The Girl Who Would Be King Cover

Some lovely new reviews, mentions, and such for THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING about the web!

The Refined Word gave me perhaps the most fantastic compliment I have ever received as a writer – I think I full on blushed.

Stephanie’s gorgeous cover art got picked for Infinite Curio’s “Cover of the Day” as well as About Happy Books “Cover Favorites” for 6/15/13!

Never Yet Melted calls TGWWBK the next Hunger Games here. (yes!)

The lovely Kimberly over at Love YA Books put yours truly on her list of Top 10 Authors That Deserve More Recognition and put TGWWBK on her list of Top 10 Beach Reads! Thank you Kimberly!

Claudia Lefeve (great name!) mentioned TGWWBK in her 5/31/13 GOOD READS post.

A good review by Henry Fung at Fraggin’ Civie.

We’re also up to an insane 119 Reviews on Amazon and still maintaining a fantastic 4.5/5.0 star rating and we’re up to 315 ratings and 85 reviews on GoodReads.

Thanks to all of you have that have taken the time to write reviews! And as always, if you write about the book on your blog or tumblr or some such, please shoot me a link…the web is a vast place, it’s hard to find everything!

Tags: ,

I’ve been super stressed out lately (I can’t say why, it will all come out soon enough…probably) so some awesome little surprises yesterday made it all seem worth it.

First, fellow blogger Keith Silva named me in Comics Bulletin’s “10 Of Our Favorite Comics Critics”

Pretty shocking to be in such great company – and thank you Keith so much!

And then, more bizarrely, and possibly not what I think it is, but I’m running with it anyway, Google Alerts gave me a heads up to this review of Red Sonja #1 on Newsarama.

In the review the writer refers to “she has no head” syndrome – check it out:

Screen shot 2013-07-17 at 2.03.57 AM

So…yeah, I’m sure you guys get how huge that is. The idea that you’ve made enough of an impact that others are picking up on it and using it as a definition…well, it warmed the cockles of my cold dead heart, it did.

 

 

Tags: ,

I’m trying to get better about cross posting content again. In that vein…here is a cross post to today’s hopefully super fun SHE HAS NO HEAD! which is all about creating a comics time capsule!

Time Capsule Compliation2

Other posts I’ve done recently that you might have missed?

This bit about how the new Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel X-MEN is ALL I’VE EVER WANTED!

Rogue SHNH Header

And I did some pieces on LIT REACTOR:

This one about the resurgence of “choose your own adventure” stories (in comics and elsewhere)

This one about why people should stop hassling me to read Game of Thrones and just let me enjoy the television show (for now).

Of course if you’ve been hiding out and neglected to notice that I borderline broke people’s brains with the fact that I hated Man of Steel (read that here), here is a rather unorthodox Superman “Book vs Film” comparison on Lit Reactor.

I also did this one about the awesomeness that is Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolf’s Batman: Lil’ Gotham.

batman_lil_gotham_header

CBR REVIEWS:

I also had the pleasure of recently giving 4 or more stars to all of the following comics:

Hawkeye #12

Quantum & Woody #1

Adventure Time: Candy Capers #1

Daredevil: Dark Nights #2

Suicide Risk #3

The Wake #2

and

Demeter

Whew. Okay. That’s it for now!!!

Thanks everyone, I hope you find something enjoyable to read!

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,

A little late (and I missed a week), but here we are!

Rules: one cover from the “mainstream” (i.e. DC/Marvel) and one cover from the “indies” (i.e. anything NOT DC/Marvel).

In the mainstream corner we have this absolutely stunning Young Avengers #7 cover from Jamie McKelvie and Matthew Wilson. The text integration alone – “Young Avengers” as an actual gorgeous part of the illustration warrants inclusion, but it also happens to just be a great illustration all around. The big red “Marvel Now” band at the bottom is annoying, but a necessary evil I’m afraid, and it’s honestly pretty mild, comparatively.

3161024-07

In the independent corner we have Image’s utterly fantastic East West #4 by Nick Dragotta. Man does this tick all my boxes! A lot of white space, limited use of color (monochromatic for bonus points!) exceptional graphic design on the text, and then superb text placement. In fact, the cover is so innovative in the way things are placed, it almost doesn’t look like a comic book cover. LOVE IT.

stk612065

Tags: ,

Two weeks in a row! Imagine that!

Rules: one cover from the “mainstream” (i.e. DC/Marvel) and one cover from the “indies” (i.e. anything NOT DC/Marvel).

