Thoughts on Sony, plus some awesome links

Okay, well, I’m going to start off with a couple links, because I’ll probably lose anybody reading this right away, so hopefully you’ll checkout these links first.

So I took part in a Holiday anthology. There's only a few stories, of which I wrote two, and it's free, and festive, and you should check it out. 

Anonymous Nancy issue 2 is still available on comiXology here, the first issue is there as well. Badass assassin on a quest for revenge, and so on.

Also, check out the tumblr for Campaigners. It's a graphic novel I'll be kickstarting next summer. It's the future, there's a girl who doesn't want to vote. Oh, and Presidential candidates beat each other to death for the right to run. So there's that.

So go check those out now, before you read these other things I have to say.

So I have some things to say about this Sony nonsense, and once again, no matter how you feel about it, you probably won’t agree with me.

First off, I know that there was a ton of stuff that came out regarding Sony and Marvel and Spider-Man, and a lot of it flatly contradicted most of what I said in my last post about Spider-Man. So I guess I should address that first.

Look, I’m not Nostradamus, and I’m not a Hollywood producer. There’s literally no reason in the world that I should ever have any idea what I’m talking about, really about anything, but especially about insider information regarding the film industry.

That said, I think it would be prudent to take all of this with a grain of salt. Let’s look at it realistically. Best-case scenario, Sony and Marvel were in talks about sharing Spider-Man, were close to making a deal, and talks fell apart at the last minute.

But this isn’t coming from information that someone in a meeting between them leaked. This isn’t coming from anything remotely resembling a reputable source. I know, you’re thinking “It came from Sony’s own internal e-mails!” Well, yeah. Sony’s. Disney/Marvel has given ZERO response to these rumors. Nothing from them.

So let me give you my worst-case scenario. ASM 2 didn’t perform well, Sony freaked out. They said “Look, we need to do something here. Let’s see if Marvel wants to share Spider-Man.” They called Disney/Marvel, offered them a deal. D/M said “Yeah, sure, we’ll think about it.” Whilst making an obscene motion with their hand and giggling behind their hands. And Sony said, “Look, it’s okay, Marvel might let us put Spider-Man in their movies!”

Probably it’s somewhere between the two, but if people didn’t really, really, REALLY want to see Spider-Man in the MCU, they wouldn’t be so close to believing this.

And I will still argue that Spider-Man doesn’t belong there. At least not Peter Parker. Maybe Miles Morales. Definitely Miles Morales. Maybe the next time I have some free time I’ll explain why Peter Parker’s Spidey has no place in the MCU, but Miles would be a perfect fit.

So I’m going to leave that there. Again, I could be totally wrong here. Just my line of thought on the matter.

Continuing with Sony, I have some thoughts on the cancellation of the Interview.

I want to mention two things first. One, I actually wanted to see the Interview. I didn’t think it was going to be an amazing movie, but it looked funny enough. Two, I am absolutely, unequivocally, without reservation against censorship.

But, come on, guys. This is not the blow we’re making it out to be, and more importantly, it’s not at all surprising, and really I don’t even blame Sony.

Because when Sony got hacked, and all their internal emails were leaked publicly, how did everyone react? We were metaphorically rolling around on a bed covered in hacked emails, gleefully reveling in the gaffes and faux pas, and whatever else we could dig up. There was zero support for Sony, there was zero concern for Sony. No one stopped to say, “Hey, this is private stuff. Maybe back off?”

So why the hell should Sony think that anyone was going to have their backs in the face of a terrorist threat?

Plus, really, it’s a Seth Rogan/James Franco comedy. It’s not some biting satire, it’s not a hard-hitting documentary. The trailer boasts a scene where Rogan shoves something up his ass. Something that’s way too big to fit up a human’s ass!

So, yeah. The stakes on this weren’t exactly super-high.

And anyone bitching about the Pyongyang movie getting cancelled? “When they came for Sony’s emails, I said nothing…” and so on.

That said, you can still buy the Pyongyang comic. And you can write a comic critical of North Korea if you want. Or critical of anyone. That’s the beauty of comics. You can do whatever you want. You can write a comic about Presidential candidates who fight each other to the death, and then try to turn it into a coming-of-age story somehow.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that. If you vehemently disagree, feel free to comment or w/e. Otherwise, check out those links at the top, and keep posted for why Miles Morales is the perfect movie Spider-Man.

Anonymous Nancy issue 2!

As promised, here is some news:

Anonymous Nancy issue 2 is now available on comiXology! Check it out here: http://cmxl.gy/1FvcdAE

You can pick up the first issue while you're at it, it's right there on the same page!

Roy and I have put a lot of effort into this book, we're both very proud of it, and we hope you'll check it.

We're hard at work on issue 3 as well, hoping to have it ready to go ASAP. (I've seen the roughs already and it's going to look great!)

So there's that. I'm still putting together a con schedule for next year. (Anyone in KC want me to pay a visit?) Campaigners is still in full swing. Been a little lax on updates due to the holiday and general madness, but I've got new character art to post, probably this evening or tomorrow.

Also, I'm participating in a holiday anthology, should be available right around X-mas, so keep an eye out for updates on that as well!

I think that's it.

Laterz

Thoughts on Spider-Man and the MCU

I know I said I was going to try to blog more, and I know I promised something “next week,” and that was like three weeks ago. But, you know, stuff… I know, whatever.

