The Inspiration Of Good Authors

Vince Flynn

I'm drawn to conservative fiction and non-fiction writers like Michael Connelly,, Tom Wolfe, Tom Clancy etc.

I decided to start reading Vince Flynn - given all the hype and die-hard fanaticism I've been hearing about the guy.  So I picked up Kill Shot the other day, because that's the one all over the radio lately.

Once I started doing some research, I saw he's written a large amount of books based around this CIA spook, Mitch Rapp.  Much as Clancy wrote Jack Ryan featured books as developed his character.  The first Mitch Rapp book is Rapp's chronological life is "Transfer of Power" followed by The Third Option and then thirdly, Separation of Power.  Then followed by 7-10 more.

Act Of Treason, #7 Chronologically

Here's a short section of his bio from IMDB.com:

Flynn soon created an idea for a book, which would grow into his first best-seller, "Term Limits". Pocket Books seized the opportunity to work with this truly talented storyteller. Realizing that Flynn also had an enormous potential with a national audience, Pocket Books published Term Limits in hardcover 1998. Reviewers instantly hailed Flynn's non-stop action and storytelling as outpacing genre leaders David Baldacci and Tom Clancy. Readers agreed, and when the mass market paperback of Term Limits was released in 1999, it spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Pocket Books followed this initial success with Flynn's 1999 hardcover, "Transfer of Power", which also garnered wonderful reviews, and when it was released a few months later in mass market paperback, it too spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. In the fall of 2000, "The Third Option" was published and instantly landed on The New York Times bestseller list as well, solidifying Flynn's reputation as a master of the political thriller.

You know how people say, "I couldn't put the book down"?  Well, I mean it.  I couldn't put Transfer of Power down. I read it in two sittings. Once before bed, and then as soon as I woke up - straight through lunch and done.


Incredible book.  I can't recommend it enough and I'm only just more excited to read the rest of this guy's stuff.  He is as spot on as it gets.  He sees the big picture and articulates it incredibly, unlike anyone else I've heard in a long, long time.

Please pick up a book from him...(it would be nice if you used a link above, I might get a nickel for it)...but you owe it to yourself.  You know you're not along when you read this guy.

Some interviews with The Man:

This one is about an hour long, but worth every minute.  I envision Vince in politics, though I'm sure politics sicken him - it's probably simply wishful thinking on my part.

Robert Kirkman Appears To Be An Asshole

#PayTonyMoore

Firstly, Robert Kirkman, along with artist Tony Moore, created The Walking Dead. A wildly successful comic book that is approaching it's 100th issue...a milestone in comics - especially a "creator owned" comic published by Image Comics as opposed to a Marvel or DC title.  Image used to have a bit of a reputation for not getting books on shelves in a timely manner...but I think they've improved and I love their books.

I digress...

For someone that has many times espoused his support for the Occupy Wall Street camping trips, Robert Kirkman sure doesn't walk the walk.

Secondly, the comic became so popular you've probably seen:

• The Walking Dead TV Show
• The Walking Dead T-Shirts
• The Walking Dead Halloween Costume
• The Walking Dead Deluxe Step-by-Step Make Up Kit
• The Walking Dead Official Companion Book
• The Walking Dead Pint Glass Set
• The Walking Dead Posters
• The Walking Dead Etched Glass Stein
• The Walking Dead Action Figures
• The Walking Dead Bookmark
• The WalkingDeadBusts
• The Walking Dead Book
• The Walking Dead Special Edition Book
• The Walking Dead Kindle Book
• The Walking Dead Trading Cards
• The Walking Dead Buttons
• The Walking Dead Zombie Cubee
• The Walking Dead Cast Signed Photos
• The Walking Dead Sticker
• The Walking Dead Postcard
• The Walking Dead MP3s
• The Walking Dead Calendar
• The Walking Dead Board Game
• Another Walking Dead Board Game
• The Walking Dead Lunchbox
• More Action Figures
• The Walking Dead Lighter 

The first item on that list, the television show, is what's upsetting me.  It's extremely popular - and rightly so.  It's fast paced and the characters from the comic book are very nicely represented by fine actors.

