14: Guess Who's Back?
More a what than a who, but you get it.
Greetings, o’ alert ones! Been a bit of a whirlwind since last I sent one of these out. What with recovering from my stroke, trying to get back to both my day job and my writing schedule and experiencing the launch of my Webtoon Original series MoonRise… it’s been a lot.
Many thanks to those of you who provided comments and well wishes, both concerning my health and my creative endeavors. It’s been very much appreciated. I’m making progress with my health. My primary goals are to reduce my blood sugar and blood pressure along with my weight, and I’m getting there. It’s going to take time, but I’m feeling encouraged and committed.
Still experiencing after effects from the stroke as far as changes in sensation and balance, but I also experienced that the first time around and it got better as the days passed. My hope is that it’ll be much the same in this instance.
In happier news, MoonRise released Episode 5 this week! 5 episodes already? That’s crazy! You can go and read all 5 episodes of MoonRise right now on Webtoon if you’re so inclined, and join the thousands who’ve liked, subscribed and rated the series. Hopefully with a nice high rating, yeah?
I’ve been pleased as heck with the reception so far. Readers seem to generally love the series, and genuinely loathe the main antagonist to this point, Sterling… Kam’s abusive and abrasive handler.
I don’t want to reveal too much of what’s happened thus far (you can read to find all that out) but one of the coolest things that’s been happening in the comments is how the audience has embraced and shown sympathy for Kam and his plight, and also all the speculation concerning what exactly is going on in the series. Because, really… we revealed a lot in the first 3 episodes, and a bit more in the next two… but there’s still so much we haven’t! Tons of surprises yet to come. I can’t wait to see the reactions to what Cem and I have planned.
The other big news is that Skullgirls is back! And my absolute favorite Skullgirls character, the absolutely bonkers Peacock, really cuts loose in the latest episode.
Such a blast to write, really, as she’s such a volatile but also complex and tragic character. Episode 10 released this past Friday with the debut of our new art team and the reception was really terrific. Tons of comments praising their stellar work and what they were able to put together. This past episode was the one where I felt like Skullgirls truly became my series rather than something I was just hired to write and I’m really stoked to see how the rest of the season is received by the rabid Skullgirls fanbase and the rest of the audience in general. Don’t be afraid to let me know what you think!
Quickies
Webtoon Rec. This webtoon actually released on the same day as Skullgirls, although it dropped a few more episodes than Skullgirls did initially, and has been updating weekly ever since, so they’re a bit ahead of where we are now. I mean, of course…
If you like action, BlackSun has a whole heck of a lot of it. To this point the story seems to primarily be about a war between shinobi (ninja) and demons that’s been waged for years. A child of prophecy (maybe) is born, named Yu (clever, that), and raised with no knowledge of the war or that his mother is a shinobi herself. That all changes when a powerful demon with a black halo finds and confronts them.
What happens from there I won’t say, but BlackSun writer Play and artist Miin keep readers on their toes with plenty of action and intrigue. The action sequences in particular are incredible, a trend in some of my more recent favorite webtoons, but they’re complimented with a fair amount of humor and heart that serves the story well. As mentioned, the series only debuted recently, so there’s not too daunting a library of episodes to read through either. You can easily catch up, and subscribe to be informed when new episodes release every Saturday (Friday night). I’d say if you enjoy Urban Animal or even my own MoonRise then you should give BlackSun a shot.
Our First Patron. We got our first patron to the MoonRise patreon page! So I’m sending a “howl out” to Maximiliano Nolasco! We’ve already posted a ton of stuff to the MoonRise patreon page for our (currently) sole patron to enjoy. We also created a special page to honor our patrons on the MoonRise website called… OUR PACK! Hopefully we’ll get the chance to emblazon more names there in the weeks to come, but for now Maximiliano is a lone wolf!
Consumption. As in, what I’m consuming. Watched You People on Netflix and Master and Commander and Emily the Criminal, I think, on HBOMax. All worth a watch. You People is funny, but definitely crude and filled with profanity, but it has a nice message they pull off without being too ham-fisted. Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy have nice chemistry, and Lauren London is really good too. Mike Epps also shows up late in the movie with a fun cameo role. Master and Commander I’d been wanting to watch for years and finally did. Big ol’ epic ship battles at sea tempered with a lot of quality character moments. Emily the Criminal is mostly brilliant, I thought, a crime story highlighted with reasonable arguments for why crime can be such an enticing option for people without the means to get out from under the crippling debt our society often saddles them with, but also how it takes a certain type of personality to go to the depths required to succeed at it. I’m also into season 3 of Sopranos and doing a rewatch of Game of Thrones with my son. I mean, do I really have to convince anyone those are great shows?
Weight. 265 even. I think in early January I was around 280, so that’s a pretty nice post-stroke improvement. I need to keep doing what I’ve been doing and start exercising more, but I feel pretty confident that I’ll be doing nothing but dropping weight for the foreseeable future. I guess we’ll see the next time I send one of these out, yeah?
Until then!