Comics and E-Bay

One of the things I have been exploring lately is the purchase of comic books on the auction website, E-Bay.

With the recession in full swing, more and more people are trying to make a few quick bucks on E-bay selling various items in their collections. Be it a panel from an artist for a comic book, or their comic books in general. I have also had the pleasure of snagging a few collectible toys from the site as well.

E-Bay is a tricky place to purchase comThere are some rules when purchasing comics from E-Bay that you the reader and purchaser need to look for.

1) check to be sure that the seller has a grade for the comic. There will be some that do not follow certain price guide rules on grading. as a rule of thumb, here is the best source of information for the quality of comics…

http://www.comicspriceguide.com/p-conditions.aspx

2) Feel free to contact the seller and ask questions about the comic, should he/she not have a grade for the comic, if you think they may not know what the grade is, then send them the link so they can check it out and give you a more accurate grade, to help you make up your mind on the purchase. The last thing you want to happen is to get a book for a decent price, only to have it show up in the mail with the cover no longer held by the staples, and the sellers name inside the cover from when he/she was younger. (This happened to me)

3) Sometimes the seller will include an image for the comic cover from another source on the internet. Many times this should give you a warning signal going off in your head. Yet sometimes they just can’t include an image due to technical difficulties, when this happens, feel free to contact the seller again.

4) this is a no-brainer. Check the shipping costs. I live in Germany, and have often found sellers that jack the cost of shipping, to offset the price they are selling the item for. IE: The item is on auction, but shipping will be $18.00 (Many do this since they know they will only make a couple bucks on the item, and will pocket the additional shipping fee you pay for shipping.)

 

With these in mind, shopping for rare and golden or silver age comics on E-Bay can be a blast. I am often betting on multiple comics each week, and some of the comics I have purchased have been in absolute perfect condition, even though they were printed in 1966 or so, I even have one from 1951 that was listed with the exact grade I placed it in as well.

*******Warning about auctions********

Winning the auctions is like an addiction, the more you bid on, and look for, the more obsessed with winning the auction you become. This can become costly. Make sure you constantly check with your pricing guide to ensure you are not paying too much for your comic, and remember to add in the cost of shipping to get your total purchase cost.

If you do not have a pricing guide, or if you want to access what I consider simply the best online resource for comic book collectors, please check out Stash My Comics, link below. ON the site making an account is not necessary, but if you do, you can create a collection database of your comics, including grade, value and search engines for looking for comics you are interested in purchasing. If you are unsure if an issue is the correct one, there are images you can click on to verify which issue you are bidding on.

I also use it to track the comics I want to bid on, based on the grading the seller has given the book. I can then determine if the price I am bidding, is too high for the comic, of if I am making a good purchase.

Please check them out, like I said, simply the best comic resource available, and fully interactive.

http://www.stashmycomics.com/

Now is the time to purchase comics, and with luck, should you decide, you can re-sell the items when the recession is over, and make a decent profit.

I wish you all luck

Peace.

Lance Goolsby

 

 

Comic Book Fantasies

Well, for those of you that know me, well personally, I am a big comic book guy.

My first introduction to comics in the 1970′s was a Twilight Zone Comic someone left at my Grandmothers cabin on Mt. St. Helens. (Not this issue however)

It started for me back in the late seventies when we were visiting my Grandfather, Grandmother and Great Uncle at their cabin on Mount St. Helens. This was a few years before it blew its top in 1980. however, at some point, I think either my cousins or aunts and uncles had visited them and brought a Gold Key, Twilight Zone comic and left it behind. It was something new to me, reading, and having pictures to help fuel the imagination of the story. I wish to this day I had this comic, as it was my introduction. But every comic book collector has their “Holy Grail” of comic books that they search for their entire life, and mine is that Twilight Zone comic.

Shortly after leaving the mountain, and returning to Portland, where we were living for another year or so, so this would have been 1978, maybe the latest 1979, I went into one of the drug stores and saw, and looked at my first comic book spinner.

There in the area dedicated to magazines stood this tree like rotating stand with issues of comic books. I stood there with about 75 cents in the pocket, and looked at every issue on the rack. I was sure that I was getting quizzical looks from the staff, as I stood there alone, with my mother in the grocery store next door. Slowly I pulled three of the issues from the rack and made my way to the counter where a late seventies teenager was sitting with her charlies angels feathered hair, ala Farrah Fawcett. I placed the comics onto the counter, and paid my 75 cents for the three, then made my way with these three rolled up comics in my back pocket, sticking out over my Star Wars T-shirt.