Anyway, I did mention something about Spider-Man and the MCU, and I may not have pissed off all 4 people who read this blog with my last post. So here goes: Why Spider-Man will never be in the MCU (and why he doesn’t belong there)!

So, there’ve been a lot of rumors/speculation/expressions of desire regarding the Spider-Man and Marvel’s movies. A lot of fans are unhappy with what Sony’s doing with the movies right now, they feel like Spider-Man is an essential part of the Marvel Universe, and they want to see him on the movie Avengers.

Guys, it’s not gonna happen.

Full disclosure: I really like the Marc Webb Spider-Man stuff. (More on that in a bit.)

The main reason why I think it won’t ever happen? Spider-Man has nothing to offer Marvel. The current slate of Spider-Man movies aren’t out-grossing anything Marvel’s putting out right now. So are they going to include a character they don’t own in their movies, that as far as they’re concerned isn’t likely to increase their profits at all, and then have to share what they’re making with Sony?

And think of this: Spider-Man has had two movies come out already. Marvel has put out ten movies and a season-and-a-half of a TV show (with several more movies and four short Netflix series in the pipeline). At no point thus far has anyone in the MCU mentioned a guy dressed as a spider flitting around NYC. No one’s said anything about that time a bunch of cops were turned into lizard people and the top of a skyscraper was knocked over. No mention of Oscorp.

In the same vein, when Electro was destroying Times Square, no Avengers? No SHIELD? At the end of ASM 2, when the Rhino shows up, it is specifically implied that Spidey is the only one capable of defeating such a foe. It’s one thing to leave the different heroes out of each other’s films, it’s another thing entirely to make a plot point out of there being no other superheroes around.

Look, I’m not saying it’s impossible to deal with those issues. Certainly some clever screenwriting, maybe a dedicated episode of Agents of SHIELD. I’m just saying, it’s not worth the trouble Marvel Studios would have to go to, considering it’s a character they don’t even own.

So what if they get the rights to the character back? Well, that’s even less likely. Sony just made another movie, they’re going to have those rights for a while, unless Marvel’s willing to pay for them. And, again, why would they be? People were complaining about the first Marc Webb Spider-Man being a reboot of a movie franchise that was only ten-year-old. They’re not going to complain about this? People aren’t going to be confused with a new Spidey so soon after the old one?

It’s just plain not worth the effort.

And here’s why I think it shouldn’t happen:

Spider-Man doesn’t belong in the MCU. He just doesn’t fit.

What’s one of Spider-Man’s most defining characteristics? His secret identity. Juggling Peter Parker and Spider-Man is an essential aspect of his personality. So much so that when they had him reveal his identity in the comics, they decided it was such a bad idea they immediately retconned it in a way that most people consider to be the clumsiest and most ill-conceived retcon in comics history, even as they almost unanimously agree it was absolutely necessary.

The problem is that secret identities don’t exist in the MCU. The very first Marvel movie ended with Tony Stark revealing himself to be Iron Man, and that was enough to set the standard for the MCU. Everyone knows Captain America is Steve Rogers. Thor is just Thor. That’s not a costume, that’s just what he wears. Probably most people don’t know who Hawkeye and Black Widow are, in the same way that I don’t know who the SEAL team members who took out Bin Laden are.

I hear a lot of comments about the Civil War movie along the lines of “How are they going to do Civil War when they don’t have Spider-Man and there aren’t any secret identities?” Obviously it’ll be about something else. The Civil War event wasn’t about secret identities. It was about a rift in the superhero community. A civil war, if you will. They can have that rift be about anything they want. They can have it be about Stark wanting to head SHIELD and Cap wanting to keep it shut down, for example.

The other reason Spider-Man doesn’t really belong is, to be honest, he’s too well known for the MCU. One of the biggest factors in what made the MCU what it is is that Marvel didn’t have the rights to their biggest characters.

Without Spider-Man and the X-Men, Marvel had to make people care about characters they’d never heard of before. Sure, if you were a comic book fan, you knew who Iron Man was, but if you weren’t, you probably just thought of that Black Sabbath song (or that really weird Japanese movie).

They had to build people’s awareness of these characters, and draw them in, with well-crafted movies. They did that the only way it can be done: by bringing in people with a clear vision and allowing them to see that vision through. When I first heard they were making an Iron Man movie, I genuinely didn’t care. When I heard Jon Favreau was directing, and RDJ was playing Stark, that’s when I started to get excited.

I’m starting to meander away from the point here. The point is that the MCU thrives on characters that wider audiences aren’t familiar with. Stories they can tell from scratch. Probably the weakest point of Man of Steel for me was that I was expected to care about and understand the characters without the movie doing the work or making me care. Like they decided “Well, that’s Lois Lane, you know who Lois Lane is, right?” No, I don’t know who this Lois Lane is, you have to show me.

Meandering again. I think the point is adequately made. There’s just no reason for the MCU to care about Spider-Man. That’s why he belongs over there in his own world, with his own movies.

And, look, those movies are good movies. I never read the early Spidey stuff when I was young, so I never really cared about Gwen Stacey. But man, I believed in that relationship. They sold that. And Garfield is a great Peter Parker. And the action is very well-done. These are just some solid superhero movies.

But, guys (talking to Sony this time), Spider-Man simply doesn’t have an Avengers-style franchise in him. All the best Spider-Man characters need to orbit around Spider-Man. Those spinoffs just aren’t going to be able to sustain themselves.

Seriously, I usually defend Hollywood and the motives of film studios, but this habit of trying to turn every goddamn thing into the Avengers is idiotic, and it needs to stop. You’re going to destroy the movie industry. Again.