When the comic book initially started, an artist named Tony Moore was drawing for the book.  Moore is Kirkman's childhood friend with whom he went to grade school and just so happens to be an incredible artist:

Tony Moore drew the first 6 issues of The Walking Dead.  That may not seem like much, but considering a large majority of new comics get canceled somewhere between issues 5 and 10, he basically laid the foundation and created these characters.

After Moore, came along Charlie Adlard:

 

Personally, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler.  I can't even trace something from one piece of paper to the next.  So this is all just my opinion.

The Walking Dead is absolutely rolling in the dough right now, and good for them. Make that buck in this world and go do you.  But don't do it while your friends are underneath your steam-roller.

However, Tony Moore is suing Kirkman over royalties he claims were never paid to him.  According to The Hollywood Reporter Moore believes he is due 60% of The Walking Dead's "comic publishing net proceeds" along with 20% of the "motion picture net proceeds".  Sounds 'bout right to me.

Kirkman's now infamous quote about how the tactics he uses to reel artists in for his work: "Trickery and deceit" may come back to bite him.  It is my opinion Moore created these characters.  Proverbially the writer tosses a ball in the air and the artist hits it with his pencil.

Kirkman ain't starving.

Given that we know comics hardly make it to ten issues, never mind 100 (The Walking Dead is currently at issue #93 and shows no signs of slowing down...(well, other than what some people [myself included] perceive to be major decompression at play because the book now sells better at the Trade Paperback level than it does at the single issue level).

Is it fair to think that Kirkman used a kickass artist like Moore to get people hooked on the comic?  Knowing full well most fans don't pick up black and white books, he'd obviously want someone that could make fans look past that, and look at the awesome, gory details of each scene and character and then swap them out so he can start cranking out the fluff?

By the way, the first issue of The Walking Dead sold out instantly...the first 20 issues or so are impossible to find and issue 1 could put your kid through college.

So, Kirkman establishes this great book, "Hey look how amazing the art is! Look how well written the story is!"...people buy it up and he makes a fortune.  Then, to speed things up a bit, Kirkman could go ahead and hire someone like Adlard who, in my opinion, is not nearly as good as Moore in this title.  The detail is lacking, there are two colors: black and white (where Moore used shades of black, grey, white and was wonderful with lighting and shadowing).

Look at the backgrounds of the Moore pictures above...the environment is rich with background settings and extra details.  Adlard seems to draw everything in a white room.  Please goggle the two artists for more comparisons.

Moore's "Rick" on the left, Adlard's on the right.

Another that people began to notice as soon as Adlard took over...Kirkman started having characters address each other by name because, some folks think, they all look, well, indistinguishable.

Again, this is no knock on Adlard...though I'm sure it's coming out that way.

This is more of a fuck you to Kirkman, who is going to be counter-suing Moore for $17,000 is lawyer fees.  Says Kirkman's lawyer:

...Mr. Moore’s contract has an attorneys’ fees clause in it so we will be going after him to collect attorneys’ fees.

Are you kidding me?  Like I said at the onset, it seems Mr. Occupy Wall Street  doesn't like it in his backyard.  He's also the first to preach about intellectual property, how stealing comic books is wrong (he's right by the way)...but it goes both ways Kirkman...those character designs are Mr. Moore's intellectual property.

So, with all that being said: If Robert Kirkman counter-sues Tony Moore for anything, specifically his lawyer fees (nevermind actually paying Mr. Moore for what he's owed),  The Walking Dead (and any other Kirkman book) will not see my money.  Another telling bit of info about all of this, maybe it's just me overanalyzing but: you know the old saying about a how the guilty prisoner falls asleep in the jail cell, while the innocent guy is climbing up the walls in panic?  Well, listen to all the noise and vitriol coming from the Kirkman camp...and compare that to what's coming from Moore and his lawyers: calm silence.  Kirkman and his lawyers have called Mr. Moore and this lawsuit every name in the book..."frivolous", "ridiculous", "absurd" etc.  Gee, Robby, trying to sway public opinion much?