I waited till I was home to read them, but snuck peeks at them on the short trip home, as we drove our station wagon with faux wood panel siding, the short distance to the house.

I wish I could remember the titles I had purchased, however one I will never forget, Mutants born with super powers, which in a way goes against everything super-hero comic books profess. Through one event or another every super-hero is imbued with their powers through seemingly tragic accidents.Superman was sent to Earth seconds before his planet of Krypton was destroyed (Turns out there were a couple other babies sent to earth at the same time, Super Girl, Super Boy, and even… Sigh… Krypto, the Super-Dog) Batman became a hero after his parents were killed, and he dedicated his life to avenging their death.

The Flash was hit by lightning while handling chemicals, giving him super speed. Hal Jordan was given a ring of power when he found a dying alien that had crashed to Earth. Steve Rogers was given a drug that turned him into Captain America. The list goes on and on, but there was this comic book that had heroes that were born with their powers.

(from left to right) Storm, Colossus (the tall silver guy), Wolverine (the shorter guy), Cyclops, Banshee, Thunderbird, Sunfire and Nightcrawler (the blue guy with the tail)

The X-men instantly became one of my favorite stories. Following, at the time, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Charles (Professor X) Xavier, Storm and eventually Wolverine.

There were arcing stories that took the reader into an alternate present day that was littered with people who were born with such a wide variety of powers that the possibilities were endless. Some used their powers for good, as Wolverine often times did, some used them for evil, such as Magneto.

These stories had a single overtone of hope for people like me, who were living with few friends, seemingly outcast because were not living the “Normal” life. I was a big Star Wars freak, collected trading cards, and was very, very hyper active. The main basis of the X-men stories was that they were always fighting for acceptance of the mutant kind by the rest of humanity. Fighting to be accepted as they were by the rest of the world. This spoke to me.

I openly accepted the X-men into my life. I bought and read every issue which for a while came out bi-monthly even, so I could continue my exploits of the team of heroes.

Lately, after my mental breakdown of last year, I got back into collecting the comics again, I have been looking for American issues of comics for sale here in Germany on E-Bay, and making some amazing purchases.

I am looking into the Golden age of comics, and Silver age. These are the years of comic books that is considered by many to be the best time of comic books, based on the stories, and artists that were supplying the panel drawings.

Some of my recent purchases, now hanging proudly in frames on my wall , are to me, simply amazing for the prices I paid. There may be more personal worth to the comics than true worth, but I don’t care. They were bought for me, to remind me why I love comic books so much.

The Mighty Thor 135, 1966, cover art by Jack Kirby

One of the purchases was The Mighty Thor number 135, from 1966. The cover of this comic is great, inked by Jack Kirby who was an amazing artist. He has been considered one of the most influential artists in comics in history. He co-created heroes such as The X-Men, The Hulk and even The Fantastic Four. This cover features Thor fighting against The Man-Beast. (It is listed as the Super-Beast on the cover for some reason) The Man-beast if a High Evolution evolved wolf that had been hit with an evolution ray that caused it to become so powerful, and have mental powers as well. The creature becomes a challenge for Thor, as the “God” of Asgard finally may have met his match in battle.

The Cover, as you see, is so simplistic, as was Kirby’s signature trait, the colors are beautiful, and the sense of the fight and plight of Thor is evident in the single image.

Uncanny X-Men number 45, 1968, Cover art by John Buscema

The next proud purchase is to date my absolute favorite. Uncanny X-men number 45, from 1968. This comic has two stories in the pages, both centering around Cyclops, “When Mutants Clash” is the story of Cyclops trying to free the rest of the X-men from captivity of Magneto, Toad and Quicksilver. One of the greatest lines ever told to the X-men which sums up the overall story between the evil and good in the comic books was spoken by Quicksilver to Cyclops in a battle that ensues when Cyclops stumbles into him trying to find Magneto in the stronghold.

