It's a good company with many very cool comics. Here's an open letter from the publisher...

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Please try to save them from a fate worse than CrossGen.

Glenn Walker

Okay, kiddies try this on for size...it can be fun. It's called the "Continuous Story". Basically someone starts a story with one line. The next person adds a line and this goes on and on and one until you have a full story. A few basic rules. One sentence only please. Keep it PG13 or less. When you reply, paste the previous part of the story, skip a line and then put your line in. Be creative. That's about it. Let's give it a whirl.





I entered the abandoned house and walked down the dark, empty hallway.

Just keeping my hand in with manipping really. Here we have Marcus Schenkenberg (whom I've used before - see my 'Blink' piece) as a younger Man of Steel. Had to do a fair bit of cleaning up on the original image as there was a lot of text to remove. The costume created as per my usual texture method. I tried to give the cape a believable flowing feel, not sure if I did, but I like how it turned out. blended in the flag in the background to further enhance the 'belief in something larger than yourself' feel.

The events written in here take place after the "Black as Night" Chapter


“Someone once said “You can never go home again.” Victoria said aloud as she stood on the balcony of her small apartment. The night sky seemed blanketed with stars and as she leaned against the wrought iron railing, she closed her eyes and listened to the scents of the city.
The place was exactly as she had left it. Clean but cluttered. She had been home only a matter of moments, but it seemed like she had never left.
Going inside, she walked over to the phone and picked it up hoping to hear a dial tone. Luckily enough, one was there. “Great idea, signing up for those automatic payments” she smirked as she dialed a familiar phone number.
It rang 4 times and she was about to hang up when a male voice said “Hello?”
“Peter...it’s me..Tory...”
“Victoria? Where the hell have you been? I’ve been searching the city for a good 6 months for you. What the hell happened.” He sounded angry, indignant, but relieved.
“Peter..it’s a long story...can I come over?” she bit down on her lower lip as she asked the question.
“I’ll be there in 5 minutes.” was his reply before he hung up.
Hanging up the receiver, she leaned against the kitchen counter for a moment and hung her head. She had a lot of explaining to do. At least Piotr and Kitty knew what had happened already and knew she was safe and were ok with her new line of “work.” She was sure Peter would throw and absolute fit at the idea.
She walked into the bedroom and rifled through the drawers finding a fresh pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt and pulled them on. It seemed like no time however, before the knock sounded on the apartment door and it opened.
“Hey you...” Peter Parker stood in the doorway of Victoria’s bedroom, smiling at his friend as she sat on the edge of her bed, seemingly staring at the floor. Before he knew what hit him, she was off the bed and in his arms, hugging him.
“I’ve missed you so much! So much has happened Peter. Oh god... I don’t even know where to start.” She held him close for a moment before looking up at him.
“I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to scare you...I wish I could have told you where I went, even Kitty and Piotr didn’t know.”
“Hey..it’s ok. Hell, I even went as far as trying to track down the crackpot to see if he knew where you were.” Peter kept his arms around her, he really had missed her more than she’d ever know.
“You went to Sin..err...Essex? You’re nuts...” her brown eyes looked up at him, concern and worry mirrored in them.
“No sweat, he had no idea where you were, but was searching as well. So, you gonna tell me?” Peter led Victoria to the sofa and sat her down, settling himself next to her.
Taking a deep breath, Victoria turned and looked at him for a long moment before speaking.
“It’s so good to see you. You really don’t know.” she smiled with tears in her eyes and hugged him again.
“Woah Princess, it’s not the end of the world.” he chuckled and pushed her white hair out of her face, wiping away a tear.
“Peter, you’re the only person here who’s ever understood me...and as for the end of the world... you haven’t heard the half of it.”

