Recent reading

Hey everyone.

Sorry I’ve not updated in a while. I’m in a bit of a lull right now. I’ve wrapped up everything on the Mugen Man campaign and my next project is currently in development. In the meantime I’ve been collaborating with another writer on a short story submission for an anthology series. I don’t often just do the artwork for a project. If anything, I’m usually the writer or scripter if I’m not doing the entire thing myself. But i felt the need to stretch my legs, creatively, and hopefully the end result is something I can share, eventually.

So I thought, since I’m not currently working on anything I can share, maybe I can talk about what I’ve been reading, instead. Believe it or not, I’m not just a comic book writer and artist, but I’m also a reader! Crazy, right?

Anyway, I recently took a week long vacation with the family to Florida, and as usual I stocked up on reading material to churn through while passing my days away being lazy on the beaches of Destin. We also drive from Texas, so I always load up an audio book for the trip, too.

This year, the audio book of choice was “The Gone World” by Tom Sweterlitsch.

I honestly loved this story. It focuses on an NCIS investigator, Shannon Moss, as she tries to solve a murder that seems to be committed by someone who shouldn’t even exist, anymore. There’s time travel, parallel worlds, and an impending apocalypse all wrapped into a well crafted murder mystery. I had the “twist” figured out about halfway through the book, but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the story in the slightest. Highly recommend checking this one out.

For the beach reading, I poured through the first five volumes of James Tynion IV’s “Something is Killing the Children”.

I’m a huge fan of Tynion’s work. “The Department of Truth” is one of my favorite series from the last decade or so, and I’ve also been transfixed by his series “The Nice House on the Lake”. So the fact that I had never read this, what I would argue is probably his most well known and celebrated work, felt like an omission that needed to be rectified.

For those who haven’t read this and don’t know anything about it, here’s the run down:

Monsters are real, and they eat children. Not only children, but mostly. The hero is Erica Slaughter, a hunter in the Order of St. George, an ancient and clandestine organization dedicated to keeping this knowledge secret and protecting the world from these monsters. The catch? Erica doesn’t see eye to eye with the Order, and it causes complications.

I’ll be honest. I like this story. It is good. Better than a lot of comics currently being published, in fact. But it isn’t Tynion’s best work, in my opinion. I find the premise a little too straight forward. The plot a little too wrapped in super hero storytelling. You could easily swap Erica Slaughter for a Blade or Ghost Rider type character and not fundamentally change the course of the plot. Or maybe an Elsa Bloodstone. That’s probably the most direct comparison. So while I do think it’s a good book and a fun read, it’s not cracking my favorites list the way other Tynion work has done.

Anyway, thanks for checking in. I’m trying to commit to posting at least once a week on here, so check back every now and then. Also, if you have any reading suggestions or want to chat you can hit me up on the contact page here. I’m always interested in talking comics and stories.