Also, despite everything I just said, I kind of really want the new Fantastic Four movie to tank, like hard enough that Marvel gets the rights back in time to cram an FF teaser into Black Panther. Because Doctor Doom is the greatest villain in the Marvel Universe, and he really belongs over there with everyone else. And yes, that kind of contradicts everything I just said about Spidey, but really, those movies were never anywhere near as popular as any of the Spider-Man movies, even the really bad one.

Okay, end of rant. Assuming you’ve made it this far, I’ll have a pretty good announcement in a few days. And it won’t be 1300 words long, I promise.

That’s all. Next time, I’ll explain why Agents of SHIELD is a great show, and also the worst thing to happen to the MCU. Maybe. That one might be tough to get through, even for me.

Some thoughts on events

Hey all, been a while since I posted anything that wasn't just promotion. I've been incredibly busy lately, not least of all because we had a baby about three and a half months ago, and I've had a number of projects to work on as well.

I'd like to start using this blog more, specifically for comic-related thoughts and things like that, assuming I can find the time.

In that spirit, there's something that's bugged me for a long time now, and I wanted to post something about it. This isn't like a big social issue or anything, just some standard bitching about comics, and it'll probably be a bit disjointed because I'm writing this in bed while my daughter sleeps next to me, hoping I can finish before she wakes up.

So, anyway, Marvel's been putting out a lot of teasers lately, and while I've been seeing a decent amount of speculation about what they might be about, trying to figure out what next year's big events will be, are they all tied into Secret Wars, etc, what I've mostly been seeing are fans bitching about it. Talking about event fatigue and how much of a mess Marvel is making of everything. Talking about a "Crisis-style" reboot. Things like that.

Look, I get it. Events can be annoying. They rarely live up to the hype. Even the best events really only start out strong, and always seem to end on more a whimper than anything. They make these "huge, sweeping changes" to the status-quo that never last long enough to really sink in because they just lead into to the next event and it's "huge, sweeping changes." It almost seems like they're more of a tool to make the changes in the first place than they are any real storytelling device.

(I know a lot of people put a lot of hard work into these events, so I don't want to sound like I'm dumping on them, there have been many events that I've very much enjoyed, I just think that they're a tough thing to get to work quite how the publishers usually want them to. Especially when the ending is more often anymore just a set-up for stories to come.)

So I understand that they're annoying. I've dropped many titles solely because they lost their momentum and got dragged into these events. I've tried to get on board with the events only to find that I lost interest halfway through. (And lest you think I'm picking on Marvel, I dropped a lot of my DC titles for similar reasons, and I think every September was basically "lose all momentum on the storyline you've been getting invested in" month.)

But, you know who I bet is more annoyed by the teasers and the event? Marvel. They have to put out teasers to keep people talking about them. They have to have regular writer's retreats to keep all these different threads straight. I'm certain they'd like to let their stories and characters build on their own, in their own titles, instead of having to have these events, one after another.

But every time someone brings it up, the response from anyone at Marvel is basically that the events book always sell. Probably better than the regular books. So I'm betting that everyone that complains about the teasers, and constant events, still goes out and buys them.

There's a type of reader that I'm sure I've complained about before. The sort of reader who will complain about a title, but keep buying it because it's their favorite character, or because they've been buying it since they were a kid. The type of reader who will buy every Batman title, ensuring that there are at least four on the shelves at all times, even if only one of them is any good.

These are the people who complain about renumbering a series to coincide with a new creative team or direction. These are the people who complain about a costume change, no matter how stupid the old costume (or, really, the very concept of costumes) is, because it's "a classic." These are the people who flip out over ever new storyline, every character that isn't treated exactly the way they want them to be.

(To be clear, I'm not specifically talking about readers who send death threats to creators, or even readers who get angry about "SJWs" and their "agenda" regarding black or Muslim or female superheroes. That's a whole different issue and one that I hope I don't need to preach to anyone here about.)

These are the people who buy every issue of every event, and hate every issue of very event. They buy it because they know it will "matter," and they have to be able to fill their knowledge-box with every factoid available to them. They hate it because it changes things, major things. They hate it because their favorite character didn't save the day, or someone got beat by someone else that, according to their knowledge-box shouldn't be able to defeat them. They hate it because they hate events, and it's an event, and therefore they hate it.

But even that strikes me as a disingenuous characterization. Because the truth is, I don't understand these people. I don't understand why they even read comics, or watch movies or TV shows. Certainly not for the same reason I do.

I read comics because I enjoy stories, and I enjoy comics as a storytelling medium. I read superhero comics because I enjoy superheroes, and I enjoy the worlds that have been created and the scope of them, and the unique storytelling opportunities afforded within them. I don't care if it "matters" so long as the story is well-told. I don't care how much it "matters" if the story is poorly-told.

I know it sounds like I'm putting myself on a pedestal here, and yes, to a certain extent I am placing myself above the sort of people I'm talking about. Maybe that's wrong, maybe I should be content to do my own thing and leave them to do theirs.

But when I hear the same, predictable complaints from people who are, at least in my estimation, causing the very problem they're bemoaning, I can't help but get frustrated and annoyed.

I guess you can take comfort, at least, in the fact that I'm pretty sure no one will read this.

Next Week: Why Spider-Man should never show up in the MCU! (maybe, if I feel like writing it).

