You are currently browsing the archive for the The Girl Who Would Be King category.
In honor of Bonnie and Lola and THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING we continue our 30 Days of Superheroines!
Our first DC Woman is up and she’s one of my absolute favorites. It’s no surprise I suppose that I found a TON of great stuff for her:
BIG BARDA!
By Ming Doyle
By Phil Noto
Man! If anyone can make that silly bikin armor work, it’s Phil Noto! via Phil Noto
In honor of Bonnie and Lola and THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING we continue our 30 Days of Superheroines!
So today is my birthday…which made me think I should do Rogue (a favorite)…but I have SO MANY images of Rogue that that post is going to take FOREVER.
So instead you get Psylocke, who I don’t have a ton of great ones of, but the few I have are really fantastic. Plus, Psylocke always gets screwed, the art of her is always SUPER over-sexualized…so this is a nice change of pace here.
UPDATE: I had WAY more of these than I thought I did!
By Trozos
By Ross Campbell
Fun story, Ross never used to draw Psylocke, and then he and I got talking about a project we wanted to do together that we loving refer to as “Mad Max X-Men” and I told him we definitely needed Psylocke for my plan…so he drew this up. I think he likes her more now. 
Tags: Bonnie Braverman, comics!, Lola LeFever, The Girl Who Would Be King
Hey, kids! It’s Thursday, that means another installment of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.
You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 7 & 8.
You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 1 – 8.
Or if you want to read on the blog you can read 7 & 8 below, or hit THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab at the top of the page to read the entire piece on the blog.
And you’ve all checked out the Kickstarter – RIGHT?! 
I hit the ground and go into a crouch, my hands and feet sinking slightly into the soft ground. The feeling of being alive doesn’t leave me. In fact, as the mud seeps into my shoes and through my fingers I feel somehow deeply connected to not just the earth, but to everything. The world feels big and I feel a part of it in some important unspoken way. I stay there for a long while, just feeling.
When I finally move again I put everything back to how it was and sneak back in the kitchen door and lock it up. Upstairs I take off all my clothes, careful to put both my mother’s bracelet and Jenny’s locket on the sink edge, and rinse the clothes and my shoes in the sink, so that they are only wet and not dirty. I wash my busted up hands, wincing as the water runs into the tears where the bricks cut into my knuckles. I clean off my body and then both my bracelet and Jenny’s locket. Looking inside of Jenny’s locket I see what was more important to her than anything. The locket has two pictures that are by some miracle barely damaged. They look like they could be her parents. I think of all the things I would do if only I could have a picture of my parents and Jasper.
I look up and catch a glimpse of myself in the dark mirror. I’m always shocked by how much I look like my mother – the same long arms and legs, broad shoulders, red hair, pale skin, and smattering of freckles. My eyes are dark blue like hers but my mouth is a little wider and if I grow any taller I think I’ll be taller too. I guess if I can’t have a picture it’s nice to carry her around on my face. I just wish there was some of my father in there too.
When I go back into the sleeping room I put my clothes under the bed, hoping they’ll dry a little before morning, and the last thing I do before I crawl into bed is place Jenny’s locket in her sleeping hand, cupped perfectly, as if waiting for it. I think I won’t be able to sleep with all the excitement of the night and worry about having to hide my damaged hands from the staff, but my body takes over and I’m asleep almost instantly.
I dream of my mother.
I should stress, that except for yesterday’s Buffy (and of course launching this series of posts with Bonnie and Lola) these ladies are not in any particular order. I made a list of characters I love and then went hunting for some of the best art I could find (sometimes it was easier than others…sometimes I ended up with WAY too much cool shit). You know who has more fan art (and pro art!) out there than EVER?
BLACK WIDOW!
Here we go!
Black Widow by Applepie-Monster
By Applepie-Monster via Applepie Monster Tumblr.
By Meredith McClaren
I don’t know if you guys are familiar with Meredith McClaren’s “itties” but they are just about the greatest damn things ever. I have a whole bunch. And she did a series of Bonnie and Lola for the Kickstarter, which is extra awesome. You can find McClaren at Iniquitous Fish.
Tags: Bonnie Braverman, comics!, Lola LeFever
Sorry for the lateness on this one kids, but as you know, the Kickstarter blew the hell up today with awesomeness (we fully funded in under 30 hours!) and are now cruising wonderfully past that. And there are still locked artists rewards to reveal and everything. It’s just awesome.