“Enough! I will listen to no more of your Homo sapiens-sympathizing blasphemy! You have had your chance to join us — and declined it! Therefore — I can consider you nothing but our enemy!”  -Quicksilver

The enemy, Magneto, has assembled mutants who want to eradicate the human presence from the planet, as he knows that they are afraid of the mutants and the powers they possess and want them eradicated from the planet as well. Having survived Auschwitz, and having his powers poked and prodded by the Nazi party, Magneto would rather kill every last human that make other mutants go through the same thing.

The cover is by John Buscema and shows a single sceen from the battle from the super fast Quicksilver (Think Marvel comics version of The Flash) and Cyclops, as he fired his ocular blast, just missing his opponent by mere inches.

These two comics are proudly displayed on the wall in my house, on my “Nerd Wall” to solidify myself into hunting and collecting these important comics from our past.

Being an american in Germany, and knowing that there has been a U.S. Army presence here in Schweinfurt since the end of the second world war, I know these comic books are out here, waiting to be rescued and collected by myself, and made available to the discerning collectors in the United States, or myself for my collection as well.

As time progresses I will update and share some of my collection with you all, for your pleasure, and if you have questions or have interest in one of the comics, please feel free to write me. I am open for all queries and thoughts.

To every one of you reading this.

Peace!

Lance Goolsby

A “B” movie fan, and why I am

well, taking into account the sheer number of large budget action and adventure films being hosted on the big screen, many people seem to overlook the films made on modest budgets that are directed to the straight to video market.

I am a fan of these films. They are not my main forte, however they are sought after by myself quite often to help pass the time and providing a enjoyable and laughable evening at the television.

There are companies that release one or two films a year, and there are others that will pump them out at a rate that seems to be a dozen a year. All of these companies share a single belief though. they love film.

Some of the best companies to capitalize on the upcoming success are companies like, The Asylum

http://www.theasylum.cc/

They have found a way to make films, based on the premise of big budget blockbusters in the works, and release DVD’s to confuse most consumers in the DVD shop, as a modern example, type in Hansel & Gretel into iTunes and see what comes out. they have released their own version of the film. Thor also got their very own film, and sequel, Titanic was not spared and neither was Battle L.A.

Now what The Asylum does is also male new and original films with the profits from these knock-off films. one of the best is a film called Mega Shark V.S. Giant Octopus.

This was a really badly acted romp into what was supposed to be a serious film. It is so campy it is laughable. but the weird thing not in a bad way. it is fun. the story is horrible. the effects horrible, the actors horrible. but, and I don’t know why, it works.

There are many many films, not just by them, but other companies as well.

However if you are new to the low budget film genre, than this is the place to start.

there are rules to low budget film watching though. so I will list them, so you don’t expect more than you will get, and you will get the most out of your viewing pleasure.

1: Never, ever, feed them after midnight…. Oops… wrong list… hold on, let me re-start

 

1: Never go into a low budget film expecting something great. Be weary that you will be watching bad acting, bad effects, bad filming and bad stories. once you understand this, then the film will be ok.

2: It is Ok to laugh at the film… they are meant to be serious, but often fail at it. expect them to be more like an action comedy.

3: popcorn and beer are a must. the more beer you drink, the better the film will be.

4: Never pick the film apart, just let it run… many times the plot is lost in the filming. What started out as one thing, may end up something completely different. this seems to be normal.so just let it ride, and your enjoyment will be better for it.

Once you can just let the film go, and enjoy a few laughs in the expense of the actors and crew, then you, like my wife and I, will really love watching the films.

We liked some so much, we actually own them on Blu-Ray now.

Hope you like this, and I will give you a few examples in the next few months.

Peace

Lance

Back in the saddle, finally

Well the time has flown by since my last post.

I am now a proud employee of a personnel company called GPS, and I have been contracted through them to a company working for the FAG ballbearing plant here in Schweinfurt, called Madinger.

I am more than excited to be working at one of the large factories here in town, and FAG is one of the largest. Sachs is larger, but I will not complain.

The job involves the inspection of parts that are used in the manufacture and repair of cars, including Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen and Audi, and passenger aircraft engines from Rolls Royce.

