Trying to Be a Cartoonist

As some of you may know, I once had aspirations of being a cartoonist. Going through some old stuff, I stumbled across some of my old art, and I figured I’d share it with you all.

New Comic Project Coming Soon!!!

Dark Horse Presents #2 will feature the first chapter of NUMBER 13, a new story co-written by me and Robert Love. This is our third comic collaboration, and Robert did the cover illustration for my novel Darius Logan: Super Justice Force (which you all should check out).  The first 25 chapters of the book are serialized online for free at the OFFICIAL SITE.

I Needed a Hero

True story: several of the rejections that I got for my novel Darius Logan: Super Justice Force made mention of how difficult it was for certain editors to relate to Darius. None of them came out and said they couldn’t relate to him because he was black, just that they couldn’t relate to him. Fair enough, I suppose. But I can’t help but wonder exactly what it was about Darius that they couldn’t relate to. Was it the fact that he was an orphan, like Harry Potter, Spider-Man or Batman? Was it that he found himself stuck in a violent world not of his own making like Katniss Everdeen? Was it that he was a tortured soul struggling to stay survive like…well…like many characters in some of the most popular stories of all time?

dvd review – SOMETHING WILD

This isn’t really a DVD review, at least not in the traditional sense. Sure, I’m getting ready to write about a movie that’s out on DVD, but honestly, this is about something more than just a DVD. I’ve often said that an integral part of enjoying a movie is not so much the film itself as it is the experience and circumstances surrounding the film. For nearly every movie I’ve seen, there’s a story involved of where I saw it, who I saw it with, and what was going on at that point in my life. This week sees the Criterion Collection release of Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild, a film that stands up as one of the more memorable movie-going experiences of my life.

Fact or Fiction?

The other day I had a conversation with someone who has not yet read my novel, Darius Logan: Super Justice Force. They were telling me what a big mistake I had made in self-publishing the book, and prattled off a list of reason why I was doomed to failure. According to them…
1. Older teenage boys don’t read books.
2. Black kids don’t read books.
3. White kids won’t read a book with a black hero.
4. Girls would never read a book like mine.
I’ve heard all there statements before (more times than I can to admit), but I really don’t want to believe it is true. So far response to DL:SJF has been positive—from young men and women, black and white.
As I’ve said before, part of the reason I wrote and published this book was to dispel some of the myths the mainstream publishing industry keeps forcing upon us. Darius Logan: Super Justice Force is more than just a work of fiction meant to entertain. This is a grassroots movement meant to defy the stereotypes of race and gender that dictate the type of books written and published for readers of all ages.
I appreciate all the positive feedback the book has received so far. I can’t tell you all what a thrill it is to get emails from people of all ages telling me how much they’ve enjoyed the book. Please spread the word to your family, friends, classmates, teachers, librarians and anyone else who might enjoy the book or support the cause of getting past the discrimination that runs rampant in the publishing world. Take a moment if you will, and rate and review the book on Amazon (which really does help with sales). And please, keep the emails coming.
That’s all for now. I’ve got to get back to work on The Adventures of Darius Logan, Volume Two, which still has no title, but the first three chapters alone kick more butt than every chapter of the first book combined.