And a huge thanks to so many of you that donated, supported, and spread the word. You guys are almost as badass as Lola 😉
So, I thought a lot about which amazing and inspirational superheroine should start this off, and after much thought I went with Buffy (of Buffy The Vampire Slayer ‘natch)…she was of course MY biggest superheroine influence and is in large part responsible for Bonnie, Lola, and The Girl Who Would Be King in general.
So, thanks Buffy (and Joss!)…here’s to you!
Buffy by Phil Noto
Tags: 30 days of superheroines, Bonnie Braverman, buffy the vampire slayer, DC Women Kicking Ass, Lola LeFever
Hey, kids! It’s Tuesday, that means another installment of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.
You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 5&6 here.
You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 1 – 6.
Or if you want to read on the blog you can read 5 & 6 below, or hit THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab at the top of the page to read the entire piece on the blog.
And you’ve all checked out the Kickstarter – RIGHT?!
While visions of powerful superheroes dance around behind my eyes, and my imagination flies out of the room and around the whole world, yelling in the backyard interrupts my thoughts.
At first it sounds only like teenagers chatting but it ramps up suddenly and something about the tone sends a chill down my spine. I roll off my bunk and lean against the open window nearby. The only staff is far away, out of hearing distance, and a small cluster of girls are near the house, shouting. At first their cluster is so tight I can’t tell who is who, or what’s happening, but then a dark haired girl named Jenny comes flying backwards out of the circle and lands on her back roughly. The group gets eerily quiet and two girls go to her aid, but she brushes them off and stands up on her own. Her defiance ignites a spark of admiration and respect in me. She walks back to the group, and two of her other friends are still standing there, mouths open, stunned.
I think briefly of going down, but am intrigued and even impressed by Jenny’s backbone. Sharon looks to be the one that pushed her. She’s new and has been making trouble since day one, but I’m glad to see someone’s over it and not afraid to stand up to her. Unfortunately Jenny is rewarded for her bravery with a slap.
The slap shocks even me.
So in honor of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING and the two kickass superpowered teenage protagonists I’m going to do a superheroine a day for the entire run of my Kickstarter.
I’m not going to write a big thing for each post, but I’m going to post tons of gorgeous art – both professional and fan art – to celebrate these great characters. I’m going to do my damndest to link back and credit, but if I miss something, please forgive and correct if you’ve got the right information in the comments.
Today we’re naturally starting with BONNIE & LOLA and I hope you’ll all enjoy them mightily.
There’s of course not a lot of fan art out yet for Bonnie & Lola since everyone is just meeting them, but a couple really wonderful people have already given me some art for them to get the ball rolling.
We obviously have the gorgeous cover work and illustration by Stephanie Hans which you’ve all seen – and if you go here you can see a dialogue between she and I about the cover process as well as her early sketches:
And then Ross Campbell contributed these absolutely gorgeous Lola and Bonnie heads:
And Meredith McClaren did these brilliant Bonnie and Lola “itties”:
And THIS one by Stephanie Hans – an original painting of Bonnie – from a scene in the book – and available for purchase on Kickstarter!
This has been so much fun already that I could just die.
Tags: Bonnie Braverman, bonnie vs lola, cute superheroes, Lola LeFever
Final Cover Design for The Girl Who Would Be King. Illustration by Stephanie Hans
Here’s a link to the Kickstarter – enjoy!
Also, please check out the website for the book as it has tons of information and cool extras – including hidden pages (hint – look for them on the Bonnie vs Lola illustration page)!
Oh, and the wonderful Michael May over at Robot 6 wrote a piece on the Kickstarter – thanks Michael!
Welcome back to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING!
If it’s your first time here – the short of is that I’m giving away “Part 1” of my novel THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING for free on my blog for the duration of my Kickstarter (which begins on Monday June 25th). New chapters go up every Tuesday and Thursday for the next five weeks. You can read a bit more about the project here and here if you’re so inclined.
For those of you returning – thanks for all the support – you’ve been wonderful and I’m so glad that so many of you are enjoying the book so far. Today you’re getting Chapters 3 & 4.
You can download TGWWBK Chapters 3 & 4.
And if you’d like to download the entire story thus far – TGWWBK Chapters 1-4
You can also read below.
Enjoy!
I run.
I run anytime the world will let me. If I had my choice I’d just run through everything I suppose.
