Today our new buttons for Feralia: Requiem of Mist arrived! You can get them on Alicia’s Anime for just $1 each! Featuring the beautiful cover art by Julia Lichty of Aterimages of Ghostfire. We’ll also have them at conventions, starting this weekend with Fairfax Comic Con!
More designs on the way!
-Clint
Lately I’ve been talking a lot about getting back into my favorite super heroes, the X-Men. Long story short, I started and fell in love with the comics in the 90’s, and later fell away from them. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get back into them I started again, but decided to go back to before I started (close to the beginning) since I’d missed out on so many legendary stories.
Perhaps the biggest and most and important story I had missed out on is the Dark Phoenix Saga.
The edition I read is a collection reprinted in 2019 (ISBN 978-0-7851-6241-0) and collects Uncanny X-Men #129-137.
After starting with Essential X-Men volume 1, which is in black and white, this was quite a different experience. After reading 528 pages in b&w, this was a special treat. I really appreciated getting to experience this saga in vibrant full-color. It was a much nicer experience (even though the previous stories were great, too).
Like many other X-Men fans who started around the same time as me or later, I already knew quite a bit about The Dark Phoenix Saga. At least I thought I did. I knew of the main result of the story (like pretty much everyone does as this point), but not how it exactly, physically occurred.
The creative team of Claremont, Byrne and others really shines in this collection as they create one of their greatest works, also considered widely to be one of the greatest stories in comics in general. The writing, art and character development are all top-notch. Even though I knew a lot of the outcome beforehand, reading it was still a really great experience. I won’t say anything specific, but seeing some of my most beloved characters going through such an ordeal first hand was really moving at times, and while knowing what was going to eventually happen definitely softened the blow, it still made me really feel for them.
This collection features not only Professor X’s then current team of Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus & Banshee, along with Phoenix of course, but also the first appearance of Kitty Pryde (aka Sprite, and later, Shadowcat)!
The tale definitely lives up to its reputation, and if you haven’t read it I would definitely recommend doing so. I’m excited and happy that I finally got to experience The Dark Phoenix Saga, and can’t wait to continue catching up with the X-Men! The cover price is $24.99, which is really a steal for such an awesome collection. (I got my copy from House of Pop Culture in Waldorf, Maryland. They have an amazing selection of not only X-Men Trade Paperbacks, but comics in general. If you’re anywhere near the area, check them out!)
Next up in comics I’ll be moving on to another legendary X-Men story: Days of Future Past.
-Clint
I’ve been wanting to mention these games since the original came out, and with the sequel being recently released, I decided this would be a great time to stop putting it off.
I was super excited to get the first game in 2016, and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, it exceeded by hopes and expectations. Sure, there are the obvious comparisons to Minecraft. But this game takes most of the great stuff about Minecraft and adds so much more. There is a fun, deeper-than-expected story, memorable NPCs, an amazing soundtrack comprised of new renditions of classic songs from the Dragon Quest series. and to top it off, it captures all the charm the series has come to be known for. Even when silly, it’s fun and adorable. The recipes come over time as you progress through the story. This requires patience for those ready to build the biggest and most varied creations, but it’s also quite rewarding to unlock them. I played Dragon Quest Builders on PSVita, and would probably rank it among my favorites of all time.
After all of the countless hours of enjoyment I got from playing the original, I was naturally super excited when Dragon Quest Builders 2 was announced. I even pre-ordered both the game and season pass months ahead of time (which is a rarity for me nowadays). This time around I’m playing the Nintendo Switch version.
I haven’t finished it yet, but so far it’s amazing – bigger and better than the original with so much more to do. It’s just as story based as the original. The amount of new stuff and activities is staggering. The story seems to be even better so far also. While you don’t need to have played the original to understand it, there are plenty of references to the first game, which makes it even more rewarding to those who played it first. What’s so unlike any other building game I’ve played are the sections of story which take you away from the main area of the game. Right now my character has been thrown into a prison with all tools and items taken away. While I’m anxious to get back to my beloved Isle of Awakening and continue building, sections like this add to a fun story.
If you haven’t played these games yet, check them out! They are by far by favorite building games!
Below are some pics of my character. 😉
With Malroth, your companion character.
Pets!! I love my dogs, but I spotted a cat in the prison. If I get to take it home I’m gonna freak!
Naruto run!!
-Clint
This weekend I’ll be returning to Fairfax Comic Con. Come out and see me at the Alicia’s Anime Booth! (Booth 901 & 908). Hope to see you there!
-Clint
Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by at Dover Comic Con! I hope all of you who picked up a book or books enjoys them! We’ve loved being a part of this con since it’s first year and can’t wait to see you all again next year!
