Capitalist Fiction

Saturday, March 28, 2009

<h3>Simpson, Homer J.</h3>

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Apparently, it's important that you put in the right information on backend Web page coding. Or your videos get cut off midway through.

All current (and hopefully future) cybercomics videos will now play correctly. Unless they don't. Doh.

Monday, March 23, 2009

<h3>Jungle Warfare Pt. 3</h3>

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My intentions were good, as the signposts say on the road to perdition. Not that the sin of untimely updates is mine alone. Or cause for eternal fire. Sounding very metaphysic, I suppose. Must be some leftover dreck from the abysmal Battesnore Galactic series end.

In any regard, my own contribution to the subgenre of silly narrative is this 3rd chapter of Jungle Warfare. Long time readers of this short running blog will remember that this is the spy-centric entry in my Cybercomics collection. These "digitally enhanced" comics from the mid-nineties crackled with limited animation, looping sound effects, and earnest effort by all involved as we tried to figure out a new avenue for income and storytelling. Herein, Marvel Comics master spook, Nick Fury, is on edge as his team tries to keep the malfunctioning Gamega bomb out of the hands of the belligerent and mercenary Tyrannicals. Ah, when the words "terrorist" and "weapons of mass destruction" had such innocent meaning.

Do pay attention, 007: click on SHIELD in the scrolling menu up top, then pick a chapter from the page that appears below.

<h3>Jungle Warfare Pt. 2</h3>

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More fun with Nick Fury and cold war era espionage, infused with eighties-nineties action movie sensibilities. It's part 2 of Jungle Warfare, the SHIELD-tastic entry in my Cybercomics contribution. Marvel's top spy and his jumpsuited operatives have retrieved the MacGuffin, a blow-em-all-to-hell nasty called the Gamega bomb. But as such things go, they're not the only ones with a taste for high-yield, government sanctioned explosives. And so the confrontation begins.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: click on SHIELD in the scrolling menu up top, then pick a chapter from the page that appears below.

<h3>Abominable Humor</h3>

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It's immediately classic, but the explanation at the end makes it even more so.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

<h3>Jungle Warfare</h3>

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A special Valentine's gift. For what says true love better than a box of pulpy espionage adventure, with a chewy thermonuclear center?

Returning to the ancient world of cybercomics, I'm releasing the first chapter of my Nick Fury adventure in that format. It's a fast-paced romp through the Panama jungle. Nicholas J., for those of you who have lived lives outside the comic book page, is Marvel's swaggering super-spy. And head of a global spook shop called S.H.I.E.L.D. (The letters of which have stood for way too many convoluted attempts to make sense out of the name.)

Fury and SHIELD were some of my favorite characters and situations to play with when I was still actively writing comics. If for no other reason than the fact that I was a long time 007 fan, and now I had a chance to play out James Bond scenarios on a grand, gritty scale. I think this remains my favorite of the cybercomics — Spidey runs a close second. It's got a strong MacGuffin, fun set pieces, and a natural sounding selection of tough guy quips.

To get in on the action: click on SHIELD in the scrolling menu up top, then pick a chapter from the page that appears below.

(Photo, of course, if of The Hoff.)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

<h3>No matter where you've been, it's who you are</h3>

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Making a cup of tea, I was reminded of my grandfather. My mother's father. Sitting with him, I'm just a little kid, at the kitchen table at his house on Charles Mary Lane. After pouring the water, he'd let the tea steep. (As you do with tea, no revelation there.) Then just use his strong, worked fingers to squeeze the hot teabag out.

And for no conscious reason I've ever thought about, it just seems the most natural thing to do the same. My far weaker, less accomplished fingers don't complain.

<h3>A measure of brilliance</h3>

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We're in the continuing process of tweaking the "family room." It's come a long way from the L toy catch all it was for a long time. It's almost like a whole new room has been discovered in the house.

As we were measuring some stuff out, L volunteered to help and put the tape measure to work. The long stretches he called out close to the mark. But on the shorter distances, he was reporting back, "That's 7 fingers." "That's 2 fingers." "That's about 4 fingers." Instead of correcting him, I had to ask, "Why fingers?"

So he tells me. "Because they're shorter than feet."

I should have known that much! Simply put, I am extraordinarily lucky.