I run as close to the fence at the home as I can. Over the years I’ve worn a pretty impressive path into the yard. Until two months ago I’d actually taken pride in it, my running path. I never realized there was anything weird about running by a fence, the same path, the same way, day in and day out.
But then we took a trip to the zoo.
The tigers had this beautiful enclosure, there was even a little lake, and I was thinking it looked pretty nice, considering, until I noticed one tiger in the enclosure, just walking very fast back and forth through the space. After watching him for a minute I realized he wasn’t just walking, but pacing the exact same route over and over again.
He’d worn a similar path into his cage that I’ve worn into mine, and suddenly I was a bit sad for both of us, but I also knew I wasn’t going to do anything about it. There’s something about following rules that’s very important to me. I can’t really understand it yet, but I hope I will someday.
Even though I know in some way my running is like that tiger and his pacing, it’s still good. It makes me feel calm. And it keeps the loneliness away. Maybe it’s the same for that tiger. I mean, it’s lonely to run. It’s a singular activity, but it’s supposed to be that way I think. And I don’t know, the way I see it, there’s nothing wrong with feeling lonely when you’re supposed to be alone. It’s when you’re standing in a crowded room and feel lonely that it’s really sad I think. Sometimes feeling like that makes me want to tear off all my skin.
So yeah. I run as much as I can. And running neurotically by a fence all the time hasn’t made me so popular with the other girls, but it was kind of a lost cause with them anyway. They’re never mean to me, rather they just don’t seem to understand me, and they just seem to kind of wish I’d stay away from them, so I do. It doesn’t help that I don’t speak. The not speaking thing really seems to bother them. I can’t blame them. It would probably bother me too. I’ve tried to find things to say sometimes, but nothing comes. It’s just empty inside. Hollow where the words should be. It’s felt like that every day since the accident.
That’s really how it all started. I just didn’t want to say anything for a while after the crash, and then I couldn’t think of anything to say, and then I just forgot that I was supposed to be thinking of something to say. And so I was quiet all the time. But that’s yet another reason for running I guess. Nobody ever expects you to speak when you’re running.
A big splashy drop of rain hits me on my wrist and I look up at the sky. It’s crazy cloudy out of nowhere. The sky looks ready to let loose on me. More cold drops hit my skull and seep into my hair. Running in the rain is even better than regular running, but I know I’ll be called in immediately. Sure enough, before I can even finish the thought I look up and see Alice motioning me in from the front door. It’s good that it’s Alice though, because she likes me more than most, and she almost always lets me get another lap in. I hold up my pointer finger as if to indicate ‘just one more lap’. Even from this distance I can see her roll her eyes, but she smiles too. She yells out across the quad. “Okay, but hurry up!” before going back inside. I smile up at the sky and stretch out my legs, really laying into my long strides. I go faster, but never too fast. Never faster than I’ve ever seen anybody else run. Some of those runners in the Olympics I’ve seen on TV run really fast.
I can run much faster than any of them.
Tags: Bonnie Braverman, Lola LeFever, The Girl Who Would Be King
Bonnie & Lola. Illustration by Stephanie Hans
Here we go!
Next Monday, June 25th I will be launching a Kickstarter for my book THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING (which I talk about a little bit more here). Part of the Kickstarter will be giving away “Part I: break away” in full online by releasing pages here on 1979 Semi-Finalist every Tuesday and Thursday for the duration of the Kickstarter.
As today is Tuesday, we’re starting with the first two chapters of the book. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for a new piece, and click on the THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab above to go to a dedicated page with the all the updates compiled in one location. The text is both below in blog format for easy reading, or available in a downloadable PDF at the link so you can take it with you on your devices.
Of course if you like what you read, please feel free to sound off in the comments. If you don’t…um…go away? Just kidding, you can let me know if you don’t like it either, but productive comments are preferred and the “comments policy” will be in full effect as usual.
Download the PDF here: The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 1 & 2
Berks County, Pennsylvania
The car hits the tree going at least forty miles an hour and I go through the windshield like I’ve been tossed gently by a hurricane. I land thirty yards away from the car on some bright green grass, barely missing the tree directly in my path.
Everything is black for a while.
When I open my eyes again all I see are these vivid green leaves floating casually above me, and I wonder for just a moment about their casual ways, trying to understand why certain parts of life just don’t care about the other parts.
And then the smell hits me.
Tags: Bonnie Braverman, Lola LeFever, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King
