Saturday, May 22, 2010
Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast Episode 104 now LIVE!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
New Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast Up!
Friday, May 07, 2010
Great News AND a New Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast!
It's great to be back at the station, even better to be back as the station's Music Director. You'll be able to hear me every weekday from 10am to 3pm (Eastern Time), on the air in Vermont and online everywhere at http://pointfm.com.
Aaaaand there's a new Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast:
The podcast will be moving from Fridays to Saturdays as of next week due to my new schedule.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Episodes One-Hundred and 101!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Cross Promote on the Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast!
All that is background for my invitation to cross-promote your podcast, website, book or current project while I shamelessly ask for you to congratulate me on reaching my 100th podcast episode
Interested? Please record a short promo - tell us who you are, promote your latest thing and give a web address. Then wish me, Mike Luoma, congratulations on reaching the 100th episode of the Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast. Doesn't need to be too long or elaborate.
By the way, my last name is pronounced Loo-OH-mah. It's Finnish
I'm hoping to run a few of these throughout next Friday's anniversary special. If you'd like to be a part of it, please send me an mp3 of your greeting/promo before next Thursday night at midnight PDT - Send it to: glowinthedarkradio@gmail.com
Would love to have you on the podcast!
Mike Luoma
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Considering "The Source" - Questions about the "Q Gospel" Or Synoptic Sayings Source
In the fifteen or so years since I first read the book, I've learned a lot more about modern scholarship on early Christian history and origins, about what we think we know about the formulation of dogma and canon in the early Christian churches. And so my new reading of Mack's book was done with a better educated and thus, perhaps, more critical mind. I certainly have more questions than answers at the end of my reading.
If you're used to my writing about comic books and science fiction this discussion of heavy, esoteric theological and historical deconstruction may strike you as strange - but this stuff fascinates me. Matter of fact, my whole book Neo-Gnosis is dedicated to related exploration, reading and studies. I grew up Roman Catholic, but the more I learned about Christian Origins and the Church the less I wanted to be a part of it.
So I find my own way. And while I'm writing fiction, I have a hard time reading new fiction - just hard to keep so many fictional worlds alive in my mind all at once. So I read a lot of non-fiction, and a lot about early Christianity and the quest for the "historical" Jesus - stripping away the "myth" from the "man" as best we can.
It's not easy to hold discussions about Jesus, who he was, what he did, and how his scattered followers became the Church we know today. The extremists who use his name would like to claim exclusive rights to JESUS CHRIST as a trademark, of sorts, for their brand of religion. The so-called Christianity that calls itself Fundamentalist, or Conservative Evangelical, is actually an anti-Christ system in my opinion - see my "Holy Shit: Or... Pat Robertson is the Anti-Christ" for more. Their fragile "faith" will brook no questioning of the Jesus story they THINK is in their Bibles. Evidently, they don't actually READ their Bibles... or else their supposed "literal" reading of the Book is much more interpretation than they care to admit. 'Cause what they get out of it? I don't see it in there.
These rabid folks on the so-called "Christian" Right and their constant misappropriation of Jesus' name make it hard to talk about him and his legacy in reasonable terms with rational, thinking people. But there are rational, thinking historians, form criticists, and scholars who are looking at the origins of the Jesus movement, and what we can learn from the texts we have and the ones we've found in the last century or so, like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the lost Christian writings dug up in Egypt near Nag Hammadi. Primary source scholars are pouring over the evidence we still have to try to reconstruct what we can know about its evolution, to try to peer back through the veils of history to see what was going on back then, when Jesus was walking around the Palestine and Galilee.
As I cannot read Aramaic, Greek or Latin, I must rely on those who can... I'm more a reading or secondary source scholar, I suppose. The more I read, the less the primary source scholars agree with one another - the nuances of their disunity become more apparent. But reading these various ideas is like mental exercise - like mind candy for me - and so I continue to look for new and different ideas and considerations of the sources.
And speaking of sources... this brings me to my current question about Q.
The briefest background on Q, in case you need it: It is widely accepted that the Gospel in Mark's name was written first, circa 70 AD. Matthew's came next, probably in the 80s, John's and Luke's in the 90's, early 100s. Though the gospel in John's name is very different, when you place Mark, Matthew and Luke side-by-side you see they have similarities and overlapping phrases and stories. It is apparent to many that Matthew and Luke both copied from Mark - the way each borrowed from Mark also showed what each cared to emphasize about Jesus in their versions.
In addition to the material from Mark, Matthew and Luke share other material. Some argue this is because Luke copied from Matthew, end of story. But many more have shown that the "Markan" material copied by both gospel writers came from slightly different source documents, and sometimes Luke's gospel's version of Mark's events or phrasing is of an earlier form than Matthew's, in a more primitive Greek, which is evidence that Matthew and Luke were written independent of one another. That being the case, it appears that Matthew and Luke both used another common source or two, because there is overlapping material in both that doesn't come from Mark. The German theologians who originally figured this out called their hypothetical source "Q" - from the German for "source" - "quelle".
