Castalia Library, SG, and Arkhaven subscribers should be informed that the Arkhaven store no longer accepts Paypal. There hasn’t been any denial of service or anything like that, but we just don’t make enough use of it to justify including it as a payment option. And whether they permit us to keep using it or not, we’re very aware that it’s not a service upon which we believe we can reasonably rely.
There are only a very small number of Library subscribers affected, and we’ll get in touch with all of them in the next two weeks to make sure they make a smooth transition without losing any books. This will have no effect on anyone’s access to SG or anywhere else; we will come up with a replacement sometime in the next month or two. With regards to Arkhaven, we’re looking very hard if continuing Arktoons in its present form makes any sense or not due to the fact that we presently have no devs working on it.
We haven’t made any decisions, but we always periodically look at whether resources spent on one project would be more wisely allocated somewhere else and since we’ve just shut down the ability to subscribe to Arktoons, this is the right time to do that.
This theme song for the upcoming BLACK WARRANT crowdfund, FADE TO BLACK has proved popular on both AI Central and Sigma Game, so I put it up on UATV for the subscribers. The comic is already done, the novel is done, and the script for the film is two-thirds done. This is going to be big.
If he shows up at your door, you’re the one who brought him there…
The crazy thing is that this isn’t even the hardest-hitting song on the soundtrack.
Like Matt Shakman and the writers of #FantasticFour, I’ve sat in the ‘creative meetings’ at @MarvelStudios. They’re horrible.
You basically sit in a room with Kevin Feige and Lou D’Esposito and try to pitch your movie while realizing Kevin just wants you to dictate his rushed thoughts. Victoria [Alonso] used to be in these, but Kevin and Lou had so mistreated her that in one of my #Blade meetings she just showed up with sugar cookies she’d baked to improve morale.
You’re told NOT to pitch ideas from the comics because Lou isn’t a big comic guy and it’ll turn him off.
You talk about craft, story, and characters only for Kevin and Lou to say ‘yeah well, all we need to do is make sure it’s fun.’
There’s no spark. There’s no vision. Marvel is a slaughterhouse factory where you watch fresh meat get spoiled as it slowly makes its way through the assembly gears of mediocre thinking — and this weird hatred for their own product.
It’s become increasingly obvious that they only got lucky with the original Iron Man – which really was only a great movie for the first 15 minutes – because Disney wasn’t involved at the time. It’s really remarkable how far they’ve been able to coast on less than 45 minutes total of genuinely good movie-making.
One of the elite rewards of the Hypergamouse campaign was the Coffee Table Book, which is a large horizontal edition with only two panels per page, thereby spreading out each episode to two pages and permitting larger panels and higher resolution art. This backer’s edition is now available at NDM Express as well as at the Arkhaven store and features the first 100 episodes of the popular comic as well as the nine episodes of the original black-and-white comic drawn by the original illustrator. NDM Express is recommended if you have credit card issues at Arkhaven.
There are more details at Sigma Game if you’re interested, including a picture of a test binding of the Hypergamouse leather edition in the new burgundy pigskin. But today is the last day to obtain a copy of this special edition with a very limited print run of less than 150.
One of the elite rewards of the Hypergamouse campaign was the Coffee Table Book, which is a large horizontal edition with only two panels per page, thereby spreading out each episode to two pages and permitting larger panels and higher resolution art. This backer’s edition is now available at the Arkhaven store and at NDM Express. NDM Express is recommended if you have credit card issues at Arkhaven. We’re doing this for the benefit of those who missed the campaign for one week only and features the first 100 episodes of the Arkhaven comic as well as the nine episodes of the original black-and-white comic drawn by the original illustrator.
Each episode features large panels and stretches across two pages, which is why although the coffee table book is 222 pages, the content is exactly the same as the 115-page hardcovers and paperbacks that have already shipped out to all of the backers, including the essays by Vox and Lacey. It also has the special gold Arkhaven logo that is reserved for first editions. You can see more pictures, including the cover, at Sigma Game.
The price of the book is $169, which includes shipping. It’s a uniquely collectible and historical book. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity to buy a copy is just six more days, since the print run is going to be small, limited, and ordered very soon.
As for the leather edition, as you can see, we are making progress. And as will only be clear to the most discerning eyes, we will also be introducing our new pigskin leather with it.
And Arkhaven will be able to release Superman and Batman comics.
DC Comics has announced that this year’s San Diego Comic-Con will be intended to start the run-up and build a campaign toward DC Comics 100th anniversary in 2035. Which is also the year that DC Comics will lose copyright to Batman, as seen in Detective Comics #27. With Superman the year before, the Joker the year after and Wonder Woman the year after that. At which point, Marvel will be able to put Batman in X-Men and Superman in the Avengers if they so wish. So basically, given that they will be losing the keys to their IP kingdom running up to their 100th anniversary, As Bleeding Cool has said, expect DC Comics to be publishing madder and madder titles with looser and looser creative restrictions because, for their 100th anniversary, anyone will be able to do anything they want without fear of legal repercussions. So they might as well make some money for that.
It seems to me it’s time to unleash The Legend so we’ll be ready for that day. It’s only a decade away, after all. Speaking of which, we’re finally wrapping up the illustrations for Alt-Hero 7-12, which will go out to the backers this autumn. We’re also going to refund/exchange all of the backers of Midnight’s War 7-12, since we will do a new crowdfund for that one if we decide to continue it in the absence of the original illustrator.
“For whoso speaketh of Time’s lie, seeketh his own destruction, wherein the keepers of chronology shall pursue him like water pursues the lowlands.”
