In which I survive
seven hells & somehow still manage to put out some cool stuff...
Pretty happy to see this vicious bastard of a year dead!
Trying to recover from a powerful, personal, proverbial gut punch as 2018
opened, I caught a metaphorical kick when down in cruel April, going from suddenly
single to unemployed, too. And just before going, the unrelenting Year took another
old friend, proving its vile nature. Enough! Nasty F'ing brute, 2018. Get Thee
Gone!
Only way I know to counter negativity and fight against
darkness and chaos is to keep on doing Amazing
Things. Being Creative – making Art, bringing new creative ideas into
being, manifesting them as concrete things in our reality – books, podcasts, and
comics – these are my counter-spells,
and this is my Magic – my Defense Against the Dark Arts!
Through this hellish stretch I still somehow managed to do nearly One Amazing Creative Thing each month, though it wasn't easy. Depression
it should have dispelled stayed and got in the way of accomplishments. Struggling
through required confidence that drained away in contemplation of the recent
past. But... Can't let one's mental wheels spin in those ruts or you never do Amazing Things. And, if anything, we
need more Amazing Things in the
world! More Creative Counter-Spells
Against the Dark Lords of Despair that dominate these days.
I need you to be Amazing,
too. I need your help. None of my Things
have any power in our world without your belief and support. Unless you're
reading my books, listening to my podcasts, and enjoying my comics, it really
doesn't matter much that I'm making them. So, please – if something here looks
good to you, please, give it a try. Click on the link and download a free
sample.
No sugar coating it, "support" means money, too,
so if you like the sample, please buy the whole thing, and then talk it up and
share it on social media, and get your friends to try, too. Give 'em this
page's link and tell 'em to skip down to where it says "2018 Releases" for the Free Samples. Post the link for this on facebook, Twitter, give it to good people. Please help spread the word!
And? Get in touch and tell me if you like it! I won't know
you like my stuff, otherwise. I love hearing from people when they connect with
my work. Find me by my name on either facebook
or Twitter: @MikeLuoma. Instagram, I'm
"glowinthedarkradio". I'm a one-man DIY show, aside for art
for the comics when I coordinate with an art team and make it happen in
collaboration – even then, publication and promotion is all on me. And? Maybe
now, you, too, a little bit. If you're willing to help.
I've just set up on
Patreon, so you can support me at
http://Patreon.com/GlowInTheDarkRadio
- with a $2/month Basic tier, $5/month Free Stuff tier & $10 awesomeness
tier:
Igniters, Illuminators and
Radiants. Why would you do that? To
help me pay for my podcast and maintain the creative momentum that allows me
make all this cool stuff for you... of course. Ahem. Right?
Or? Just buy some books and spread the word. That old
fashioned kind of support works just fine, too.
2018 Releases
(Click on the Titles for Free
Samples when available. Links lead to Digital Assets stored in Dropbox, or podcast episodes, or
articles)
Best to focus on this year's creative accomplishments!
January saw the
release of
Issue #4 of Vatican Assassin: The Graphic Novel, the final monthly installment telling a
tale of BC – Vatican
Assassin Bernard Campion. The
entire graphic novel adaptation of my science fiction novel was re-touched and
colored by
Juan Carlos Quattordio (
JCQ)
and re-lettered by me (
ML), with
original art by
Cristian Navarro (
CN).
The collected Graphic Novel would be released in March.
That was because
February
belonged to
Good
Samaritan: Unto Dust! Issue #2
and the
2-in-1
Graphic Novella were both released, appropriately enough for a
Superhero who turns perps into ash while
using
the words of the Church's rituals, on
Ash
Wednesday! I'm very proud of
Federico Guillen's (
FG) beautiful pencil art, directly and
masterfully colored with a watercolor grace by
Ken Lateer (
KG). I wrote and lettered (ML). Long in
the works, it was good to get this book out into the world! And on the perfect
day, too.
Did you know that after writing
BC's story, I discovered in
Winston
Churchill's Histories mention of
a Jesuit assassin for the Pope in Elizabethan times with the surname of
Campion?
I love it when reality echoes!
Our Campion kills for the pope and
Vatican of the
New catholic Church (
NcC)
in the future – and he's no Jesuit. He's no saint, either, but did you know his
graphic novel was released close to
Saint
Patrick's Day? Which had nothing to do with anything, I suppose, but was a
way to get around to mentioning that now beautifully colored and remastered
Vatican
Assassin: The Graphic Novel came
out in
March.
April's cruelties
didn't allow me to truly enjoy the print release of my
Star-Lord
and the Guardians of the Galaxy: An Unofficial Comic Book History which
finally arrived in paperback that month. A history of Marvel's Cosmic Wild
Bunch based on my past columns, research and interviews, greatly expanded by
new research and writing, this textual telling of the
Guardians comic book history includes insights from
Chris Claremont, Dan Abnett, Steve
Englehart, Timothy Zahn and more. The sites where my columns appeared are
now gone. Seemed like a good idea to put this stuff out in some form.
May's Amazing Thing was attending
Balticon! And? I was just invited back to 2019's
convention – looking forward to another
Amazing Thing! I also attended
Arisia
in Boston in January, and got great feedback on the Self-Publishing panel I was
a part of – but
Balticon really
helped me get back to being myself again. The New Media/Podcasting track folks
who gather there are part of my soul tribe! See a note on the coming
Arisia below.
(Suddenly, I feel like The Count... Three, three, THREE Amazing Things! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
October and
November were both spent working in
preparation for
December's Really Amazing Thing – my podcast's episode
five hundred. I was writing and recording a brand-new
Alibi Jones short story. While I don't
have major
Amazing Things to share
released during those months, I can share this
Amazing Thing from back in the summer,
a
Music Extra with Burlington musicians Matt Hutton and Sean Toohey
on their career of making music together. It's pretty special!
So, three audio books, two articles, two graphic novels, two
comic book issues, two conventions, one cosmic comic book team's history's
paperback, one audio history of two Burlington musical collaborators, AND the
big ol' Episode 500 with the brand new Alibi Jones story – not a bad output for
a year that I swear was trying to kill me!
So long, 2018!