The sun was starting to peek through the New York Skyline as Victoria and Peter stood at the railing of the balcony, watching it rise.
“That’s all...pretty deep Tory. You ok? Reality hopping, Atlantis, Deadpool.” his arm was where it had been all night, around her.
“Yeah, I’m better now. I mean, I was told my reality was gone, my family was dead, my friends were all dead...but in the meantime, I’ve met some amazing people and....I....I fell in love.” she smiled at him and began to tell him about Hank.
“I want you to meet him Peter, it’s so hard to explain. I mean...he looks kinda like Mr. McCoy, but not...it’s like I can sense his soul in Hank...maybe that’s why I’m drawn to him...” she let out a sigh and continued... “I don’t really know. But I do know that Dr. Strange has chosen us to safe guard reality, and I can’t turn him down.”
Peter felt his heart breaking all over again as Victoria spoke of Hank. First Franklin, then Wade, now this Hank. She’d never see it in his face, he’d never let her.
“Sometimes, we’re given responsibilities we have to shoulder. You’re a special person Victoria with very unique gifts and it’s only understandable that Dr. Strange would want someone like you on his side. But tell me, what’s Spider-Man like? I mean, you know I’m fascinated with the guy here at home...” Peter couldn’t contain it, he had to know what this alternate reality version of “Spider-Man” was like. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was someone else. He had to know.
“Oh, he’s dark, broody, never takes off the costume, I’ve never seen his face..but...in a way, he reminds me of you sometimes. He’s a sweet guy deep down, it just seems that somewhere in there, he’s been hurt really bad and well..he doesn’t want to let anyone in.” Victoria pushed a wayward strand of white hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.
Peter listened and smiled silently. Sounded like this Spider-Man was more like him than he would have thought.
“Well then, you’ll just have to bring him home with you someday.” he was still smiling “And this Hank too. I want to meet the guy who beat me out of your affections...again.”
Victoria rolled her eyes and punched Peter in the arm.
“Oh please Parker, like I ever had a chance with the likes of you!” shaking her head, she walked back inside, leaving Peter staring behind her in a forlorn way.
“If you only knew.” he whispered before following her in.

Peter quickly filled her in on the details of things that had happened while she had been gone. Franklin was...well...gone. The Richards family had him moved to a private institution one night and he escaped. The search for Franklin Richard still continued. Victoria couldn’t help but to feel a little sad over it all. She still felt a tremendous amount of guilt over what had happened. She hadn’t know...and even now...the mental wall that Tessa had helped her erect kept the memories from flooding her with misery.
Dr. Essex had also mysterious vanished after his lab had been invaded by the S.H.I.E.L.D. No one knew what it was about, something about breeding genetic viruses to unleash on the world or something to that effect.
The words all swirled around Victoria as Peter continued to talk. She could almost feel Sinister near them, but for once, she wasn’t afraid.
“Peter, my “father” has another name...one you should know..” she started to speak slowly but Peter stopped her, putting a fingertip to her lips.
“Tory, I know already. Remember? I found everything in the lab the day we found out about your...unique birth. I know who he is, and what he’s capable of.” Pulling her into his arms, he kissed the top of her head.
“And if your Hank isn’t around, I will be. So don’t worry.”

From AICN
The Intimidation Game
Warner Bros.



Feature film starring Christian Bale and Michael Caine will be filming in Chicago from July 31st through August 21st.

Extras Casting Call:
Please call the Casting Hotline for complete details at 312-427-FILM
Saturday, July 10th from 11 am to 4 pm
1401 N. Cicero
Please bring a color photo and a pen





Ok guys... I live too far away and we have a few Chicago area members.

GO GET CAST ALREADY!

Other than comic books, what was the last novel you picked up and read?

Mine was the Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George. This HUGE 1000+ page book was a nice read about the life of the Queen of the Nile. It was actually what they based the most recent version of her story as a movie (with Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane) off of. (I own the movie, thought it was crap personally.)

I'm thinking about pulling out the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley again. I've only read it about 3 times (another 1000+ pager).

So, what's your take on the Dog of Steel?

Personally, I think it adds a bit of humor and humanity to our Kryptonian. Recently in Batman/Superman, Krypto's been being a terror to Kara...which was funny to watch.

Batman: "Aren't you worried? The dog doesn't like her..."
Superman:"The dog doesn't like anyone."

I think out of all the "side kicks" they've given our heroes, having a super powered dog with heat vision kicks ass!

Out of the entire Batman Rogues Gallery, who would you like to see the Caped Crusader put in Arkham permenantly? Or who would you like to see sober up and walk the straight line?

Permenantly in Arkham... Mad Hatter. Never liked him, thought he was lame.

I think the scariest Batman villian is Scarecrow. Seriously, he creeps me out to no end. Joker may be insane, but Scarecrow is just sane enough to screw with your mind before he slices you to bits.

As far as toeing the line...Catwoman....my only fear of that is, she'll turn into what Black Cat is... a knockoff of another character.

Ok, we've all seen it, we've seen them flirt and we finally seen them decide "no, we can't go there."
But is that what you wanted to see? Everyone always just assumes Diana's got a thing for Clark...but it's really the elusive flying rodent that's piqued her interest.

Would you care to see that played out? If not...then why?

This idea has been batted around in regular continuity talks forever. Do you want to see Franklin finally grow up?
Seriously? I'd love to see him grow up slowly through the books, but then that means aging your heros....
Or maybe just do a one shot of Franklin in college or the like...Sure, we all know he grows up to be Psi-Lord and all that...but let's see what happens in the mean time.