From the Mainstream:

This should have been an easy pick this week, but with excellent covers by Frasier Irving (Uncanny X-Men #7), Kris Anka (Uncanny X-Froce #7) David Aja (Hawkeye #11) and Marvel made it tough on Olivier Coipel, still, his “X-Men” #2 takes it, for a bunch of gorgeous reasons, observe!

X-Men02-Cover

From the Indies, Michael Lark’s cover for “Lazarus” #1:

417278365218407

Tags: , , ,

In the depths of my sadness for the departed GAME OF THRONES and the interminable year I must wait for its return, I wanted to do something fun. I did a little something fun the other day, but that wasn’t enough. Then when doing my latest “DRUNK COVER SOLICITS” I was struck with genius (as the drunk frequently think they are) – why not talk about Game of Thrones while drunk?

GENIUS.

So here we are.

BEFORE WE EVEN GET STARTED…! This is full of spoilers for the TV show only. If you are not caught up through the end of Season 3, do not enter! Save yourself! If you have read the books, GREAT FOR YOU, but please don’t spoil anything for those of us that have not done so yet. Questions asked are HYPOTHETICAL/FOR COMEDIC VALUE ONLY, do not, I repeat DO NOT attempt to answer them in the comments! Whew. Okay. Also, if you’re not familiar already with “Drunk Cover Solicits” you should know that the whole “Three Sentences Thing” is a random guideline that I constantly break.

Because all these people (I totally think they’re real, can you tell?) are connected in such awesomely complex ways, I was forced to categorize them in the style of Los Angeles Real Estate. In other words they are grouped by their houses, and then “house adjacent.” Like when you live in the depths of North Hollywood and you try to call it “Studio City Adjacent”…listen, we all know where you live. Nice try.

And I know this, because I lived in North Hollywood. So, yeah, been there!

Here we go!

HOUSE LANNISTER & HOUSE LANNISTER ADJACENT:

TYWINN LANNISTER

How can he not scare you? Tyrion and Cersi are like the ultimate badasses of Westeros and yet they look like they’re pissing down their damn legs when he’s in the room. Yet, in the brilliance that is GoT, it’s impossible not to respect and even admire him in some ways (see: all his interactions with Arya in Season 2).

DAMN YOU THRONES!

sidenote: shit, we’re already at some all caps levels…this does not bode well…

JAMIE LANNISTER aka THE KING SLAYER

Oh how far we have come from me thinking that attempting to murder a child by pushing him out of a tower made someone a monster. You are a KITTEN in comparison to some of these other bastards. Also, I kinda love you (and thus hate myself).

CERSI LANNISTER

I want to hate you so badly, but you’re so deliciously complex. Evil and yet I keep hoping against hope that you and Tyrion will band together…or at least hug.

CAN YOU PLEASE JUST HUG EACH OTHER?!?

TYRION LANNISTER aka MY FAVORITE!

I love you. Is there a better character alive than you? You (like Dany) are almost TOO perfect. But please do not take that as an endorsement to begin fucking up.

ps. I love you. Oh wait, I already said that.

pps. I’m not following you, promise!  That weird girl behind the fancy drapes was not me, swearsies.

ppps. But if it WAS me, what did you think? Was I cute? Were you flattered?

SHAE

You in danger, girl. GTFO!

BRONN

Not much for you to do this season, but I like your ‘Truth To Power’ style. Keep it up, yo.

PODRICK “WHORES PAY TO FUCK HIM” PAYNE

WHAT IS YOUR SECRET?  TELLLL MEEEEEE!

KING JOFFREY BARATHEON (BUT REALLY LANNISTER) aka KING DOUCHEBAG aka KING SOCIOPATH aka FICTION CHARACTER I MOST WANT TO MURDER aka EVERYONE WANTS TO KICK YOU IN THE GODDAMN FACE, KID

What is wrong with you??? I mean, seriously. Like your mom and dad are twins, okay, fine, that gets you a certain amount of leeway. But nobody gets THIS MUCH LEEWAY.

You want to present Sansa’s brother’s head to her? Really? In what universe EVEN THE THRONES UNIVERSE! is that appropriate. Here’s the answer…NONE.

Sidenote: this poor actor is never getting another job in Hollywood that’s not a villain…save your sheckles, kid.

SANDORE CLEGANE aka “THE HOUND”

Give him a break already, Arya. Seriously. Dude is not perfect (this is GAME OF THRONES!) but he has seriously done no wrong to you, except that which he was ordered to (which, arguably was horrible and scarring, but again, THRONES).