There are so many different parts to the job, which is why I like it so much. I almost never know what I will be doing on the days until I get into the factory. Then I learn what I will be doing, or what I will be inspecting, or what I will be repairing. It is a truly amazing thing knowing that lives are in my hands. Maybe it seems trivial or small, but the smallest thing can cause catastrophic results without the proper attention to detail.

since most of the parts are created by machine, using 3 ton metal bars, we need to inspect every individual piece just in case a part is made using the end pieces, and pressed into form. this piece, if not found, when used in something like a flange for a car, could separate when the vehicle reaches high speeds, causing it to break apart, and the car to loose control from the excess wobble of the now damaged part. Now imagine what a bad part in an aircraft could do.

Pay wise, I will not complain. I can not complain. I am working, that is what matters to me the most. I would like to leave the personnel company, and go to work directly for Madinger. Where the pay would be slightly better, but the kicker for me would be the unlimited contract from them. That kind of security is something that I truly desire.

Well, I will let you all go.

thanks for reading my words of dim-whit.

Peace

Lance

Letting out some steam… Finally

Wow, how the days go by.

Been jobless now for around 6 months. Receiving unemployment now until the end of this month, May, and then getting nothing more from the government of Germany. This is not of my doing. I have been applying to any job that I have knowledge about or that may be open, also sending my resume to work at some of the factories in the city on the production line.

I sometimes think I am not getting any call backs for interviews based on my nationality.

I know that as a hard remark to say, but when you are sitting in my shoes, it sure feels that way. I am a pretty damn knowlegable person, pursuing all subjects that I have even a little knowledge in, and expanding my base of knowledge.

However it is not in the German way to hire people that know positions, they only hire people trained after school in the positions. I couldn’t be more sorry that I as an American was not trained in a job position, as the Germans are, in High school. I was a soldier. I am trained how to shoot other humans, out of spite from opposing government positions in matters that matter to them.

I was not taught graphic creation, or web graphic production, word, excel, after effects, or even how to paint paintings. These things, and many more I learned on my own, because I enjoy them.

I took it upon myself to learn skills that I saw I was good at, and excited me so I could apply them into a real world position. Not for the money, but that is not bad, but out of the love for the creative process of it.

Oh well. So here I am writing chapter three of my new novel, The Face in the Falls. This is again something I like doing, so we will see if I can finally get myself a literary agent to back me up and get me published finally.

This was just a little steam to let out.

I have been purged,

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

Lance

How a military man in Egypt had his life changed.

I remember when I was young, around the time I was 13 or 14, I made a proclamation that I would never make it to 30. I was convinced that I would burn out my flame well before then, as I was sure I was going to have an adventurous life.

Well I did, and life had other plans for me.

I joined the U.S. Army a couple months out of high-school, after a job interview in Cherry Hill, New Jersey fell through, and I had a pretty terrible car accident. Now I was not 100% innocent of the accident, as I had just blown my nose and was looking for a place to put the tissue in my sister’s car. Now I was in the center lane of a 3 lane highway, so how was I to foresee that there would be a Philadelphia Inquirer truck parked in the center lane delivering to a gas station? Needless to say, a seat belt saved my life, and the Mitsubishi engine was designed to crumple away from the driver… Again saving my life.

So there I was, a freshly out of high-school soldier. Where did they send me? Germany, where drinking is legal at 18. The town I was stationed in was in the middle of nowhere. I had only a small pay check each month, and could buy beer and alcohol at 18, what it was I did at this point does not need a doctorate in psychology to figure out.

I pretty much spent every night I was there drunk, at least when I can. We did have training maneuvers, and live firing exercises that would often take us from our base and bring us to another for up to a month at a time. While on these drinking was highly forbidden. Me and a couple guys did occasionally find a way to drink a beer or two without detection, but never enough to possibly endanger the rest of the team.

My next duty station, where I actually began to grow as a human was Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. This was in 1992. Here in the land of the 82nd Airborne, soldiers are honed into killing machines. There is almost no place for the weak of will, motivation is a highly treasured friend and strength of character is built. Here I met probably the most influential friend in my life. Through him, I found how education and personal growth is more important than any party. I am not saying that I didn’t party, rather I just didn’t party every day.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. From left to right. Erik Kovisto, Lance Goolsby, Jeff Holoway, and someone none of us can remember. Sometime in 1993.

