s also a newsletter to sign up for and a story from Walter Jon Williams which is sort of the proto-Wild Cards tale.

Wild Cards week: INSIDE STRAIGHT coming out, BUSTED FLUSH in the works

Kevin Andrew Murphy November 21st, 2007

Well, it’s been an exciting and fun week for Wild Cards. I just turned in revisions on my story for the second volume of the new trilogy, Busted Flush, in which my character Cameo finally has a feature (as opposed to cameo or supporting actress) role in a Wild Cards story. Have had a lot of fun working on that and getting to play with George R.R. Martin’s new character, Hoodoo Mama, and Daniel Abraham’s character, Bugsy, aka. Jonathan Hive, who not only has a strong supporting actor role in my story, but has a starring role in the first volume of the new series, Inside Straight, and got specific mention in the glowing review that just came out in Publisher’s Weekly.

But you don’t just have to take my word for it or wait for January when the volume officially comes out: Tor’s publicity department has let out advance reading copies, and two of them (signed by all nine of the Inside Straight authors, George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Carrie Vaughn, Michael Cassutt, Caroline Spector, John Jos. Miller, Ian Tregillis, and “newcomer” S. L. Farrell) are currently being raffled off at the Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist blog, which should also have an interview with all nine authors in the next few days.

I’m also looking forward to Inside Straight because my new character, Rosa Loteria, gets her chance to shine there as well (and gets mention in a review at Fantasy Bookspot along with a larger cast of characters).

UPDATE: Another review just posted at Genre Go Round Reviews.

How Does the Story End?

David Louis Edelman October 23rd, 2007

As part of the planning process for how I’m going to wrap up my Jump 225 trilogy of novels, I’ve been thinking a lot about the structure of story. I think it’s useful for us writers and readers to occasionally step back from the process to remind ourselves of one crucial thing: stories are artificial. They’re constructs.

I’m not just talking about the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I’m talking about the very idea of storytelling itself. It’s an art form, which means it’s a product of the human intellect, which means it doesn’t exist naturally in the world.

‘Batman Begins’ posterSometimes readers get so heavily focused on plot mechanics that they mistake the plot — which is simply one element of the art, albeit a crucial one — for the story itself. What happens at the end of the Jump 225 trilogy? they ask me, as if that’s the only question worth asking. Let’s say I tell you what happens at the end: Natch vanquishes his enemies and learns to live in peace with himself. Or, Natch dies heroically. Or, Natch and his enemies join forces to take on a different enemy altogether. You know the broad strokes of any ending I could possibly think up, and you’ve seen them all a million times before. So obviously the important question is not what happens at the end of the story, but why and how.

I just watched Batman Begins for the umpteenth-plus-oneth time the other night. Spoiler alert: Batman defeats Ra’s al Ghul. He chats with Lieutenant Gordon at the end, only to discover that there’s a new villain named the Joker out there causing trouble. Roll credits.

So what happens after the cameras stop rolling? We assume that Batman goes on to defeat the Joker (and indeed, we’ll find out next summer when The Dark Knight hits theaters). And then he defeats another villain, and then another, and then another, until Bruce Wayne dies in battle, hangs up the cape, or hands the keys to the Batmobile down to the next guy in line. We can safely assume that Batman will never completely succeed in vanquishing crime, that there are certain villains that will always elude his grasp.

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Comicon 2008, Wild Cards etc.

Kevin Andrew Murphy July 25th, 2007

I’m off for Comicon 2008. After BayCon (smaller than usual) and Westercon (larger than last year, maybe, but if so, not by much), I expect this to be absolutely huge.

It’s also advance fanfare for the triumphant return of the Wild Cards series. The new volume, Inside Straight, will be out from Tor in 2008.Inside Straight cover Moreover, Tor will have a booth at Comicon, and those there can register for a special convention drawing. Tor will have half a dozen glossy 11 x 17 inch posters of the gorgeous Michael Komarck cover, autographed by George R.R. Martin and five other contributors (Melinda Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Daniel Abraham, Ian Tregillis, and Carrie Vaughn), and will be handing out the posters to the winners. Flyers and other information about the new triad will also be available at the Tor booth.

Carrie Vaughn will also be attending the con, and both of us will be answering questions about our characters (mine’s Rosa Loteria) and the stories (I’m not in Inside Straight, but the next volume, Busted Flush, is in the works, and beyond that, I can’t say much, since George has sworn us to secrecy about many crucial details, especially about Busted Flush because that will have details of the ending of Inside Straight, following as it does).

More exact news here:

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html

There’s also a special new Wild Cards forum started at the Captain Comics message board, which will have assorted Wild Cards news and updates:

http://www.captaincomics.us/

Anyway, with Comicon, I’ll try to do updates from the Con, but can promise nothing except to do a large wrap-up when I get back next week. So use this topic for discussion of what’s going on for those who are there and those who are curious about it all.

First public taste of new Wild Cards stories

Kevin Andrew Murphy December 12th, 2006

It’s a lot of fun working in a shared world series, making new characters, borrowing other people’s characters, getting to see what other people do with your characters.

Laura Mixon and myself are both authors for the Wild Cards series. I’ve gotten to look at her new character, both bio and scenes (but I’ll leave her to drop hints and particulars). I’ve also been very pleased to see my own new character, Rosa Loteria, showing up for various scenes and cameos. None of which I can reveal as yet, of course, since George R.R. Martin is still editing the book–and some things have to stay a surprise for publication–but I can point out Daniel Abraham’s new character, Jonathan Hive, aka Bugsy, and point everyone over to the first public glimpse of him and several other characters in the preview of Daniel’s story “Jonathan Hive Sells Out!”

I’m really looking forward to reading the whole thing.

Comicon International 2006 — The Movie Star, the Professor and the rest of the crew

Kevin Andrew Murphy July 27th, 2006

Last year, just in time for Comicon, my sister scheduled her wedding opposite the Masquerade, which I consequently missed.  This year?  Well, I missed the Masquerade again, but only because of other complications.

Where to start?  Where to end?  Egads, I’ve been going to this thing for twenty years now, saw it when it was small, saw it when it was dying, then saw it when it moved to the new convention center and doubled in size every year, even as they continued to enlarge the convention center.  I remember a couple years ago when I made the mistake of being on the main floor when the crowd capacity overtaxed the air conditioning and I nearly fainted on top of Guillermo Del Toro as he was slipping out the back of the Marvel booth and under my arm as I supported myself on a pillar.

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Wonder Woman is Back in the News

Constance Ash July 6th, 2006

No doubt coz Whedon’s next movie-to-be is Wonder Woman ….

A best-selling ‘woman’s author, Jodi Picoult, is going to do 5 issues of Wonder Woman for D.C.  Going by Picoult’s bibliography this seems an odd choice.  Unless there’s something that this bibliography left out?

Love, C.

 

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