So Much Going On!

Time for an update... there's a lot going on!

Put a new book out this week - Panthea Obscura: Deifornication, the Graphic Novel! Also uploaded my books to a site my fellow Podiobook.com authors & someone on GoodReads.com tipped me off to called Smashwords. Makes my work easily downloadable as eBooks in a variety of formats. Panthea Obscura: Deifornication also finished up on the web this week. Details follow...

Panthea Obscura: Deifornication is COMPLETE! Read All 4 Issues for free on the web... Or pick up the new Graphic Novel. The Panthea Obscura: Deifornication Graphic Novel is on sale for $15.99 at Indy Planet: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2219

Vermont writer Mike Luoma and Argentine artist Juan Carlos Quattordio proudly announce the release of their new Graphic Novel! The international collaborators have been releasing the individual issues of their comic book miniseries "Panthea Obscura: Deifornication" since 2007. The four issues are now collected under one cover, as Panthea Obscura: Deifornication is released by Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Comics on Wednesday May 27, 2009.

This full color, 88 page, standard sized trade paperback is available through Indy Planet, with a beautiful new cover by Juan Carlos Quattordio done exclusively for this collection!

Panthea Obscura: Deifornication is up and free to read at http://www.drunkduck.com/panthea_obscura/!

In case you don't know the story: Beings that inspired the tales of the "gods" in ancient times actually existed, but they made humankind forget about them two thousand years ago. They blended into the human population and disappeared. Now The Deep thinks it's time humankind remembered, but Mother is afraid that will set their brother Troy, The Destroyer free to possess and manipulate human beings. The Deep calls for a vote among the "gods"! What will they decide?

Steven Grant of Comic Book Resources says "Panthea Obscura" "...reminds me of some of the better independent comics published in the late '70s..."

More information at http://glowinthedarkradio.com

And I was tipped off to a great site for ebooks: Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com

As a writer, I upload my books to Smashwords and their software, known affectionately as the "Meatgrinder", takes the original document and converts it into several different formats. Smashwords then makes the ebooks available for sale using PayPal. As the author, I can set a price for my book, allow the reader to pay what they feel like, or offer it for free. As Smashwords says on their website, they offer "...multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device."

Decided to try it out! I've uploaded all three books in the "Vatican Assassin Trilogy": Vatican Assassin, Vatican Ambassador and Vatican Abdicator, as well as my collection of poems, lyrics and spells, Synthetic Marmalade, and my book on Gnosticism and early Christianity, NEO-GNOSIS. I've set all five books to allow the reader to pay whatever they like for them. You'll find them here at my Smashwords profile page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mikeluoma .

There's also a link on my site, so you can just head over to http://glowinthedarkradio.com and go from there if you like.

New Article on Starlord!

My third and final "Cosmic Spotlight" on the Marvel Comics character "Starlord" is up now at http://cosmicbooknews.com. This covers the character from the nineties up to just before "Annihilation" begins. Science fiction writer Timothy Zahn was kind enough to answer some questions about his take on Starlord in the nineties. Rafael Marin told me why he and Carlos Pacheco decided to do something different with Starlord for their "Inhumans" miniseries in 2000. And then-Marvel Assistant Editor Andy Schmidt gives some insight into the Peter Quill revival that Keith Giffen began in "Thanos" in '04. Read all about it here: http://cosmicbooknews.com/articles/starlord_part_3

Chris Claremont provided his insights for the second installment. Did you know that he, John Byrne and Terry Austin did their "Star-Lord" story as a warm-up for their legendary run on "Uncanny X-Men"? I didn't, until he revealed that in our interview! Part two with Claremont is here: http://www/cosmicbooknews.com/articles/starlord_part_2

Steve Englehart created the character. He was kind enough to look back on Star-Lord's origin with me for the first installment: http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/articles/starlordcs

Really enjoyed looking back at a very cool character!

Mike Luoma Publishing news

Panthea Obscura #4 is finally available in PRINT! The comic has been, and continues to be available online at http://www.drunkduck.com/panthea_obscura – but now you can get your hands on the hard copy: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2129 Issue Four is available through Indy Planet for $3.99, and will soon be on sale at Earth Prime Comics in Burlington, Vermont. Comic Book Resources columnist Steven Grant said Panthea Obscura “...reminds me of some of the better independent comics published in the late 70's...” Click on the link above to pick up a copy today, or just head over to http://glowinthedarkradio.com for links to all my books, free downloads and free audiobooks.

Speaking of Panthea Obscura, congratulations to Jason Buddenhagen who won my Panthea Obscura contest over at Cosmic Book News (http://www.cosmicbooknews.com)! He correctly identified the “god-name” of Kyle Dogg - “Fear-Eater”! He's won the autographed Special Edition of Panthea Obscura #2 that I put together for 2PiCon in 2007.

I've just put together a magazine, too – Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Magazine! Issue One is on sale now over at http://glowinthedarkradio.com. My hope is to expand the number of contributors and advertisers to increase the variety of the offerings inside and to reduce the cover price of the magazine as time goes on. For now, it serves as a $5 sampler of my work (99 cent download!). The magazine is loaded with my writing and illustrations. It even includes a grayscale version of the first issue of Panthea Obscura. The first two chapters of Vatican Assassin are in it as well. The first five of my Mike Luoma's Making It Up! Columns from Cosmic Book News have been synthesized down into one long piece on the making of “Holy Shit” and “Panthea Obscura #1”, and I've also included “Holy Shit: The Second Coming!” a short comic sequel to my “Holy Shit: Or... Pat Robertson Is The Anti-Christ”. It's all just five dollars or ninety-nine cents to download and it's on sale now, links at http://glowinthedarkradio.com.

That's what's happening!

Free Comic Book Day – get Three Free Books!

In Honor of FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, here for free downloading are the PDF versions of the first three issues of my comic book PANTHEA OBSCURA! Just click on the link for the FREE pdf.

ISSUE ONE: http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_49/740000/740099/4/print/740099.pdf

ISSUE TWO: http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_62/1065000/1065257/4/print/1065257.pdf

ISSUE THREE: http://glowinthedarkradio.com/PantheaThree.pdf

Steven Grant of Comic Book Resources says PANTHEA OBSCURA "...reminds me of some of the better independent comics published in the late '70s... "

PANTHEA OBSCURA is also appearing online, with new pages every Wednesday and Saturday. Issue Four's Page Fifteen is new today! You can read the first three issues here, too:

http://www.drunkduck.com/panthea_obscura

And you can enter to win a free book – today's the last day of my big contest! Enter to win a RARE edition of PANTHEA OBSCURA #2! Details are in my column at Cosmic Book News:

http://cosmicbooknews.com/articles/mlmakingup7

This special PREVIEW edition of Panthea Obscura Issue Two was put together for my appearance at 2Pi-Con in 2007. The first half of the issue is completely finished and lettered, with the second half showing the work in progress – some pages are colored but without letters, some pages are inked, some are half inks and pencils, the last page is just the rough pencils. Only five of these issues were ever printed. I'll sign this one to the winner to make it a one-of-a-kind rarity!

Happy Free Comic Book Day!