In 1993 My unit deployed to the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. The town where we were is called Sharm El Sheikh, it is the furthest south you can go on the peninsula. It was here that Jeff and I both had a total blast with some of our other friends, Joe Gower was the greatest of them. We had our barracks, a dog named Gumba, and a barbecue pit, all with what I could describe and be honest with as the greatest in the world.

Gumba the dog keeping watch over our grill pit, directly behind our barracks. Egypt 1993

The view from behind our barracks. I still consider this to have been the greatest view I have ever seen. Temperatures also averaged around 90* the entire time we were there, and it only rained once, for 3 minutes. The tower is the one I was eventually accused of trying to set ablaze.Egypt 1993

We were part of a force dedicated to ensure the peace treaties between Egypt and Israel was fulfilled. It was here that I enrolled in my first college course, Criminal Psychology, through the University of Texas. I did not realize at first, however the short time I attended the class, I had begun something that would change me as a human.

I started to understand there were other things to do with ones life, rather than look for parties, and drink all of the time. I started to learn that self education and the furthering of ones knowledge in whatever it is you like is more important. One of the things I liked to do was write. However for the most part I kept it to myself. Jeff’s mother was an English teacher, so he would often correct grammatical errors I was showing in writing. I learned that English is actually fun to write, and placing word to paper I was better spoken than I ever was orally. Soon after leaving Fort Bragg, en-route back to Germany, I started to explore story writing and journal writing.

This is Dahab, Egypt. Bottom row men are: from left, (Partially hidden) Boone, Joe, Jeff, and someone else from the unit. In the window top is Me. These were some friends we met in the town who were backpacking around Egypt at the time. We spent about 3 days partying together.

However, back to Egypt, I found out many many truths about myself. It was often times when Jeff, Joe and I would make trips to a small hamlet town (Now a major tourist town) named Dahab. It was here that I truly understood how destructive I was toward myself. I would often find myself the brunt of many jokes of all my friends and people we were meeting who were back packing through the town. We often times would sit on the beach with many people we would meet, and spend days talking, swimming and partying. I would often be left out of many of the activities, as I was trying to find any way to garner attention from people, including belittling myself to be the laughing stock. This measure from me never gained me many friends. I know the friends I did have understood, and liked me for whom I was, not who I was projecting myself as.

I found myself in a moment in Egypt looking inwardly trying to actually discover who I was. The classes in psychology helped me actually understand myself. I realized, with my two friends help, that I was not an average person. I now knew that I was able to excel on my own, and that I did not need to look for others for acceptance. With time that would come, and if someone could not accept me for whom I actually was, I would not adjust to them. They like it or they don’t. It became that simple to me.

I did however get into the occasional trouble there though. I was an infantry mortar man. We tend to team up with the scouts of our unit more often than not, and Egypt was no exception. (Mortars are like a small artillery piece that was able to be carried around, providing almost instantaneous support when needed. Scouts are also infantry soldiers, who often try to go forward of the front line to call for our mortar fire, and also provide enemy intelligence to the unit.) The scout platoon, for one reason or another never liked me. On one occasion Jeff, Joe and I were having a party with a few other people in our barbecue pit at out barracks. It became a crazy night, but we had a blast, and I for the most part, am a person who becomes way to talkative when drunk.

The next morning I was summoned to the commanders office. Jeff and I had no idea what it could have been for. Standing in front of the commander, he looked me over really quick, and asked me why I had attempted to light a guard tower on fire the night before. I stared at him, and tried to make sense of what it was he was asking me. I could not swallow the accusation. I may not be the most intelligent person, but I do know, and I am sure 100% of the other people on the planet also know, metal does not burn. The accusations were unfounded. I called forward 2 witnesses, Jeff and Joe and they corroborated my story. We were talking with the guard on duty, but there was no way I was piling wood under the tower, attempting to set it ablaze. If I wanted to light a fire under it, there would have been no try, there would have been a done!

Me, 2nd from the right, awaiting the award of my Expert Infantryman's Badge. My friend Jeff Holloway receiving his from our platoon Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, Klaus Meckenstock, In the berret behind him stands the commander who called me into his office to answer to the accusations of trying to light a tower on fire. Egypt 1993

Eventually I also decided to soldier up, and become more than I was, a mediocre soldier. I decided to attempt to be better in my job. Follow orders more closely, and study the army way. There is a test of basic soldiering for the infantry soldiers. It is a difficult task, involving everything from 12 mile forced foot marches, carrying over 50 pounds of equipment, first aide events, weapons proficiency and many more tasks. It is called the Expert Infantry Badge. It is an elite badge of honor for infantry that places them slightly above other infantry soldiers.