Over the last 100 years or so, scholars using form criticism and other textual redaction techniques have attempted to draw this lost source out of the gospels. They found it was probably not a narrative book, but instead a collection of sayings. The discovery of the lost "Gospel of Thomas" in the mid-twentieth century bolstered this viewpoint - though it was not Q, it was a collection of the sayings of Jesus, and showed that his followers did indeed create such collections. In addition, Thomas also shared some of the previously identified Q material with Matthew and Luke!
Others went further, and argued that textual criticism showed that Q had to be a unified whole of its own, even though an original document has never been found. Still others took that hypothetical whole and broke IT down even further, suggesting that 3 layers of development could be perceived in the the text. The most strident of this group went so far as to then say you could deduce who the earliest followers of Jesus were from what was included in the earliest layer, or strata of Q, which they called Q1. This is Burton Mack's point of view, and he hammers it home in The Lost Gospel: The Book Of Q & Christian Origins.
As I read Mack's confident stratification of Q (advancing his arguments from another scholar's, John Kloppenborg',s stratification), and once again encountered his gleeful stripping away of the apocalyptic overtones from the earliest layer of his Q material, I now understood he's arguing directly against others who cast Jesus as a Jewish Apocalyptic Prophet, from Albert Schweitzer down to modern scholars like Bart Ehrman.
But another question bothered me. Mack suggests - actually, he insists... he doesn't really ever just "suggest" anything - the Hellenization of the Galilee and Q's location in Galilee argue for the possibility - for Mack the "fact" - that Jesus was a Cynic Sage. But when we strip away the apocalyptic overtones of the Q2 strata to get at Mack's sage, we also strip away ALL the references in Q to the places of Galilee. Q1 not only has no apocalyptic phrasing, it also lacks any locations and thus any possible certitude of its locale of origin. No?
Mack argues audaciously not only for the reality of Q, but also for the ability to stratify the work chronologically in order to deduce from the earliest "layer" the character of the group of Jesus' followers who compiled the earliest form of the work. But part of his argument stems from the character of the Galilee at the time of Jesus and his earliest followers - even though the earliest layer is as bereft of references to places as it is apocalyptic proclamations. How can he have it both ways?
I don't have the answer. But it is an interesting question to ponder...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sketch Cards for Cancer - My 4 Cards
Blue Line Pro Sketch Card Event for Cancer 2010
SKETCH CARD BENEFIT AUCTION
AND GALLERY SHOW
FOR AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
May 22, 2010
Here are the 4 Cards I'm contributing to the Sketch Cards for Cancer Auction:
If you're an artist and you want to get involved, you have until April 21st to get your cards in. The details on the auction can be found here over on Bill Nichols' blog: http://comicsmentor.com/?page_id=94
Come May 15th or so, you'll be able to bid for these on eBay, with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society!
Monday, March 29, 2010
PodOmatic | Podcast - The Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast - Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Episode Ninety-Six
Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast - Episode Ninety-Six
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Guest Blog at Podioracket.com!
PodioRacket - What are you putting in your ears?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
All About Marvel's Cosmic Warrior Killraven!
Mike Luoma's Cosmic Crackle: Killraven!
Monday, March 08, 2010
My New Story Debuts At MegaCon This Weekend!
If you're going to MegaCon this weekend, you'll be able to check out a new story from me in a brand new anthology! MegaCon is this weekend, March 12-14, at the Orange County Convention Center Hall D
9899 International Drive in Orlando, Florida.
In SOUVERAIN: UNDER GOD, Souverain decides vengeance is HERS! Souverain has gone rogue, leaving the army to wage her own vigilante war for social justice against the warlords and drug traders of Afghanistan!
Ben Ferrari, Earthbound founder and creator of the character, is on art duties once again. The other charter Earthbound man, Matt Grant, lends a hand as well. It's a joy working with these guys!
Earthbound's PR guy, Sebastian Piccione will be at MegaCon with Lady Fight and the other Earthbound titles. Stop by table RED 4 in the Independent Press section, say hello to Sebastian (his cool Cat 5 is in Lady Fight) and take a look at the books. You'll be able to get a copy of Lady Fight: Escalation, too, containing my first Souverain story.
Here's a link to the Earthbound Comics blog with more details:
http://earthboundcomics.com/index.php/2010/02/megacon-details-announced/
AND if you're like me and unable to venture to the con, hope you don't mind if I point out that the issues are also available now at Indy Planet: http://www.indyplanet.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=earthbound&osCsid=ate0sl1f9agos594m3carf11h4
Friday, February 26, 2010
Ain't It Cool News Comics Reviews Vatican Assassin #1
VATICAN ASSASSIN #1
Glow in the Dark Radio Comics
Parting of the Ways
For those of you kind enough to ask about my "Shut Up and Put Out Yer Comic Book" article, it's now available here:
http://mikeluoma.com/SUAPOYCB.html
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A Great Auction for A Great Cause!