— Anonymous marginalia, Codex Sangallensis 193
I could still feel the weight of the mysterious tome in my hands as I made my way to Father Umbertus’s private study. The symbols on its cover—a circle quartered by a cross—seemed to burn in my mind’s eye. What had I stumbled upon in that forgotten corner of our library? And why had the sight of it transformed our normally impassive librarian into a man seized by fear?
These questions churned within me as I approached his door. I had been summoned, as I knew I would be. Father Umbertus von Kreuzlingen had been the keeper of Saint Gallen’s literary treasures for longer than I had been alive—thirty-seven years of vigilance that had etched deep lines into his face and turned his beard the color of aged vellum. He was not a man easily disturbed. Yet when he had seen the book in my hands, his face had drained of color as if he beheld not parchment and leather, but the very gates of Hell.
The second episode – the first part of Chapter Two – is up on Arktoons and can be read there. I’ll be posting ~1000-word episodes five times a week, M-F, but I’ll only mention it here if there is a new chapter starting.
If you want to start from the beginning, please begin here: Annos Dormi.
And if you’re an Eco fan, let me know if you think it works or not.
Fandom Pulse reviews the film based on Chuck Dixon’s first Levon Cade novel.
A Working Man with Jason Statham is out in theatres this week and is beating Snow White for the top of the box office. The movie is a lot of fun with Jason Statham’s action delivering with a great character in Levon Cade and a cool supporting cast. There are some problems with the film, however, which stem from caricature villains as well as a couple of moments where the kidnapped young girl Jenny Garcia gets a little too “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” as a strong female lead in moments. These elements were not in the book Levon’s Trade, which was a much darker, more serious action thriller, and it’s a shame they didn’t follow the tone of that book more closely.
There are always going to be changes and compromises when translating a story from one medium into another. What works in a novel, or in a comic book, simply doesn’t work on film. And, of course, different media have different tropes and cliches toward which those who are operating in that medium tend to gravitate; given that David Ayers directed both THE BEEKEEPER and A WORKING MAN, the chances that the villains weren’t going to be colorful cartoons was zero.
However, the rising profile of The Legend suggests the possibility that the next movie in the Levon Cade series will be more true to the books, especially considering that nearly all of the criticism of what has thus far been a very successful film has been focused on various elements that were never in the novel. Chuck was not involved in writing the script, but we can hope that he will be in the next one.
And there will be no Hollywood influence at all in the films on which we are presently working; I’m very pleased to be able to say that not only has The Legend’s BLACK WARRANT already been optioned by a film production company, but there is a significant level of interest in what we’re tentatively calling the Silververse, a century-long shared Arkhaven comics universe that includes traditional heroes created by The Legend, Razorfist, JDA, and myself.
RED HORNET is a 1980s superhero.
The Diversity, Inclusivity, and Equality initiatives imposed by Marvel and DC Comics has utterly destroyed traditional superheroes such as The Punisher, Spiderman, Batman, and The Phantom, but when the old heroes fall, new heroes rise.
On a side note, those who have been around for a long time will recall the eerie coincidence when, two days after I published a short story called THE DEPORTED here on this site, the small Italian town in which it was set was completely destroyed by a landslide and had to be evacuated. So, you can probably imagine the thought that crossed my mind when two days after completing a climactic scene set in an abandoned skyscraper in certain city in Asia, I was greeted with headlines that read “Massive Earthquake in Bangkok; Tower Collapses”.
Fortunately, it turned out to be a different tower. And honestly, I don’t think I can be held responsible for the fates of all the towers in Bangkok. Although if a natural disaster takes place in Stockholm this week, I will have to give serious consideration to laying down my creative pen.
A Working Man edged out Snow White on Friday with $5.6 million at the box office, which analysts are predicting will result in a $15.6 million opening. Box Office Theory predicted the movie would have a projected domestic box office total of $13.4 million, meaning the current tracking with Friday’s actual numbers has the film overperforming expectations by more than 16%.
Snow White was predicted to win the weekend with a predicted $17 million box office, but the film is currently underperforming on Friday with a $3.7 million opening for the day, with new predicted totals dropping to $13.7 million on the weekend. At a drop of 68%, The second weekend drop-off is steeper than what was seen with Dumbo, which had a 60% for the second weekend total. Apparently, audiences are not thrilled, and word of mouth has failed to generate any momentum for the film.
Quite the opposite is true with A Working Man, which is sitting only slightly lower than Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper from 2024, which opened at $16.3 million. The numbers for the new film are within the margin of error, meaning there’s a comparable audience for what was considered quite a financial success for the $40M budgeted film. The total box office haul for The Beekeeper sat at $162.6 million, and if A Working Man does similar numbers, it appears as if Amazon will have quite the franchise success on its hands.
This is also good news for some of the Legend’s other projects, as his success is definitely stirring up interest from other film production companies around the world, who are very interest in a number of Arkhaven properties.
Speaking of Arkhaven and movies, we’re still waiting for the thrice-delayed trial of the accused Rebel’s Run scammer to begin, which is presently scheduled for May.
Not a good weekend for the denizens of the Hellmouth, given the toxic masculinity and Christianity on display.
A Working Man $5,604,992 The Chosen: Last Supper $5,095,027 Snow White $3,700,000 The Woman in the Yard $3,650,000 Death of a Unicorn $2,272,250
You’re not going to want to miss this one. The movie is based on the first of The Legend’s Levon Cade novels, which we will be publishing collected in leather as part of the upcoming Black Warrant campaign, which will be launched in April. I want to get the standard Hypergamouse books delivered before the Chuck Dixon campaign begins.