A little bit of news

A few things:

Anonymous Nancy #2 is done and printed, any kickstarter backers should have theirs, or it should be on its way. Issue three is scripted and on its way to Roy to start drawing.

I have all the art for my short horror anthology, save the cover, which I haven't really decided where I want to go with. Should I have one of the artists in the anthology do a cover? Have an different artist do a cover? Something to think about, for sure, but I'm not going to worry about it until the last two shorts have been lettered.

I don't really have any conventions lined up in the near future. I wasn't able to make Pittsburgh for various reasons. I'm working on putting together a schedule for next year. Probably be limited due to both money and time issues, but we'll see how things look when I have a few more things to offer.

And, finally, we've launched the tumblr for a new project, called Campaigners. Campaigners is a graphic novel that I'll be kickstarting next summer. Written by myself, with art by MJ Barros, the story is set in the year 2076. America is on the verge of an election, which will be decided by a fight to the death between the candidates. The main character, Kydra Frank, is turning eighteen on Election Day, but wants nothing to do with the election. When she says so publicly, she has to face the public backlash.

It's a story I'm very proud of, and I hope to get enough people paying attention that when the kickstarter launches we'll be able to fund it without too much trouble. Ideally it will be ready for release during convention season 2016.

The tumblr can be found here. There's not much up yet, but we're hoping to have content updating at least weekly in the near future.

One last thing. I've been doing this 365 stories thing for a while now (right now I'm doing all spooky or horror type stories for Halloween, so if that's something that excites you...). I've still got a few months before I've reached the full 365 stories, but I'm starting to think about what I want to going forward. Should I keep writing these stories every day? The problem is that I don't have a whole lot of free time lately, and the time I spend on these stories could be better spent on other projects; longer short stories for submission, comics, novels, etc. I might start thinking of a patreon or maybe self-publishing a few collections of these stories.

Just thinking out loud, I guess.

So that's all for now.

No More Cons (this year)

So I haven't posted anything here in a while, mostly because I've been really busy lately and it just kind of slipped my mind. Pittsburgh Comic Con is this weekend, and I'm hoping to get a chance to top by, but I will not have a table. I'm especially bummed about this because I should be getting physical copies of issue 2 of Anonymous Nancy by the end of the week. But there's just too much going on right now and I won't be able to make it.

I don't think there are any more conventions this year that I could conceivably make it to. To be honest, when next year rolls around I'll probably only make it to a few. Money, time, all of that. But I'll still be working on projects, still writing and getting comics made. I'm pretty close to finishing up this short horror anthology I've been working on, and once I'm done with that I'll be moving on to a sci-fi one. I want to try something with smaller, longer comics. Like something that feels like a book, that you can fit in your pocket. Maybe 100-150 pages? I dunno. I have a lot going on right now, so we'll see.

That is all for now. Hopefully Anonymous Nancy #2 will be up on comiXology soon, and I'll be sure to drop a note here when it is. In the meantime, make sure to pick up Lunatic Fringe and Nancy #1 if you haven't already!

Morgantown or Bust!

Getting ready to leave for Morgantown for the WV Pop Con. I'll be the guy passed out at my table.

Seriously though, stop by and say hi!

WV Pop Culture Con!

Hey everybody! Been a little while since I posted here. Things have been pretty crazy lately, with the new edition to the family and a bunch of projects in various stages of getting done.

First and foremost, I will be at the West Virginia Pop Culture Con in Morgantown, WV, the weekend after this. The dates are August 23-24. Details here. It looks to be a pretty good time, so I hope any of you reading this will stop by and say hi!

The Kickstarter for Anonymous Nancy was a success, so thanks to everyone who contributed to that as well. I'm hoping against hope to have copies of issue 2 ready for the convention. I should, at the very least, have the prints available.

I have another project in the works, that's getting pretty close to completed, and I'll be announcing that as soon as it's ready.

Also, Lunatic Fringe is now available on comiXology here, or you can just look up my name and pick up a copy of Anonyous Nancy while you're there!

I think that's all I have at the moment. Ciao

Kickstarter home stretch!

Hey all, closing in on the end, less than three days left on the Anonymous Nancy kickstarter. Still $165 short, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Tell your friends, tell your family!

Just posted a few more prints from Roy, there will be five total available to backers now (though there are only four posted on the project page right now). Plus issues one and two of the book.

So take a look if haven't already! Looking forward to getting this done!

Thanks,
-Brendan

Lunatic Fringe on comiXology!

Lunatic Fringe is officially available on comiXology! Check it out here!

Punk-rock sci-fi action-adventure! Aliens! Spaceships! Robots! (one robot) A goth space-witch! Annoying twins who make out! And so on!

Seriously, I'm quite proud of this book, with art by the awesome Sloane Leong, so go check it out.

Also, my kickstarter is still running for Anonymous Nancy issue 2, check it out here. Coming down to the wire on this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Three quick updates

One: My Kickstarter for Anonymous Nancy issue 2 is still live! Seven days to go, better hurry!

Two: Lunatic Fringe will be arriving on comiXology tomorrow! I will post the link then, check it out if you're interested. Art by the amazing Sloane Leong!

Three: The reason this is so rushed is because I just had a baby girl! Morgan Jinae Hykes! So we're very busy with that right now!

That is all thanks!

Kickstarter Launched!

I just launched my first ever Kickstarter, for Anonymous Nancy issue 2!

It's a smaller project, with only a few rewards and a window of only 15 days.

Funding was a bit short, so I'm asking for a small amount of money to finish the book. Rewards include the book, as well as the first issue, in either digital or physical format. We're also offering three new prints (appx 11" x 9").

