Huge thanks to beatdownboogie for making more amazing cosplay mash ups! If you missed C2E2 or you just wanted a recap of the awesome cosplays at C2E2 watch beatdownboogies awesome videos capturing the best cosplays there!
Ghost Town: A Mystery // Kickstarter
Our own Living The Nerd Life content creator, Jesse Kwe (@ShoPow11), is starting his new career as a comic book artist and his first big project is a graphic novel entitled "Ghost Town"! It will be a series of 3 books with the first one, subtitled "A Mystery", being comprised of 4 issues. This will be Jesse's big break into the comic book industry so please check out the Kickstarter page and if you like what you see, pick a reward level to pledge, and support Jesse's dream by sharing it with anyone else who you think might be interested in seeing this comic get made. Thank you!
Back this project now on KickStarter!
About this project:
Ghost Town: A Mystery is the first book in the Ghost Town series. It follows Arthur the Auditor and his mission to Treble City to "Investigate recent disturbances from unknown assailants."
The Story:
America is not who she once was...
When the debt became too much and the will to fight was too little, they took her from us. They, The Lollipop Corporation, with their promises of freedom from our troubles bought her out from under us. We wasted her and they took her away.
Now we are only Share Holders, owning a fraction of the company that owns all of it; our land, our resources, and our futures.
So just like our brother Arthur Saulos, the Last Man Born in America, we gave up trying a long time ago.
Arthur took his job as Auditor, gave up his birth hands for metal ones, and put on the suit and tie for Lollipop.
Now he works the job. He does the missions that are provided to him by a faceless machine, written in a code he didn't bother to learn. That's okay, he'll let The Librarian translate it for him. He's the only kind face in this company anyway.
The next mission that The Librarian hands him is Treble City, a Lollipop holding on the east coast. "Recent disturbances by an unknown assailant," is all Arthur has to go on, but he's used to that. It's been a long time since he's been to Treble City and he'll soon learn that things have most certainly changed in "The City That Never Sleeps."
Because, just like his mission, things in Treble City are not as they seem...
...but what ever really is...
...in Ghost Town...
Back this project now on KickStarter!
A Glimpse at the panels:
Star Clipper Returns With Downtown Location
From riverfronttimes.com
"Oh my God, it looks just like Star Clipper!"
Ben Trujillo was visiting 1319 Washington Avenue, where two long-time friends wanted to open a new comics shop, when he first noticed the similarity to his own store.
Trujillo and his wife, A.J., had just decided to close their venerated Delmar Loop comics shop Star Clipper, ending its nearly three-decade reign after years of struggling to recuperate revenue lost after the economic collapse of 2008.
See also: Why Star Clipper's Owners Shuttered Their Beloved St. Louis Comic Book Shop
Hoping to fill the void left by Star Clipper's closure, Steve Unverferth and Tony Favello, co-owners of Fantasy Books, Inc., purchased the store's fixtures for their Wash. Ave. store and even hired four of the Trujillos' former employees. Unverferth and Favello didn't have a name for their shop yet, but it was easy for Trujillo to see how this new store -- a long, narrow space with hardwood floors that had formerly housed an art gallery and a dojo -- could channel the spirit of its popular predecessor.
"I was like, 'Wow, this really does look like Star Clipper,'" Trujillo remembers.
Until then, Trujillo hadn't seriously considered selling Star Clipper's name or branding along with its bookshelves and inventory.
"Our feeling was that we wanted to take it with us," Trujillo says. "We had built it up into what it was, and we didn't feel like there was anyone who could really pick up the reins."
But as any comic fan knows, the hero never really dies. As the Washington Avenue store took shape and as St. Louisans floundered over the loss of their favorite comic-book store, the Trujillos agreed on February 21 to keep Star Clipper alive by selling to Unverferth and Favello.
"We decided that St. Louis needed to have Star Clipper, and these are the guys who could do it," Trujillo says. "When you see the space, you'll understand. They're going to put their own spin on it, but I think they understand what made Star Clipper special, and they're committed to keeping it that way."
The resurrected Star Clipper Comics, Games and Collectibles, now owned by Fantasy Books Inc., will open in early April at 1319 Washington Avenue, with a grand opening scheduled for a couple of weeks later. That gives the store plenty of time to prepare for May 2, which is Free Comic Book Day.
Unverferth hopes that by reviving the Star Clipper name he's also resurrecting its role among comic fans and pop-culture enthusiasts as a hub for creativity and community, supported by a knowledgeable and welcoming staff.
"We want to keep that going," Unverferth says. The store will continue the artists signings, Comics University series and other special events it's known for, and even has two rooms where customers can play multiplayer games, such as Magic: The Gathering or Settlers of Catan, without interruption.
"We are providing a safe environment for people to do the things they love to do," Unverferth says.
Unverferth and co-owner Favello have been in the comics game since 2004, when they bought Fantasy Books Belleville, a store Unverferth had worked in part-time since 1996. The business partners bought two more comics and gaming stores in the Metro East: Fantasy Books and Games in Fairview Heights and Heroic Adventures in Edwardsville, before deciding to bring their comics empire across the river, locating on Washington Avenue across the street from a lighted parking lot on a block surrounded by trendy restaurants, a dog park and the incomparable City Museum.