For the first time I took this test studying all tasks with a renewed fervour, determined to make it and pass all of the tasks. I accomplished my mission. In the testing phase you are only allowed to fail three tasks, I made it only failing 1.

One of the most proud moments of my life, I wore the badge with pride for the remainder of the time I was a soldier.

Egypt was an enigma for me. It showed me who I truly was, and I began to aspire to become a better person from that point on. I think of my time within the sand and sun as being a place that turned my life around. It helped me learn to strive to become a better person. To not try to please others, to please myself. It taught me not become what other people wanted of me. If I couldn’t not accept myself for who I was, then I strove to become the person I wanted to be. But only for myself.

I thank Joe Gower, and Jeff Holloway for giving me at that moment what I really needed, Understanding and friendship. Because of them, and Egypt, I finally understood who I was. It was at this point I decided that I would allow my flame to burn as long as it could. I wanted to learn everything I could, and maybe share it with someone else out there who is a confused young adult as I was, maybe showing them how to finally understand who they were to become as well.

Peace

Lance M. Goolsby

Some of my artwork

I thought I would show some of the art work I have painted in the last year. Although I am relatively new to the medium of painting, I feel I am learning quite fast. I tent to do paintings over subject mater that matters to me, which I guess is important. I do allot of Star Wars paintings, mostly for me, and comic book heroes as well. I paint them with Acrylic on canvas. and on none of them do I have a frame. I painted them with the plan of not framing it. so the image actually continues around the edges as well.

Here are just a couple of the paintings I have finished over the year 2011, in order of making them.

This was my first, around March, I wanted to paint Darth Vader on a dark background, and only paint the highlights that reflect off of his costume. I didn’t know at the time many of the blending and color bleeding principals I learned later in other paintings, which usually came through trial and error. However, as a subject it is one of my favorite paintings so far.

This one came directly on the heels of Darth Vader, which I guess makes sense, the canvas is slightly smaller than vaders, and It is meant to go to the right of Darth Vader when hung. There will be a second storm trooper in the series, which will go to Vaders left side. The series will be repainted by me, in the styles I have learned through the series of paintings I have done, to make them stand out a little better.

This one was the beginning of me learning how to blend and bleed the colors together. I found out by total accident when I had a blob of black drip, when I was talking with the wife, that water could bleed the color down enough to use it for shading. This is the first that had no subject matter film or comic book related. However, as in the style of my paintings, it is a dark image, with little color.

This was the very next one, The bleeding principal I learned was used throughout this painting. The photo was taken while there was a spot still wet, thusly the wet area. I was happy with the painting, however not overjoyed. There seemed to be something missing from the subject that I did not see when painting it.

This is my favorite to date, I had fun doing this. Wolverine has always been, and always be one of my favorite characters in comic Books. He has a dual personality as being the hero, yet being more brutal than most other heroes in the comic universe. The antihero as people refer to him, does not look to fight evil, however it has a way finding him. No matter how deep he hides himself in the shadows of humanity around him. This one was based on a still from the X-Men Origines: Wolverine film, I however thought it would be better adding the comic book face of Wolverine, rather than the film recognized Hugh Jackman.

This is a painting that I was asked to do for my Sister In Law, for her husbands Birthday. This is my best painting , and the hardest I had to do, to date. I needed to make sure the detail I added to Yoda was on the money, and as realistic as I could do. The overall length of time taken to paint this was about 2 solid weeks. Making sure every wrinkle and gray hair was properly represented. Not to mention the field of depth needed to portray his arm coming at the viewer. This photo does not do this painting justice. Hanging on my in laws wall, you can stare in awe at it for quite a while.

This was another painting asked of me by an in law. He wanted to have a Darth Vader painted by me, and customized for him to hang in his apartment. So I added the AT-ST seen in the bottom right of the painting, the Death Star 2, in the upper left, and the star cruiser and TIE-Fighters flying above. I had a blast with this one, and enjoyed making it as well. Notice the light saber glow on the costume, that again was created with the color bleeding I figured out just a month or so before. I had not yet figured out how to thin the colors enough to create really fine details, while not loosing the strength of the color. as seen with the white reflecting off the corners of his helmet, or off the chain holding on his cape.