So jump in, get there by July 30th or you'll be too late! I appreciate any help any of you can provide.

Also, anyone who wants to see how awkward I am while making a cell-phone video in my office talking about my comics, today is your lucky day!

Thanks!

Sci-Fi valley Con - Post-Con

I had a really great time at Sci-Fi Valley, it was a really fun convention. I got to hang out with a bunch of awesome people. (Check out the website, basically any of the guests there was awesome, and I hung out with quite a few of them.)

The guys from Gearbox Union ran a charity raffle that included a sort of scavenger hunt, and wearing a sticker from my table was one their quests. I left with 1 sticker left, so I'd say it was a success! Also got to chat with the Geek Girls for a bit, so that was awesome also.

Anyway, it was an awesome convention and I had a great time. I did learn that you can't cure heartburn with Sriracha beef jerky, and if you eat nothing but Sheetz for two days straight you'll probably put on some weight. Also, radio in Altoona consists almost exclusively of Christian or Country.

All in all, a pretty great weekend. Definitely plan on going back to this one next year.

I haven't booked my next convention yet, but I'm hoping to have a table booked at the WV Pop Con by the end of the week. I also hope to have some new things for sale this time around (and I'll have to replenish my stock of stickers).

Other than that still writing, still working on getting these projects finished. So keep an eye out!

Laterz!

Sci-Fi Valley Con

Just a heads-up, I will in fact be attending Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona. The convention runs the weekend of the 27th, Friday through Sunday, however I will only be there Saturday and Sunday. I'll be at table J2, stop by and say hi!

New project

I mentioned I have some stuff in the works, well here's the first taste!

(by Kevin Enhart)

More to come!

Long Overdue (Short) Update

So I wanted to post an update here, I know it's been a while. I have a few things in the works that I'm very excited about.

First off, I'm still going strong with 365 stories. I've been doing a lot of 100 words or less stories, which I really like. I've found placing restraints like that can really strengthen certain aspects of my writing. More than that, I'm finding it just generally easier to sit down and write. It's a part of my daily routine. that's really the goal, after all. Anyway, I'm really enjoying the stories I'm coming up with. A lot of them I already have plans to expand, or adapt, or even just submit them for publication.

And if you haven't seen it yet, they can all be found at brendanhykes.tumblr.com. They're mostly around 500 words or less, though sometimes they meander into the 1000 word range. And I will go entire weeks posting nothing over 100 words. You can just search #100 words or less and I'll show up all over the place.

We are, I promise, still working on Anonymous Nancy #2. It's taking much longer than expected for personal reasons and I apologize for that, but we are working on it, we haven't abandoned it or forgotten it or lost it in the supermarket. You can still check out #1 on comiXology here if you haven't already.

More comics-related news! I'm putting out a short horror anthology. Horror is usually not my thing, but I experimented with some short scripts, a more old-school, creepy, monsters and ghosts style horror, and I find it really fun to write. So I put together a few short scripts. I've got artists lined up for two stories, I'm looking for one more. I hope to have all three stories done in the next few months, rady for some late summer/early fall conventions.

I have another, larger, long-term project that I'm finalizing the details on and will hopefully be able to start talking about very soon. It's very ambitious, and I'm very excited about it.

So, I know I haven't posted any comics scripts in a long while. I am still writing comics, but as you can tell I'm writing for submission or for self-publishing, and I don't want to spoil the stories for you guys. But I am still writing, and hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to post here very soon. Probably not scripts, though.

Still working on getting Lunatic Fringe on comiXology. In the meantime, if you're interested, shoot me an e-mail and maybe I can figure something out. (brendanhykes@gmail.com)

I should have a table at Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona at the end of this month. After that I probably won't be doing any cons until late August at the earliest, as we are expecting a baby in late July! So I will be staying home getting to know my new daughter. (How early is too early to start her on comics?)

Anyway, I think that's all I have for now. Time to get to work. Until next time...

-Brendan

100 stories!

Holy shit you guys, I've written 100 short stories! Like, in 100 days! I didn't even realize it until I wrote today's story and cataloged it. I have to say I'm pretty psyched about this. I was hoping to do something spectacular for my 100th story, but things being things, the time got away from me and I forgot it was coming up. It's been a busy couple of... months? Years?

Kind of funny that today's story is about a guy who's super exhausted but keeps fighting. I hope that's not my subconscious telling me I hate this, because right now I feel like I love this.

I have jury duty tomorrow so my story will be late. I thought about taking my laptop with me and writing there, but I just don't feel like lugging all that around with me. I swear, my next laptop will be 15" tops. Go all Warren Ellis and start blogging about all the different computers I use. Anyway, yeah. I'll have a notebook with me and everything, so I'll try to get something down. But I'm a little uncomfortable doing too much prep work on a story. These are meant to be first drafts, just write it and walk away, so I don't know if I want to get into writing it in a notebook and then copying it onto the computer. So we'll see. Either way it'll be late.

I'm think, for the archive (which I'd all but abandoned until I came up with this idea) maybe I'll just post links to all the stories, maybe with like a one-sentence synopsis for each. We'll see. That can be my big 100 stories project, just maybe a few stories late.