"We are the little brother nobody talks about," says Unverferth. "Star Clipper, everybody talks about. We try to do the same thing over on the Illinois side. So we decided we just had to buy big brother."
So if Star Clipper is coming back, why did it have to die in the first place?
Star Clipper has been dropping a few hints at its superhero-style rebirth online:
Post by Star Clipper.
Trujillo admits the timing of Star Clipper's rebirth may seem cliche to comic book fans wary of Superman-style resurrection tropes, a marketing ploy to drive readership to the superhero's "last" issue. Indeed, in a January 21 cover story, the Riverfront Times wrote that for Star Clipper, "there is no miraculous regeneration in the near future, no alternate dimension from whence the shop will emerge stronger than ever just in time to celebrate another Free Comic Book Day."
Turns out, there is an alternate dimension for Star Clipper to emerge victorious for Free Comic Book Day, and that dimension is Washington Avenue.
"We never meant to fool anyone," says Trujillio, adding that he decided a month after thatRFT feature story to sell the name. "It was a very natural evolutionary progress."
Unverferth adds: "Our feeling was, it still could be very meaningful to bring it back."
Meaningful, indeed -- especially to the Star Clipper supporters who crowded the store in its "final" two months to mourn their loss. Trujillo said the outpouring of grief from customers took him totally by surprise.
"I expected there to be some outpouring, but the degree and level and volume, they really exceeded any expectations I had," Trujillo says. "I know all the metrics about the store. I know all the regular customers we have, I know how many people are in our database and how many people shop with us multiple times a year. But how attached such a huge proportion of those people were to the store was a surprise. You can run the numbers, but their emotional attachment to the store was more difficult to judge."
Before the deal to sell Star Clipper was inked, Unverferth says he and co-owner Favello were having a hard time picking a name for their store.
"We had a whole long list of names," Unverferth says, listing St. Louis Comics and Washington Avenue Comics as two potential options. "Nothing was exciting. Nothing was really fitting in."
For awhile, Unverferth considered calling the store Arch Nemesis, a name Trujillo disliked.
"One of the things that Star Clipper was and being in a location like where you're going to be on Washington Avenue, you have to be open to the casual person just waiting down the street," Trujillo says. "And if you're called Arch Nemesis, they're not going to know. I mean, Star Clipper? They're not going to know either. They might think it's a hair salon. But Arch Nemesis, I think, comes across as too weird and nerdy."
In true superhero fashion, Unverferth says, Trujillo sold them the name Star Clipper in the nick of time. "He was saving us," Unverferth says.
Again, for this and more go to riverfronttimes.com
Rumble #1
Written by Arcudi with art by Harren and Stewart
Image Comics has been on an incredible roll with new series this past year. New offerings like The Wicked + The Divine, Black Science, and Low are my most anticipated issues of every month. Their new release “Rumble”, their latest foray into the fantasy genre has captured my attention and is a great setup for what may be another great story in this ambitious company’s collection of new and exciting universes.
The series is being billed as “Louis C.K. meets Robert E. Howard in a David Fincher universe.” The description is fairly spot on.
The story starts with lovelorn and desperate bartender, Bobby, breaking up a massacre of a barfight between an ancient scarecrow warrior god and a deadbeat drunk that may be more than he appears. Claiming thecomedically giant and unwieldy sword of the hay filled deity as his own, Bobby finds himself pulled into a situation that the narrator of David Fincher’s fight club would describe as “Jacks sense of instant regret”
The artwork of this issue does a great job of depicting the fragility of its human characters. The characters, if not skinny emaciated looking stalks on long spindly legs and arms are instead globular sacks of dirty mashed potatoes with homemade tattoos. Seriously nothing in this book looks like it smells good which is kind of part of its charm. The city looks like it could fall apart at any minute just like the lives of its inhabitants. The introduction of two grotesque demons and a murderous medieval scarecrow actually are an improvement to the town and make me excited to see what they are doing there that makes the grimy, depressing looking place so important to them.
I’m looking forward to seeing this universe expand in the coming issues and hope that it lives up to the same excellence that Image has been putting out lately.
Posted by: Levi Bushue
Good Bye Star Clipper
If you live in St.Louis this week was a rough one we all learned that are dear friends at Star Clipper were going to be closing down. So to support St.Louis and Star Clipper me (@ryzn) @THEE.SOCIAL.NERD and @coolnerdyasian we down and made some great purchases!
@ryzn's pick ups
I picked up a sweet Star Wars shirt, Nightwing graphic novel and an Obey hard cover book. Honestly this is the core reason I love Starclipper what other place can you pick up these 3 products !?!? RIP STARCLIPPER!
@THEE.SOCIAL.NERD pick ups
The Walking Dead 100 Project hard cover, Dancing Groot and two kidrobot scribblenots figures batman and the joker.
@coolnerdyasian pick up
DC collectibles Black and white statue by Sean Murphy.
We had a great time hanging out! If you live in St.Louis stop by Star Clippers before it closes and give them some love!
Until next time keep Living The Nerd Life!