There is book news to share with you, but the main reason for posting is to let you know about a very cool charity auction going on this weekend. I've donated signed books and original art to “The Boom Effect” – a charity effort on behalf of a young girl who recently lost her mom. You may have heard the promo on my “Glow-in-the-Dark Radio” podcast. More details at http://www.theboomeffect.org/.
From the blog:
The Boom Effect is an “auction to raise funds for Sonic Boom, and was started by a group of podcasters and writers as a way for these communities to show support for the Morris family. Tee Morris is a beloved founding father of the podcasting community; co-creator of Podiobooks.com, writer of four social media books, and the first novelist to serialize his novel. On the 5th of January 2010 Tee found himself facing raising his daughter (with the alias of Sonic Boom) alone, after the sudden, shocking death of his wife Natalie.
The podcasting, writing, and social media community gathered around and within days had raised over $10,000 to cover funeral expenses and other pressing bills Tee was facing. This response was incredible, and showed just how much Tee has touched the lives of others. However now, as a community we are turning our attention to Sonic Boom’s future. She is only five now, and relying on Tee to provide everything for her. We have the aim of providing a trust buffer for her, so that she can go to college if she wants. Nothing is going to replace her mother, but the funds raised will give more opportunities . So writers, podcasters and creative types of all stripes are offering up items for auction.
This event will be a webathon run by Podcasting’s very own Rich Sigfrit, with a plethora of special guests and fun. It will take place live online at 10am EST February 27th, 2010.”
You'll be able to watch the webathon here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/theboomeffect.
My Items will be auctioned with the “Literature Lots” between Noon and 1pm EST on Saturday. You can place a proxy bid ahead of time, just follow the instructions on the item pages linked below. Proxy bids can be placed up until 10am EST on February 26th. Just so you know – in the interest of keeping things simple, you'll need to pay for successful bids with PayPal.
You can bid on two different auction items from me:
Item One: SB081- Signed copy of doodle-rama and the art work too!
This is a signed first edition of my new paperback design collection, doodle-rama … along with the ORIGINAL ART for one of the designs in the book – “Another Eye” – You’ll own the original signed and dated pen and ink drawing, suitable for framing.
In case you didn't know, I post a “doodle” design every weekday on my doodle-rama website. Released in December of 2009, doodle-rama collects 50 of my favorite designs. I'm going to sign the book to the top bidder and include with the book an actual piece of art found within its pages – “Another Eye”.
Item Two: SB080- Signed copies of of Alibi Jones and Vatican Assassin – The Graphic Novel
I'll sign an issue of my new comic book based on my popular novel and Podiobooks.com Science Fiction Adventure “Vatican Assassin” and a trade paperback first edition of my latest novel Alibi Jones. If you're not familiar with the books – BC is an assassin for the Pope of the New catholic Church in the year 2109 – His latest assignment? Eliminate the Governor of the Moon colony Lunar Prime! AND 23 years later, BC’s son Alibi Jones is off on his own adventures, tracking down a missing friend kidnapped by a sinister alien race…
There are many crafty and creative items in the auction – head over to http://www.theboomeffect.org/ to check out more of the donated lots. There's also more about my books at http://mikeluoma.com and http://glowinthedarkradio.com, naturally.
Speaking of “Vatican Assassin”and Alibi Jones – You can now read the entire first issue of the Vatican Assassin Graphic Novel adaptation, with art by Cristian Navarro, online for free: http://www.drunkduck.com/Vatican_Assassin/ AND you can listen to the entire audiobook of Alibi Jones free at Podiobooks.com: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/alibi-jones Both are complete as of this month!
Also out this month: the new project from myself and artist Juan Carlos Quattordio (we did Panthea Obscura together) – “Everybody Lies”. This “cautionary tale for grown-ups” is a dramatic short story in the form of a comic book – a story of two couples whose everyday lies grow large as their lives unravel. It's not a comic for kids – it's dark, and there's sex and nudity and profanity. It's also free to read online – the pages have been coming out every weekday here:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Everybody_Lies/
Of course, I wouldn't be much of a self-promoter if I didn't ALSO point out that both “Vatican Assassin” #1 and “Everybody Lies” are now available for just $2.99 at Indy Planet :)
And Alibi Jones is on sale everywhere! You can get it direct from the printer here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/alibi-jones/7256433
Still reading chapters of Alibi Jones on my weekly Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast – you can listen here: http://glowinthedarkradio.podomatic.com/. There's a new podcast every Friday.
Well, don't want to blather on too much – my real focus IS on The Boom Effect. If you can't watch and bid this Saturday, please consider making a proxy bid. It's a great cause.
Read All of Vatican Assassin #1 Free at DrunkDuck.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
Read Over Half of Everybody Lies Free
Friday, February 12, 2010
New Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast Episode
The Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Podcast - Episode Ninety