Eventually I'll have to decide what I want to do with these when I'm done. Probably at least a few will get scrapped. Some I've already decided to expend upon. Some I'd like to adapt into short films or one-act plays, or even comic scripts. The rest I'll probably try to rewrite and eventually put together an anthology. Maybe just self-publish it on Amazon. I know, I'm not even a third of the way through, but eventually I'll have to figure it out. Maybe just writing them in the first place is enough.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Get myself psyched up for jury duty tomorrow. Polish up my sense of moral justice.

By the way, since I'm here, I should mention that Anonymous Nancy #1 is still up on comixology here. We're still trucking along on #2, taking longer than we'd hoped, but then that's life. I'm hoping to get Lunatic Fringe up there soon, too. No promises on that.

I have some other project in the pipeline. I'm locking down some details on a Kickstarter project I'll be looking to launch next summer. Kind of big one. I might do a smaller project as a bit of a dry run later this year, so keep an eye out for both of those.

Also, a good friend of mine got accepted to a workshop in Portland, but he didn't get his scholarship and could use some help. If you have a few bucks to kick his way, I'd greatly appreciate it. He's pretty close to his goal, but that's just the tuition and doesn't include things like travel costs. Every little bit helps, and you'll some cool six word poems (or if you give more a whole short story).

I think that's all I have for now. Thanks for sitting through all my nonsense!

Nittany Con interview

Really quickly, I was interviewed at Nittany Con by Gearbox Union, here is the video. I'm at the 4 minute mark, but the whole thing is worth checking out.

Nittanycon and PIX, plus other nonsense

Been a busy couple of weeks, but I'm finally taking a moment to mention the last two cons I did, NittanyCon this past Sunday, and PIX the Saturday before that. I had a great time at both. They're two very different conventions, with totally different vibes, but both very cool.

PIX was cool because it was all about indie comics. Everyone there was a cartoonist, or a writer, or in some other way involved in the actual creation of the comics. I met a few people, artists and writers, and had some really interesting conversations.

Nittanycon was a pretty standard convention crowd, dealers, artists, writers, cosplayers, there was a roller-derby team. Just on a  much smaller scale, which I really liked. Obviously the standard comic-con crowd is a great crowd, and I always have tons of fun at these things, and this was no exception. Again, got to meet some cool artists and writers, and plenty of other people along with them.

As it stands I have one more convention booked in May, though it looks like I may have to cancel due to an unforseen conflict. If so, I'll be a bit bummed, but hopefully I can get a table at Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona in June. There's a few later in the year that I'd like to attend as well. I'll be sure t post updates here as I have them.

Some bad news regarding Lunatic Fringe. Unfortunately Sloane Leong had to drop off as artist. I had hoped to put together a six-issue mini with her, but while I was pitching the book to publishers, her schedule filled up. This is actually a pretty common occurrence, it can take a while to get a book approved with a publisher, and artists can't wait around for that to happen. Sloane is an incredibly talented artist and I'm glad I got to do the book with  her, even if it was just one issue.

So for now I'm shelving the project, and sometime in the near future I'm going to start looking for a new artist and rework the series from scratch. That said, I'm also going to be attempting to make the comic available on comiXology, and if anyone is interested in picking up a pdf from me directly you can e-mail me (brendanhykes@gmail.com) and I'll try to work something out.

Also, 365 stories is going well. I've really liked a lot of the stories I've written. Of course they're all very rough, including the ones I've liked, and could certainly use some rewriting. I'm thinking when I get to 100 I'm going to try to block off some time to go back and reread all of them, maybe pick some of my favorites, rewrite and post them. There's a few that I'd like to adapt into other media, short film or one-act play or short comic. I'd like to do something big and impressive with my 100th story, but I probably won't.

I'll be extra busy with my day job the week of the 14th and the week of the 21st, so I'm thinking I might do 2 weeks of 100 word stories. I really like doing those, and while they are generally faster to write, they're also a really useful exercise in brevity.

As always, I'll remind you that Anonymous Nancy #1 is available on comiXology, here. And we are trucking along on issue 2, hopefully by the next convention I attend, we'll have copies available, and if you don't believe me, check this out:

Boo ya! I have more completed pages, but I don't want to spoil it! (Maybe next post.)

I have another project that I'm pretty close to being ready to start moving on, and I'm about to start looking for artists for a horror anthology project I've been working on.

And speaking of horror  anthologies, and just so I'm not only talking about myself here, I recommend you head over to your local comic shop and tell them to pre-order you a copy of In the Dark, the massive horror anthology coming out from IDW. I backed the kickstarter for this, so I already have the pdf, and it is gorgeous. So many great horror stories, from so many great creators! (Scott Snyder, Justin Jordan, Steve Seeley, Cullen Bunn, Rachel Deering, Steve Niles, and that's just off the top of my head.)  I can't wait to get the physical copy! And I'm telling you, if you don't pre-order it, you may not get a chance to see it at all.

Okay, that's all I've got for you right now. Laterz!

PIX!

Hey, I know I've been mentioning it in my last few posts, but I wanted to remind everyone that I'll be at PIX this Saturday, if you're in the neighborhood you should definitely check it out, looks like it'll be a lot of fun. I'll have copies of Anonymous Nancy #1 and Lunatic Fringe, as well as Lunatic Fringe posters. Stop by and see me!

That's all!

100 words week and other stuff

I was just notified by tumblr that I've posted my 100th tumbl. Hooray! *waves little flag*

Anyway, I finished up an entire week of 100 word stories. It was a pretty fun experience. On the one hand, 100 words is really short, which can seem a lot easier than a 300 or 600 or 1000 word story. On the other hand, I kept finding myself ending a story, very abruptly, and still being a good 10 or so words over. It's really hard to get an entire story into 100 words. But I think the exercise has helped to tighten up my writing, and provided some interesting (if incredibly short) stories, and I'll probably do it again sometime soon.