Again same Brother in Law, and this time he asked me to do something based of something completely different. This painting is a single frame in the Kick-Ass comic book, where the father is about to show the daughter how it feels getting shot while wearing a bullet proof vest. The hard way. I changed a small portion of the color scheme, as I didnt agree with the way it was originally painted, but it was my interpretation of an already painted scene… So my artistic input is ok… LOL

Well, there you go. A small view into the few paintings i made last year. And slightly after our move in the next few weeks, I will begin again painting. So expect to see a few more in the next few days.

Thanks.

Peace

Lance

 

153 readers subscribed

I was looking at the amount of traffic I receive, and over the course of the last two months, I usually average about 4 hits on my blog per week.

Well, needless to say when I noticed how many of you have signed up to receive emails whenever I post something new, I was astonished. I never would have thought that around the world 153 people are reading my posts regularly. Sometimes I will just post what I think, or something I want to know, and thought maybe there was someone else out there who also wanted to know.

It was because of you, I am now a featured writer for a web magazine called www.nerdlocker.com. I will be their Movie rumors and interviews, and collectable toys reviewer. My first article which is an in depth look into the years worth of rumors surrounding a 3rd instalment of the Tron Series.

I will be writing many more articles for them, as obviously films are something I love. I am also looking into the upcoming Wolverine sequel, as well as a possible interview with Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the new Star Trek series.

So what I wanted to say, is, to all 153 of you, THANKS, you make me feel like there is something out there I am writing for, and that there are people like me, reading stuff like this…

 

So, to you all: PEACE

Lance

Another Game update

The Working Neila Game Studios Logo

Well the time has come, We have now been working over a month on the As of now secret Neila Game studios game, that will be our fledgling game into the mix.

Lazarus, is the game.

It is going to be a first person shooter, set in a city that is being ravaged by “Zombies”. The story behind the game is quite complex. It was written by me, for the game, and as I wrote it , I found that there were more and more back stories needed in its writing.

So the game itself will be a single story. There will be a back story of the hero, and the “Virus” that caused everyday normal people to turn in to these Zombie like creatures.

The bad guy of the game also will be getting a back story. He is one of the more interesting characters within the game. I believe that people will love to hate him for how truly despicable he really is…

The “Virus” itself will also be getting special treatment within the game. It is the main character of the game, so leaving out any details of it would be a travesty. So I have developed an entire story revolving around exactly what the “Virus” is. Also if you notice, I put parenthesis around the word virus. The outbreak is not caused by a virus, rather it is a man made compound developed to help hospitals and military around the world save lives.

Neila Game Studios is also looking for companies, and people to help fund the creation of the game. We will make it, with or without funding, but with funding we will be able to better afford the artists who are spending so much time in its creation.

The working Neila G.S. logo is actually one of the screen shots from the working games first level. We have a great environmental artist working on creating city block after city block for the game, and adding texture and detail. None of the finishing touches have been added as of yet, but you can see we are working hard on getting the best possible graphics out to the fans.

Well, that was the update, hope you enjoyed.

Would love to read some comments…

Peace

lance

My First book for sale on Amazon.

Well, I want to first wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season. To each of you as well, a truly wonderful New Year!!!

 

I finished on Christmas Eve my first book. It is not the longest, but rather meant to be read in a single sitting.

 

I wanted to write a Christmas story this year for everyone. A story that was more updated than many of the others available out there.

A 21st Century Christmas Tale, is what came out.

It is the story of Thomas, a truly gifted business employee, and a truly egotistical person as well. He is driven by his business, and money, not caring about anyone around him, to include his family.

But when a tragic accident takes the life of his parents and sister, he is left with the one thing he hates the most in this world. A 14 month old child.

Can Thomas embrace the challenges of life with a child? Or will he turn her over to the State to be raised in a children’s home, because she interferes with his career, and life?

This is not a journey of self discovery, this is a journey of family discovery.

It will be made available on Amazon.com in the next week or two, for some unset low price.

I hope you will come and read.

When it is available, I will post more details here.

Peace.

Lance