I believe in certain principles and I live by them, I don't simply preach them.

Apparently, Mr. Kirkman just preaches them.

In the meantime, go read the new Batman title drawn by Tony Moore, it's incredible.

Strange Netflix "Recommendations For You", Actually "Me"...Not YOU.

You know how Netflix recommends movies to you based on what you've rented or what you've highly rated?  They usually make sense about 99% of the time.

This one threw me for a loop.  Because I enjoyed movies and television shows such as:

• The Big Lebowski [Blu-ray]
• The Office (U.S.)
• Saving Private Ryan Dts-Hd Master Audio

Netflix through I might like a documentary created by an embedded "journalist" entitled "Restrepo".

"Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm, teamed with photographer Tim Hetherington and spent a year embedded with the Second Platoon in Afghanistan, chronicling the hard work, fear and brotherhood that come with repelling a deadly enemy. Hunkered down with the soldiers in one of the region's most strategic valleys, the filmmakers uncover the dark humor, sleepless surreality and constant anxiety of war in this Oscar-nominated documentary."

When I think of horror, anxiety fear and dark, sleepless reality - The Dude and Dwight Shrute immediately pop into my mind. Netflix is amazing!

By the way, remember Tara Reid?

What Has Happened To Me?

The Pope's Pissed,

On the week ending Jan 29, thousands of Catholic churches (something I haven't been in since the day I got married) read aloud the following open letter to President Failboat:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has just been dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people — the Catholic population — and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Obama Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience,to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Obama Administration’s decision.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Alexander K. Sample
Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample
Bishop of Marquette

Like I said, I'm not religious in any way...but the attack on Christianity in this country is quite scary. While Sharia law is allowed in our courts, our tyrannical government knows exactly what it's doing when it forces people of a certain religion to do something or not do something.

I'm sure I don't need to, but I could probably quote time after time Obama has gone out of his way to not offend some fringe group, a handful of kooks or even our very own enemies ("Be sure to give him a proper Muslim burial, boys") - but here's a nice big fuck you to Catholics. Par for the course with the direction of this country.

Also, here's that badass Newt commercial:




And to close it out on a nice note; here's some dude that's way better at building things with Legos than am I.  You were wondering what those kitchen mixers were anyway.

DeathMetalHero gets DAMAGED

Corruption, Politics, a Molotov cocktail, and a rouge cop dealing out his own brand of justice. What do all these things add up to? A damn good comic. i.e. Damaged #5 from RadicalPublishing.

Damaged #5 - A damn Good Comic

            This hard boiled story of intrigue, honor, duty, justice, loss and revenge would be perfectly at home on the big screen, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other great cop dramas of our time.

            The story has four main characters. Frank Lincoln and Jack Cassidy, the good guys, are hunting Henry Lincoln (Frank’s Brother) and Isaac Lordsman. Henry and Isaac are doling out Vigilante justice on San Francisco’s criminal underworld until Isaac decides it’s time to go after the scum hiding behind the badge.

            I won’t spoil anything in this issue because it needs to be read to truly get to scope and depth of emotion the characters put forth. David Lapham does an expert job of making each character’s motivation feel real and fully fleshed out. Whether the characters are on the right side of the law or not you can understand why they do what they do and you want them to succeed. Granted, you know that Lordsman is going to far and has crossed a line, but you clearly understand his motivation. It takes a good writer to make the audience feel for the crazed vigilante.

            The other thing about this book that I love is the artwork. Leonard Manco does fantastic job of creating a balance between the gritty crime infested streets of the city and the softer, safer, suburbs. His action is well paced and the eye flow of his pages keep you moving from one page to the next with out pause. I would love the artwork even if this book was in black and white, but the coloring team of Kinsun Loh, Jerry Choo, and Sansan Saw add a brilliant level of depth to the already fantastic pages. Sometimes colors in a book can overwhelm the original artwork, but that’s not the case in this book. The colors complement the line work smoothly and seamlessly.

            Damaged #5 is another solid issue in an already great series. Only one issue left in this mini, and I bet it’s going to be an explosive finish.