As I mentioned previously, I'll be at PIX in just under 2 weeks, March 22nd. This one really creeped up on me, and I'm not sure I'm entirely prepared for it. I will have copies of Anonymous Nancy #1, as well as Lunatic Fringe, and the Lunatic Fringe poster. I'm hoping to have a Nancy poster as well, to promote issue 2, which I should have copies of at whatever convention I end up doing after PIX and Nittany Con. (I have a couple I'm looking at but haven't booked tables at yet, I'll be sure to let you know when I have.)

Speaking of, Nittany Con is about a week after PIX, March 30th. So I'll be there too. Should be a good time.

In other news, I have all these short scripts, and I've been thinking for a while about putting together some anthologies so I might start looking for artists for those soon.

Nancy #1 is still up on comiXology. So check that out if you haven't had a chance yet.

That's all for now

365 Stories update, conventions, etc.

So I've made it through my first full month of 365 stories (a short month, but it still counts). Still pretty happy with the output, and it's keeping me thinking about writing, which is the whole point, so I'm calling it a success. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to archive my stories. If anyone has any suggestions, or knows about formatting on here, let me know.

This week I'll be trying something a little different. All my stories will be 100 words or less. Today's was a very lazy version of that. I'm going to try to have a complete plot with characters and all of that in 100 words for the rest of the stories. We'll see how well that goes. They might all just end abruptly like today's. (I got to 99 words and saw how little room I had, and just kind of decided the story was over. I mean, it was even called Lazy, so I think I had some allowance there to be lazy with it.) So, if nothing else, this week's stories will be extra short.

In other news, I'll be at two conventions this month. PIX, the Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo, will be on Saturday, March 22nd, in the South Side (of Pittsburgh). You can find all the details here. I've never been to it before, but it sounds like fun. I'll also be at Nittany Con at State College, PA, on Sunday, March 30th. You can find them on facebook here and on twitter here. Both are one-day cons. I'm hoping to have copies of Anonymous Nancy issue 2 there, but I'm not yet certain.

Speaking of, Nancy issue 1 is still up on comiXology. Check it out, only a buck!

I'm still looking out for artists for my big project (see my last post for details on that). I'm also always just interested in working with artists on stuff, so hit me up if you feel like doing something.

I think that's all I have for now, still writing, still working.

365 stories, artist search, etc

Well as might have been noticed, I have not managed to archive any stories here. I've been trying to figure out the best formatting to do what I want to do, but it may turn out that this is not the best place to archive the stories. (I used to be really good with computers, then I just kind of stopped playing around with them, and now I can't figure stuff out like I used to. I must be getting old.) We'll see. That said, I will try to figure something out, or ask someone smarter than I am. You may just have to look them up on tumblr (which is a perfectly acceptable format for something like that anyway).

Today's story came from a dream I had last night. Kind of a nightmare. I remember feeling pretty panicked a few times during the dream, at least, and it left me kind of freaked out when I woke up. I decided to use it for my story, and was actually writing the story in my head when I fell back to sleep, and I ended up losing a lot of the actual events as well as the general mood. That said, it's at least a weird story, if not as scary as it seemed in my dream.

In other news, I've posted on a couple forums, and I'll mention it here, I want to get moving on a project I've had in mind for a while, and I need an artist for it. It's a sort of political satire/dystopia-but-with-a-sense-of-humour story set around the presidential elections in 2076. Keeping that in mind, I'd like to have it ready and being sold during the 2016 convention season. The plan is to drum up interest at conventions and online throughout the year, and set up a Kickstarter campaign sometime next year, during convention season. This would be a straight collaboration, meaning that while we would be working off the outline I already have, the final story would be developed together, as well as promotional items (flyers, bookmarks, buttons, things like that).

So if there are any artists interested, let me know, I can be reached through comments here, or via e-mail at brendan.hykes@gmail.com. I'll be happy to provide more details on what I had in mind, and we could discuss terms, and so on.

Not much else beyond that. As always, Anonymous Nancy #1 is still up on comiXology, here. Plugging away on issue #2, as well as other projects. I'm booked at Nittany Con in March, as well as Cleveland Pop Expo in May. I have a few more that I haven't reserved yet, but plan to very soon.

That is all!

365 stories Week One Recap, plus a new project

So, it's been a week, and I thought it was a good time to reflect on the stories so far.

First off, I didn't miss a day, and I haven't had to use any of my prompts yet, which I'm pretty proud of. I think the stories themselves are about what I was expecting. So far nothing that I would consider brilliant, and I think there are at least one or two in there that I would actually call bad (or at least not very interesting) but I am also likely to be my worst critic. Still, I'm having fun, and I think it'll get better over time. I do have to admit, one of those stories may well end up as a book, if I ever have the patience to write one of those.

Anyway, so far, so good. Or, so far, some good, at least.

I will be, throughout this week, figuring out how I want to set up the archive here on my blog. Figure out the best way to do it. We'll see how that works. I also need to make my tumblr look less plain. It's pretty boring right now.

In unrelated news, I have an idea that I've been working on that I'd really like to get together with an artist on. I'd be looking to start building some hype over this year's convention season for a Kickstarter that would run over next year's con season, for a release during the 2016 convention season. There is a logic to this timeframe, so if any artists are interested in hearing more, hit me up and I can give you some details.

