First up a bunch of stuff this weekend I had my hand in for Panels on Pages. First up was an article/interview with Rusty Shackles about his PaletteSwap art blog (which takes old video game box and has artists re-imagine/reinterpret it) which was doing a Halloween Art Jam of horror themed games like this one from Rusty, doing Castlevania.

In addition, we do a Fangirl of the Month feature on the site and I found this month’s Fangirl, Jamila Rowser of the Girl-Gone_Geek blog. She’s pretty cool and you should check her out.

Then there was my regular stuff, like my column Back in the Game (this week’s being about how my old shop was selling more copies of Strawberry Shortcake than Wolverine) and my hosting duties on the Super-Fly Comics Podcast (where we talked about the conclusion to the Super-Fly vs Wizard/Mid-Ohio Con beef, the aforementioned Strawberry Shortcake vs Wolverine and the psychiatrists who want DC to be more realistic in their depictions of the criminally insane). Since it’s kind of impossible for me to not jump at the chance to talk about things, I accepted the call to co-host the main Panels on Pages PoP!-Cast since the 11th Hour were unavailable. It was a slow news week, but you do get to find out which of my Super-Fly co-hosts I’d make a skin-suit out of, my financial destituteness and I still managed to talk a lot about comics I haven’t read yet. You can listen & subscribe to all the shows on the PoP!-Cast Network on iTunes.

In non comics news, Misty reviewed my horror novel SHADOW OF THE PAST on her blog, KindleObsessed, giving it 4 out of 5 stars. It’s a great review, and while there were some parts she didn’t enjoy I love hearing someone say they couldn’t put it down, as well as “that was freaking fantastic” and “the story was a very well thought out and intricate one.” I assure you those quotes aren’t completely taken out of context. I’m well aware that the book, with teenage protagonists and more than it’s fair share of “self-loathing monologues,” has aspects that aren’t for everyone but I’d like to think there’s enough violence, humor and mystery to make it entertaining for most (and maybe, if you’re really unlucky, you’ll find something from your own teenage years you can relate to).

SHADOW OF THE PAST is still available on Amazon and Smashwords for only 99 cents. I’m still serializing my next novel, THE CORNER, here on the site with a new chapter every Saturday.

My comic, THE ROBOZOIC AGE is still coming along (pages from the artist J.C. Grande arrived in my email today) and I also decided to push/punish myself by participating in 30 Characters, the month long challenge for comic people to create a new character for every day in November. I’m already a day behind, but I’m looking to correct that once I’m done with this little warm up. It’s mostly artists that take up the challenge, but occasionally writers like me jump in. I’m still working out exactly how I want to do this, but I think some with be little snippets of stories, some will be full short stories and others I may try out a weird “text-trailer” kind of thing, where there’s some over-arcing narration and short little scenes picked out from what would be a larger story. I’ll try to avoid using “In a world…”

So yeah. November, it looks like you’re going to try to kill me. I look forward to it.

I’m trying not to get too proud of myself, as it was a giveaway sale, but with that many books in the offering and most of them free I’m happy that people picked mine out of the crowd. I’m hoping there’s not too much of a lull on the site now that folks have gorged their eReaders on free books, as Smashwords offers a pretty decent royalty rate for me. Of course, Shadow of the Past is also available on Amazon, if you’ve got some sort of fancy Amazon coupon or preference. The price is still only 99 cents either way, so hopefully that’s as good as free for folks.

Thanks again, and hopefully I’ll have more good news about other projects in the works later this week or early next. In the mean time, you can read my latest “Back in the Game” column for Panels on Pages or listen to me yell about Marvel, Richie Rich and pouring gasoline in hipsters eyes on the latest Super-Fly Comics Podcast.

In a similar vein, this July Smashwords is running their Summer/Winter (it’s winter south of the equator, so there’s no need to be hemisphere-ist) sale for the books on their site. My novel, SHADOW OF THE PAST, has been enjoying modest success on that site and during the Summer/Winter sale it will be like that plucky little Boron atom and be given it away, given away, given away now. Yes, with the coupon code “SSWSF” you can get it for the low, low price of Free. The self-publishing in the digital marketplace is a hell of a game, and as I struggle along trying to make a name for myself I’ve come to realize that there’s nothing better than just getting your name out there and letting people know what you have. Hopefully, folks will find the book, enjoy themselves and then leave a pleasant comment about it on the site. It is still available on Amazon for 99 cents, if you are so inclined to still pay for it. You can read sample chapters at both the Amazon and Smashwords pages, or here on the site. One of the nice things about Smashwords is that it supports downloads in a ton of different formats, including Kindle (or the free Kindle app, available for any smartphone), Nook, Kobo, PDF or even just straight up reading it on the screen.

It’s been an incredibly busy summer for me thus far. I’ve still got a couple of irons in the fire that I don’t want to jinx by talking about, but I’m hoping to have more free content available by the end of the month. As I mentioned before, I’m just over a year in to doing the Super-Fly Comics & Games podcast on the Panels on Pages PoP!-Cast Network, as well as writing for the site (primarily my weekly column “Back In The Game,” about my transition from comics retailer to civilian fanboy after 8 years in the business). That, plus visiting my folks in upstate New York for the first time in almost 5 years (and getting a wicked bad sunburn in the process) as well as traveling to Colorado this coming weekend for one of my oldest childhood friend’s wedding (where I will definitely be packing sunscreen).

Either way, if you’re having a hectic summer yourself and want to something fun to read to take your mind off your problems (and go “Hey, a fire-powered serial killer isn’t stalking me, so maybe things are going okay for me!”) then give SHADOW OF THE PAST a try.

If you have listened to the show, feel free to send us an email at superflycomics@gmail.com before we record Sunday evening with a question, comment, complaint or challenge for a street fight. It’s a celebration, let’s act like it!

So yeah, once again I’m putting it out there that I’m looking for comic artist for a handful of projects I’ve got brewing. Two of them would fir perfectly as webcomics, as they seem to work best as 16-page chapters, and a couple more that are potential miniseries that I’d most likely want to start shopping around to publishers working with creator owned stuff, like Image. There’s a chance I might be able pay a small page rate in addition to sharing whatever publication money comes down the line but that’d have to be discussed.

In terms of what’s being drawn, I’ve got a project involving a cross-country road race (a supernatural Cannonball Run of sorts, with Werewolf bikers, gun-toting luchadores, and a godzilla-boy among others), a science-fiction/fantasy action mash-up with monsters and other strange humanoids (lizard people, devil moths, laser guns and flying buildings) and one that can be described simply as Dinosaurs, Robots and Cowboys. There are a couple of other things, but those are the three that my fevered imagination seems to think are the most pressing (and the rest of me thinks are damn fun). So if you’re looking to draw some comics, have some sequential page samples and the ability to get work done on some sort of regular basis (even if it’s just a page a week or two) then let’s chat. If you know folks that might fit the bill, let me know at thacher.e.cleveland at gmail.com (yes, I’m, avoiding evil spam robots). Being able to produce good work on a regular basis is key, which kind of goes without saying but is really key as I don’t want to miss out on this opportunity by not being able to actually deliver the goods, y’know?

Thanks!