ROS

Poor fucking Ros. I actually got attached. What a rookie. I thought we were building to you getting to do something beyond being tortured and killed by KING ASSFACE. I promise, no matter how he MIGHT trick me with good deeds in the future (and this is THRONES so he totally will, it’s part of what makes it so GOOD) I will never forgive Little DICK for sealing your horrible fate.

VARYS

You seem like a survivor. But I have learned my lesson with Ros. I will not get attached. I WILL not get attached.

PETYR BAELISH aka LITTLE FINGER

You unbelievable dick. I never trusted you, I never liked you (even though my friend kind of does! what?!) but I was willing to see where you went, what you did. You were interesting. NOW YOU ARE ON THE SHIT LIST WITH THE OTHER UNFORGIVABLES. Good job, sir, good job!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Thought dead, now resurrected, the ever popular “COVER OF THE WEEK” makes its triumphant return to 1979 Semi-Finalist!

Rumors of its demise were much exaggerated!

So yeah, from here forward going to try doing this again, and going to stick to one cover from the “mainstream” (i.e. DC/Marvel) and one cover from the “indies” (i.e. anything NOT DC/Marvel).

This week’s picks are awesome for being such similar ideas, executed completely differently and with really emotionally riveting results.

From the Mainstream:

Julian Totino Tedesco’s THUNDERBOLTS #11

From the Indies:

Becky Cloonan’s DEMETER

And if you haven’t found Demeter yet, you can buy print versions via Becky Cloonan’s store, or you can find it (and the other three awesome books in the unofficial trilogy) on Comixology.

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Google alert is sometimes good to me, so is twitter! It brought me this past week, two lovely pieces of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING fan art, both for the Bravermans.

This Bonnie by Briana Mora (she did a gorgeous Lola LeFever for the fan art contest too) is gorgeous – looooove the eels as a framing/portrait device:

Bonnie Braverman by Briana Mora

The other, from the lovely Rachael Stephen, is of Bonnie’s mother, Scarlett Braverman, who nobody has drawn yet, not even Stephanie, Ross, or Meredith, so that is awesome!

Scarlett Braverman by Rachael Stephen

Tags: , ,

So, I don’t really talk about it much here (in part because I have been painfully MIA from the blog – sorry!) but I am just fanatical in my love for GAME OF THRONES (and no, I have not yet read the books. Yes, I probably will, but likely not until the television series ends, don’t hassle me!)

Anyway, so I came across this awesome Game of Thrones tumblr post thanks to a friend, and got a good laugh. A little odd/sad that his dad doesn’t seem to know ANY of the female character names (save Gilly and Sansa – weird!) but still, it was fun and funny.

My answers to one of the sheets

More importantly, it left me wondering how I’d do. Even a fanatic for the show can have trouble with the names. Considering the large cast, the fact that some of the names are very complicated with uncommon (for my American brain) spellings, and since I’ve never read the books (seeing things in print, and seeing how they’re spelled, really helps my ability to recall) I didn’t figure I’d do great, but I wanted to try anyway.

I took some time to rework the original images (hope Mr. Gabe of Thrones doesn’t mind I used his sheets as a basis?) and I added five characters to that the last card (which previously had only 4 characters now has 9 like the rest). And then I tried my best. Spelling errors be damned!  I mostly took it seriously, but couldn’t resist a few jokes (although already forming in my mind an all-joke version – made from love!).

I’ll also put the blank one up here in case you also want to try it yourself at home. And those of you who already read the book – I expect you to get like 98% – and really accurate spelling!

Click through to see all of my badly spelled answers as well as the blank version to download. Enjoy! Oh, and POTENTIAL SPOILERS!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Reposting from There’s The Door Spaceman, for those of you that don’t follow. Also, for some reason, the images I posted there (no matter how many things I tried) came out a bit pixelated, so see them here in all their gorgeous glory!

STUNNING!  These practical superheroine redesigns by Meredith McClaren are just to die for. I love how fashionable they are, how much they take into consideration the real world, there’s a practicality and function that is nevertheless completely badass. They’re also so far away from “basic catsuit” type stuff that it all feels so damn new and fresh!I mean…Look at that freaking Zatanna! I’ve never seen anything like that!

AND, you’ll be able to buy the original line art for some of these as she releases rewards this week for her AWESOME KICKSTARTER…although you guys are going to have to fight me for that Catwoman.


Tags: , , , , , , ,

« Older entries § Newer entries »