As always, check out Anonymous Nancy #1 here. Also, my tumblr is brendanhykes.tumblr.com, and I'm @BrendanHykes on twitter. Also, I'll have a table @nittanycon in State College, PA, first con of the year. So you can check them out on twitter, too.

I think that's all for now, hope you're enjoying the stories!

365 stories day 2

Just a quick update, the second story is now up. It's going up a little later today. I plan to try and write these first thing every morning, but some of them might take a little longer, and sometimes I might have something that needs taken care of before I can, and other things might come up, so it might not always get up until the afternoon or even the evening.

This one is really for a little bit older audience, late-twenties to early-thirties. Just a warning. And the ending is pretty saccharine, so another warning there. It's ground that's been covered before, and much better, but it's the story that came out of me this morning, and I'm fairly happy with it.

Thanks, hope you enjoy it!

365 Stories begins

I won't be doing this with every story, but I figured since this is the first one I'll post some thoughts about it and the project in general.

The story is called A Windy Night, it can be found here. I thought about trying to do something about beginnings, starting a long journey, something like that, but it was really windy here last night, and it kept waking me up, so I decided to start with that instead.

A lot of the time, when I'm writing like this, I'll start out with just a few opening lines, as in this instance, and just go from there. Sometimes it'll take only a few sentences for me to figure out the entire story, other times I'll just keep going until I either come up with something or realize the story is going nowhere. This time I just kept writing, not even sure what genre I was writing, for a good bit of the story.

Anyway, this is a good indication of what to expect with these stories. It's, I would say, a mediocre story, not terrible, but not incredible either. I think, over the course of the year, there will be a small handful of really good stories, a larger handful of really bad stories, and then a whole lot of "meh". Still, at least I'm writing, right?

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, this story falls into the "urban fantasy" genre.

That's all. Like I said, I won't be writing posts on every story, but if there's one I feel like talking about, I will. And I'll be archiving the stories here, so I'll post when that happens, and then probably just every moth or something I'll post an update, just a sort of "this is how everything's going" kind of post.

Okay, go check out the story, hope you like it, or don't hate it at least.

New project (of sorts) 365 stories!

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I've decided to mark the occasion by starting a new writing project. For the next year I will be writing and posting a new piece of flash fiction every day. I'll be calling it 365 stories, because I'm not good at naming things. I'll also be tagging them #365stories.

I'll be posting the stories over on my tumblr page, brendanhykes.tumblr.com, and I'll be archiving them here on my blog, I haven't decided how often. Weekly? Monthly? We'll see. Probably weekly.

The point of the project is simply to get me writing something new every day. There's no set length or anything like that, they could be as short as a few paragraphs or as long as a few pages. People who are better than me at writing every day will think "A few paragraphs a day? That's nothing!" and people who are very bad at writing every day might be having sympathetic panic attacks.

I don't know if anything further will come from any of these. I'm sure I'll like some of the stories enough to expand on them, turn them into longer stories, or comics, or other things. I don't intend to stick to any specific genre or style. The point is just to get the writing done, whatever it happens to be. I'll still be doing the normal writing every day as well, depending on what I'm working on.

The problem that I'm having is that if I have a specific script that I'm working on, I'll work on that steadily, every day, until it's done. If I don't have a specific project, I find it much harder to get any writing done. I'm hoping this will alleviate that problem.

Full disclosure, I'm expecting some major life events to occur over the next 365 days, so I have made some preparations to make this process a bit easier. For one I have a list of about 400 prompts that I've been compiling over the past few weeks, just in case I have a hard time getting moving on a story. For two, I do have about five stories sitting in a folder, just as back-up in case something happens and it's absolutely impossible for me to get a story down. By that I mean things like a serious injury or something like that. And if I happen to write two stories in a day, I won't have a problem adding the second to the back-up folder. So yeah, I'm cheating. A little.

Still, 365 stories. Every day.

In other news, I'll be at Nittanycon in State College on Mar 30. You can follow them on twitter @nittanycon for any info. I'm also tentatively attending Cleveland Pop Culture Expo, May 16-18. There are a few others I'm thinking about, but haven't made any plans yet, I'll post here when I do.

Also, Anonymous Nancy is still available on comiXology! Go check it out if you haven't, it's only a dollar!

As always, I can be found on twitter @brendanhykes, and tumblr at brendanhykes.tumblr.com

That is all. See you tomorrow, bright and early, for the first edition of #365stories!

Anonymous Nancy now available!

Alright everyone, here it is!

http://cmxl.gy/1d8lh3c

That's the link to purchase Anonymous Nancy through comiXology Submit. It's only a dollar! We're plugging way on the second issue as we speak.

Anyway, there it is! Go buy it! Be prepared for me to annoyingly self-promote at every possible opportunity!

That's all, enjoy.

Anonymous Nancy #1 on comiXology Submit

It's official! Anonymous Nancy #1 will be available on comiXology this Wednesday, Jan 8. It should be available between 9 and 10 am. I'll be posting the link here once I've made sure it's active. I'll be out of town this week (hopefully) so I might not be able to post it exactly when it becomes active, but I should be able to get it up at somepoint in the morning/early afternoon.

Of course I say hopefully because we've had two flights cancelled so far, we should have flown out this morning, but it looks like we won't be out until tomorrow afternoon. It's frustrating, but it happens. Weather and all that.

Anyway, keep your eyes posted, I'll be putting up the link on Wednesday.