Lightning Strikes Thrice
Somewhere outside the realm of logic and linear time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmagorical shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What arcane esoterica shall we uncover there today? Read on, bold traveler . . .
Hola, Comrade! I hope you've had plenty of picnics and fireworks and, you know, whatever it is people do in July. I'm living the good life here in Cincinnati, where it's warm but the heat is not as oppressively deadly as it is in other parts of the world. Aside from the climate apocalypse and the ongoing breakdown of human civilization, things are going well--I got an A in my grad school class, for instance. And once my class was over I did like I promised and finished the comic book I was working on, a little thing called . . .
LIGHTNING MAN #3
I just got them from the printer, and they look good--nice shiny cover, crisp blacks in the interior, you love to see it. This is the third issue, and here's what it's about:
Follow six months in the life of Blake "Lightning Man" Robinson, counting down to the end of his 11th grade year and his greatest challenge yet. Featuring the menace of the malevolent Mummy, more of the mystery behind Lightning Man's powers, a superhero team-up, teen drama, and more!
You can order your copy right here.
If you don't have the first two yet, I've still got copies; you can order issue 1 here, and issue 2 here.
I feel like #2 was probably a surprise for people, because it was an issue-long fight scene. It was also a dive into the main character's mind, though, because I felt like readers needed to get to know Blake better before we went any further. I think #3 will be where everything clicks into place for the reader and you see what I'm doing here, with the characters and the various plot lines. Based on the responses I got when I serialized the story on Facebook, people are much more emotionally engaged in this issue than the previous ones.
SWANN CASTLE
Blu and I are working hard on finishing Swann Castle. Editing has taken longer than expected, but I've started layout; sometimes it feels like we're almost done, sometimes it feels like there's still a million things to do. I could go into a lot more detail about the process but I doubt you'd find it interesting. Instead I'll share some artwork. I've got a bunch of good pieces, let's see, what should I share--ah, I know. 
Shown here are some of the high-ranking staff members of Swann Castle, lusciously illustrated by Joshua LH Burnett.
From left to right, top to bottom, the characters are . . .
Octopus Jones, legendary hero and random interloper;
Zazlo Hyperion, Minister of Security;
Ezma Shadow, Minister of Espionage;
Lady Amarillo de Flumingale, Minister of Finance;
Beowulf, Captain of the Guard;
Clarence, Minister of Diplomacy
All these characters were created by Blu and me except for Octopus Jones, created by Joseph Morris, and Beowulf, creator unknown. All of them--and so many more!--are detailed in the book, which is coming soon. Soon, I tell you!
FORSOOTH, I HAVE BOOKS AVAILABLE THROUGH KINDLE VELLA
There are 26 chapters available of my science-fiction adventure Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation. I've just finished Chapter 27: Gone Girl, so watch for it next week!
And as always, you can read the entirety of my occult detective novel The Lobster-Quadrille on Kindle Vella. If you like hardboiled detectives, men with lobsters for heads, Nancy Drew, occult conspiracies, and/or the works of Lewis Carroll, go ahead and start at the beginning.
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST MONTH
Astro City Metrobook volume 3, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Alex Ross, and various
Warlord of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Astro City is a comic, so the only prose novel I've read lately is a short one, Warlord of Mars. This is the third book in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series; it finishes up the initial trilogy about John Carter, but Burroughs would go on to write 7 or 8 more, depending on how you count. I read the second book in this series, The Gods of Mars, in 2006. Good lord, can you believe it's already been 17 years? I also read that book in the summer, the summer I went to California. A magical trip; Alice and I went to San Diego Comic Con, and the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, and In-N-Out burger . . .
What's that? Oh, right, The Warlord of Mars. The plot is that John Carter's wife Dejah Thoris is captured, and he travels all over the planet, braving various perils in far-flung and colorful locales, in pursuit of her kidnappers.
I read the copy pictured above, a beat-up paperback from the 60s that I bought at the Goodman Games booth last year at GenCon. I could have gotten an ebook version for free but I've found that for these stories, a battered paperback provides the ideal reading experience. When my family went on vacation I carried it around with me in my back pocket and took it out whenever I wanted to be transported to the dying, primeval world of Barsoom.
It seems there was something of a Burroughs revival in the 60s. These books really talk him up in a way you don't see any more. According to the first page of this paperback:
Edgar Rice Burroughs was gifted with a limitless imagination. With it he created an entire culture for a vast planet--many races, many peoples, strange creatures and stranger plants . . . His imagination was coupled with an ability to write startlingly graphic prose, vivid with color and excitement, seething with action, and rich with the barbaric splendor of bygone ages.
It's true, the books seethe with action. But John Carter and Barsoom have gone out of fashion and these days if you go to Barnes & Noble you probably won't find any books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I think it's in part because he was so influential. The John Carter books inspired Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon comic strip, which inspired the Flash Gordon serials, which inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars, and now when you walk into your local bookstore--or really, any store--and see a wall of Star Wars merchandise, well, that's filling the niche that good ol' John Carter once did.
TV SHOWS I'VE WATCHED LATELY
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Umbrella Academy
MOVIES I’VE WATCHED SINCE LAST MONTH
Galaxy Quest
Past Lives
Avatar
Nimona
Avatar: The Way of Water
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Matrix
In case you were thinking I only read and watch escapist fantasy nonsense, I'll have you know I saw Past Lives in the theater and it was lovely. Made me quietly, wistfully sad; thumbs up.
And now wistfully, sadly, I must take my leave of you. Do not grieve, dear one; I will talk to you again next month. Stay strong.
Your Pal,
Leighton