-Clint
Tomorrow I’ll be returning to Dover Comic Con! This is a free show and is always a blast. I’ll have Feralia Revised Edition and Feralia: Requiem of Mist books available at the Alicia’s Anime booth (Booth 36) along with a ton of anime and video game related stuff. There will also be a bunch of other great vendors and artists there (including our friends PLB Comics, Stuffed Sushi & Jon Salvino just to name a few off the top of my head) as well as fun activities and food!
Hope to see you there!
-Clint
As you may already know, all of our signed copies of both books are sold through Alicia’s Anime. We’ve just launched a redesigned website there, so some of the links will be changing. For now you can use the following link to reach the Feralia books and merch:
https://www.aliciasanime.com/collections/feralia
We’ll be updating the links here on Feralia.net over the weekend (or soon after Dover Comic Con).
Thanks for your patience!
-Clint
Update 8/19/19: All links have been updated!
Last month I blogged about my latest attempt to get back into American comics, starting with my beloved X-Men. My first step was with Essential X-Men, volume 1. I read the collection released in 2008, which is black and white, and contains Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-119. (ISBN 978-0-7851-3255-4) In this review I’ll cover the story content as well as the actual physical quality of this collection.
First off, let’s look at the positives. This collection is the start of the legendary run by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne & others. The praise it has received over the years is well deserved. The writing and art are great, with many legendary characters. Professor Charles Xavier assembles a new team of X-Men to rescue the original team, and the story goes from there. This collected span includes not only the first appearances of Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus, but also sees Wolverine and Banshee joining up as well. As I mentioned in my earlier entry, this was really special to me, as I’d missed out on these stories, having started into comics later. Getting to finally actually read all these important issues was a blast, and I really enjoyed them. I can’t recommend them enough!
Now, for the not-so-good, and it should be noted that this section has nothing to do with the quality of the stories and art themselves, but in their black and white presentation in the particular collection. Don’t get me wrong – I love black and white comics. Not only am I a big fan of manga but many of my favorite indie comics that I read are in black and white as well. Unlike those, however, this collection seems to be comprised of black and white copies of the originals, and often doesn’t carry over so well. A lot of times it’s a bit hard to tell what’s going on. Despite the amazing original content, this black and white content seemed to hurt the experience at times, for me personally at least.
The text in this panel in particular was tough to make out.
I definitely don’t regret reading it. In fact, the value is great: 528 pages at a cover price of just $18. If you can pick up this now out of print edition for even cheaper, like I did, it’s still well worth the read, just not always so easy on the eyes.
If I had it to do over, I’d probably try to find a collection that keeps everything in its original colors, but the comics themselves were great, definitely living up to their reputation. I’m super excited to continue with this legendary era of stories in their full color collections.
-Clint
Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to see us at Super Smash Con this past weekend! We were super excited for our schedule to finally work out this year so we could make it, and we weren’t disappointed. We had a great time and are looking forward to next year. Welcome to all you new readers as well!
-Clint
If you’re anything like me, you have a lot going on. Most of us have work, school and/or families. Some of us have all of those combined. And then there are hobbies, responsibilities and real life challenges that can strip away all of our time for creating. There are a lot of ways to tackle this challenge, but the one I wanted to focus on is Setting Goals. Even if you don’t always reach them, I feel like it’s really helpful to at least set them, to have them in sight. Today I wanted share a few of my writing goals:
Write or at least outline a little bit every day.
I feel like this is a great way to keep everything fresh in mind, even if you’re unable to sit down and do a serious amount of writing. Writing journals can be a big help with this. Another thing I’ve found helpful are flexible outlines. Some writers don’t like outlines. For me personally, I find a structured yet adaptable outline to be critical. If you’re able to strike that balance and keep it from being too restrictive, it can be a great help.
Try to develop a regular publishing schedule.
A lot changed for me since I released my first story in 2008. It wasn’t until 2017 that I re-released it, and then March of this year that I finally got the second story out. That 9 year gap was way too long. Having only 2 years in between releases felt much better, and I’d like to stick to that schedule. Maybe some day I’ll even release them more often, but for the time being this is seems like a perfect goal for my schedule. That would put me at a goal to release my third story by Spring 2021. It seems quite doable, but I’ll have to keep at it!
Blog more often.
This isn’t so much related to writing stories, but I think it’s healthy to keep your mind working, even if it’s something on the side.
I’ll try as hard as I can to stick to these goals. Do you set goals for your creative pursuits? If so, what are they? How do you stick to them?
-Clint
Feralia - Home of the Feralia fantasy novels by Clint Cassa 