Pages, Peacemaker, and Pukwudgies!
My Latest Updates on Entertainment and Real World Monster Sightings
Hello, newsletter subscribers!
Two weeks, time for another newsletter! Is this too soon? Would monthly be a better option? We’ll see what I’ve got in the tank, but if any of my handful of followers feels strongly about my frequency, feel free to let me know. So here’s what’s new:
Known Facts of Events to Come:
First Page Layouts for “The Airship” are Complete!
As of yesterday, final edits on the rough layouts of the first ten pages are done! From here, the artist will be focusing on penciling and inking those first ten pages in detail before moving on to the final ten.
The pages are only in rough form right now, but I am very excited about the creativity and choices made by the artist. It’s amazing to see someone else interpreting my script into actual images and panels on a page! Some are exactly the way I imagined, while other choices made by the artist are an often an improvement on what I had in mind.
As a reminder, I am working with the Creative Services team at Comics Experience to help me produce these pages. It is a big investment to pay for artists to help produce a comic. Since this is my first time in the process, I wanted the help of some real experts, so for me it is completely worth it. You can learn more about their services here: comicsexperience.com
Secret Arts & Forbidden Knowledge:
Amazing Writing Tips for Your Character’s Darkest Hour Moment
One of my favorite writer/world builder Youtubers, Hello Future Me, just put out a new video this week. This kid from New Zealand has some of the smartest, most in depth analyses of fantasy writing I have come across. He does an amazing job of breaking down story structures and characters into understandable portions and explaining why the writing works or why it doesn’t.
This video is him talking about the all important “darkest hour moment” that occurs for almost all main characters in popular fiction. If you are writing your own stories, particularly fantasy stories that involve world building, check out this guy’s channel for some great videos.
BONUS: If you are a fan of Avatar the Last Airbender, you may enjoy his breakdown of the psychology of Azula in this video as much as I did.
Recommended Haunts & Carnies
Good Stuff to Read, Watch, and Listen To!
What to Watch:
Peacemaker
Format: Television Show
Director & Writer: James Gunn
Actors: John Cena, Jennifer Holland, Robert Patrick, Freddie Stroma, Danielle Brooks
Where to stream: HBO Max
If you were a fan of the latest version of Suicide Squad, you have probably already watched this. If you skipped Suicide Squad, but you are a Guardians of the Galaxy fan, you should start watching this (and the new Suicide Squad.) It’s pretty edgy and violent for anyone who is squeamish about that sort of thing but very well written and pretty hilarious. Peacemaker’s love for hair metal rock makes the soundtrack particularly special.
What to read:
Dracula’s Brood: Vintage Vampire Classics
Format: Short Story Anthology
Writers: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Algernon Blackwood and others
Where to find: A bookstore in the suburbs (or Amazon)
This is a collection of short stories about “vampires” before the modern version of the mythology had fully solidified. I put vampires in quotes because while some of the stories have elements of vampirism in them, they were all written before or shortly after Bram Stoker’s Dracula story had fully captured the public zeitgeist. For example, one of the stories is a strange tale of a terrifying man-eating tree. (Yep, vampire tree!) The 19th and early 20th century writing also adds a layer of nostalgic horror to the stories that is good for any writer’s language diet.
What to Listen to:
Monsters Among Us
Format: Podcast
Where to stream: Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms
Here’s another good one I like for real world stories of bizarre happenings. Like Jim Harold’s Campfire, this one focuses on listeners who call in with their own creepy encounters. However, he will pull soundbites from other tv shows and stories that he thinks relate to the stories listeners tell which provides some good context. On the most recent episode, there was a chilling story about a cryptid I had never heard of: pukwudgies? Apparently, the forest creatures are known in some areas of North America to lure unsuspecting victims into the woods never to be seen again. It had a very wood fairy vibe to it, although one person on the podcast described seeing one that was small and hairy with big eyes. You’ll have to listen to the whole story (Season 12, Episode 23) for more details, but seriously: WTF??
Spooky Guests & Ghostly Characters
Aliens Say “NO!” to Nuclear Weapons!
Casey O’Malley shares a classic tale of alien activism in this week’s edition of the Latest Strangeness!
Sterling Martin is an artist and designer living in Chicago, IL. His background includes drawing, writing, theatre, teaching, improv & sketch comedy, and whatever else he can get his hands on to be creative. You can find him on the internet at:
Instagram: @sterfest.art
Website: sterlingmartin.design
Twitter: Maybe someday?
Linkedin: I’m pretty sure I have one of those
Facebook: Ugh, do I have to?