Author Archives: Scott Smith

Midnight

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The window with star icicles fogs up as the gas burns to heat. Outside a dog barks in cadence with some unseen animal sheltering from the wind. Maggie feels a cold chill as her blanket slides. She leans back into Cecil, whose warmth compensates for the dying temperature. She thinks about her son away at his fathers this weekend and wonders if he has trouble sleeping without her as well. Maggie knows he prefers to stay with his dad, but she hasn’t quite admitted that to herself. Her partner stirs, reaches his arm around her belly.
“Hey. You up?”
“Yeah I am. Getting ready to go.”
“Oh. Well, why don’t you stay?”
It’s sweet, and she wants to but once he falls back asleep she slides from his embrace and heads out into the winter night.
Her car is cold, the heat slowly defrosting the frozen windshield. She sees the eyes of something in the woods reflect in her headlights. It watches her for a moment than wanders off. Maggie turns on the radio to the sound of Tom Petty’s Running Down a Dream. She hums it for a bit, then turns the sound off. Better to drive in silence.
There is no music left in Maggie anymore anyway.

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Agent Carter: Instant Reaction

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Just finished the first two episodes of Marvels agent carter and there are 5 reasons it wins on first touch.

1: setting. The 1940’s setting plays well on the small screen and feels way more alive that most television settings.

2: It’s a strong Female lead in the Marvel universe who isnt wearing spandex. That alone gets it points.

3: Jarvis. Howard Starks butler adds a much needed sidekick and his wife I have a feeling we will never see is a very important setpiece for the writers.

4: It feels Big. Where Marvels Agents of Shield lacked focus for most of the first season, we already have a clear and dangerous problem to deal with and it just works on every level.

5: Haley Atwell. She is Peggy Carter. Anyone else wishing this would permanetly replace Agents of Shield?

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My Illogicon Schedule

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Excited to be a guest again at Illogicon in Cary, NC. I’m on two panels there this weekend both on Sunday.
First I’m hosting a sketchcard workshop open to all skill levels on Sunday at 1100am. All participants will be given at least one sketch card and plastic case and have a chance to make a sketch card for themselves.
I’m also on The Sporting Geek panel where us Geeks will be talking about Sports at 1pm . LOL.
See everyone in Cary this weekend.

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Custom Turtle

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I really don’t mind blind box toys when they are just casual buys. I hate them for minimates which are the only things I collect. Blind bags make it really hard to get what you want and as imagesomeone who budgets for his toys it sucks to get one you already have. Which is why when I got a second Leo I decided to paint him like the old school comic turtles. He came out okay and now I have a black and white turtle that no one else does.

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Homeland: The Season after Brody

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Homeland was at its finest during the very first season when the tension built to unbelievable heights wondering what Brody would or wouldn’t do. Unfortanetly the writers couldn’t maintain that pacing for future seasons and we spiralled into the Carrie Brody romance, and unneccesarry storylines with Brody’s family.

With Brody out of the picture this season the show returned to peak form, with Carrie & gang back in action and most of the season taking place in an hostile Pakistan. The tensions were back, and for once it felt like a spy show and more current then ever.

If you stopped watching during the later seasons, but loved the politics of the first year, tune back in. The game is always on during this season of Homeland and it doesn’t pull punches.

And the most masterful effect of the writing this season? They make you hate Carrie for the first half of the season, but by the end of the year you just feel a little bit like you want to give her a hug and tell her don’t worry, you’ll have next season to work out those demons.

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Best of 2014: Comic

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imageA great year for comics as Image published a lot of new groundbreaking books and the big two kept plugging along. Out of everything coming out I feel like Chew by Layman & Guillory is hitting its endgame stride and continues to provide the best and most bizarre at times story. It is always a fun read and the main strength is that it perfected it’s style way back in the first issue and hasn’t wavered in that initial feel for the entire run. It’s my pick for best comic book of 2014.

 

 

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Cuba

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Another stone in our shadowy ideological war with Communism fell today with our reopening relations with Cuba. Far too long have we shunned our neighbor to the south for what happened with Russia long ago.

I never understood why Cuba was left in isolation as we repaired our relations with Russia and traded with Communist China. Sure Castro wasn’t the biggest humanitarian but has any Chinese Goverment of the last fifty years not had the same issue? Oh I forgot, they import too much to our economy and now we owe them money.

Out neighbor to the south will benefit from the change as more Americans will slowly visit and likely change their economic situation. Cubans should be careful to not let tourism take parts of their country that belong to them. Anthony Bourdains recent trip to Jamacia comes to mind as Jamacians are slowly losing access to their own beaches so rich Americans can swim at their private leisure . All part of the trap of chasing the dollar.

And I find it quite fitting on a day when a former capitalism versus communism debate ends that it’s capitalism that has decided to not show the movie the Interview because of threats from a radical group.

In the days of Capitalism versus Communism we would have showed the movie just to spite the enemy and then airdropped copies of it into their country just to show we could.

Interesting times ahead.

I hope to visit Cuba one day.

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Saga Volume 3 : Kill Your Darlings.

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SAGA Volume 3: By Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Collects Issues 13-18, Published by Image Comics.

Finally got around to Saga volume 3, and it doesnt have the same wow factor I felt with the first two volumes. Granted it’s still one of the best series being published today, but the first series hit me with the grand spectacle of this whole new universe Vaughan & Staples had created. The second volume played nicely as it cemented our characters story arcs and showed us a little bit about where we are going.

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For me Volume 3 felt a little like an exercise in Vaughan demonstrating his writing skills around his like and dislikes around the art of writing. Since a central characther in this arc is the author Heist, Vaughan seems to exorcise some demons he has about other writers and the education of writing.

He even spends a few pages musing on the writing phrase “Kill Your Darlings”

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It’s hard to tell if he’s making a stance that writers should focus on what they love or not?  It hampers the progress of the story and at times it distracts from the plot causing part of this episode of Saga to feel essay centric and less grand scale epic awesomeness of the first two volumes.

Saga is a sweeping intergalactic ,well, Saga, but here’s hoping later volumes remember it is a big show, and perhaps not the perfect forum for a lecture on the art of writing.

One wonders if Vaughan whose work on Y The Last Man, was not just entertaining, but one of the most important political and social comics ever, wants Saga to be that kind of comic.

I’d be okay if it decides to just entertain.

 

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The Companions

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imageI started my long journey with R. A. Salvatore’s Drizzt books over twenty years ago. I was 13 browsing in a Barnes & Noble waiting for ice hockey practice to start. Something about the cover for Homeland drew me in and before I knew it was asking for books instead of other entertainment. My readership changed over the years as I grew older and I missed many Drizzt stories during my college years. I returned to the series when I opened a little used book store in Easthampton, Ma.

Reading the books at an older age showed me all the layers of storytelling I most likely missed as a teenage boy. I reread everything and caught up with all the books I missed.

Im torn with the Companions as it feels like a comic book reboot. We are getting major characters back which I’m sure will lead to great adventures but as a reader who had 20 years invested in these stories it does lessen the impact I felt as a reader when we lost those characters the first time around. Not sure how I will reread Cattiebrie, Regis, and Bruenors death again and not feel a little cheated.

Im glad the Companions of the Hall are reunited and can’t wait to read their adventures, but not sure I will ever have the same emotional investment now that they , like comic book characters, can cheat death.

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