Batman versus Captain America..who wins?
Title says it all. Watched the Winter Soldier last night and also put this up on Facebook. If Batman and Captain America fought, no prep time, no gadgets or weapons, just a straight up battle, who wins?
Im a fan of both, but overall I think Captain America would win, just due to outlasting Batman. It would be very close because they are trained to peak human levels, but the serum that captain america has, plus his decades of fighting experience pulls him out ahead.
Your thoughts?
Shield of Justice trailer is complete and posted!
I normally do not post on Pisces Concepts updates on this blog but since I will be posting a new page today, I just wanted to announce the new trailer being finished and published. The new trailer has a different focus than the previous four. This one is about one word..sacrifice. Check it out and comments are welcome. Here is the link on Youtube and go to the 5th video in the playlist:
Be blessed.
Comic Book Trivia night..how did my team do?
Well, I decided last week that since a comic book trivia night was going on locally, I wanted to see how much I knew. I usually go to comic conventions in the area, and since this was the first annual one, I decided to take a shot. I have to admit that it was a great experience and I’m glad I went.
I teamed up with 3 guys who were pretty diverse in comics (a plus for the game), we met a large amount of teams, and the founder of the Cincinnati Comic Expo. Most of the questions were Marvel based, though and we asked the emcees if they could shake up the company questions (they did but only for a round). In the end..we ended up fourth, where the top three won pretty nice prizes. My team (The Walking Nerds) actually won free passes to the Expo in September, so it turned out pretty cool. Met some new guys who liked comics, had a good night out and just relaxed.
Now I just need the Comic Expo to get here
Be blessed
Daredevil review..long overdue
Well, I have seen Daredevil over a month ago on Netflix and I have to say that I thought that it would be a good show because I’m a Daredevil fan. Little did I know that it would be such a GREAT show, in my opinion. I admit that I took a weekend and binge watched it just so I can take it all in at once. To make this short, the casting was great, the tone and mood of the show was outstanding and I cannot wait for season two. If you haven’t seen it already, I won’t do the show justice by spoiling it for you. Go watch and hopefully enjoy!
Be blessed. 
Animation..my next frontier
Hello once again. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on the Learning Curve (life has been very hectic at the moment), but I’ve been trying to keep up with topics that interest me. The new crop of movies coming this year, such as the Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman vs Superman, Ant man, and others that I have been very interested in this year. I’ve been watching more anime lately since I’ve finished the Shield of Justice story arc and I’ve been intrigued by the Darker than Black series. What really has caught my attention, though has been the move to doing something with animation.
I’ve been trying to get research about what it involves and it takes a lot of time to create. I’m not sure that I have enough time to learn animation at this time, but I have been finding websites, tutorials and different types of downloadable programs (free of course!) to narrow my needs. I do like the Synfig Program, but that one takes a tremendous amount of training. I do enjoy Motion Artist the most because of it’s ease to start, but I haven’t had time to sit down and really dig into it yet. If anyone has any ideas for programs for animation, let me know.
Be blessed.
Superhero vs. Crimefighter: What’s the difference?
I was thinking about this topic a few days ago while talking with a friend of mine in our comic book store. The words Superhero and Crime fighter have been tossed around in fiction, especially comic books and movies. My question is there a difference between the two?
Wikipedia defines a superhero this way: In modern popular fiction, a superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a type of heroic character possessing extraordinary talents, supernatural phenomena, or superhuman powers and dedicated to protecting the public. A female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine (also rendered super-heroine or super heroine). Fiction centered on such characters, especially in American comic books since the 1930s, is known as superhero fiction.
By most definitions, characters do not require actual supernatural or superhuman powers or phenomena to be deemed superheroes,[1] although terms such as costumed crime fighters or masked vigilantes are sometimes used to refer to those such as Batman and Green Arrow without superpowers who share other superhero traits.
To me, I feel that there is no difference between the two definitions. When I was younger, I thought that crime fighters came out at night to do their work only, such as Batman, while Superheroes only worked during the day, such as Superman. I never really thought about the characters having powers or not. When I became older into adulthood, I thought crime fighters used more violent methods of fighting crime, while superheroes do not cross it. Comic characters have evolved in their ways due to changing times, and now, I truly do not see any differences when using the definitions.
What do you think? Give me some feedback on my blog.
Be blessed.
Shield of Justice overview
It’s been a month now since I finished the webcomic arc of the Shield of Justice story Justice Unbound. I’m still giving myself time to look over the entire arc (40 pages) and just seeing where I did good work and where I could have done better. Bottom line, my artwork is still a work in progress and nothing truly to say “I’ve mastered this part”. I think with all artists they truly have to continue to work their craft, no matter how well they do it. I had the pleasure of doing the entire webcomic myself: writing, designing, lettering, penciling, inking and whatever else. I just wanted to learn more about how to make webcomics and the only way for me was to do it all myself.
I enjoyed the learning and it’s alot more to learn, but there was also the time restraints I was under which made me feel that I rushed the story in parts as well as my artwork. I’m glad that I did it but I’m able to also be objective towards my own work. It will be sometime before I start on another webcomic, but I will take more time with researching what my flaws were from the Shield of Justice.
Be blessed.
The next step
With my decision to end the Shield of Justice webcomic story a chapter early (see Pisces Concepts blog), I’ve been thinking about what the next step will be. I have several life moments happening in the future, so this will keep me busy as well but I won’t stop blogging or my comics. I really want to learn more about the process of designing my webcomics in order to look better so that’s one of my goals for the future. I just enjoy the process and want to continue to grow. I’m also interested in starting animation for Pisces Concepts. I’ve never had any training in animation but I have been looking up research on the programs available. If anyone has some tips or advice on software or even how to get started, send me a response. Much appreciated.
Be blessed.
Cincy Comic Expo Day 2
Well, the Expo has come to a close and today has been one of the best I’ve had at any comic con. I had my panel today and discussed The shield of justice, how I got started in webcomics and other topics. I had more people there than I expected, including my long time best friend who was at the Expo with his daughter. It felt so good to talk to a crowd about what I love and what they were interested in as well. I could have talked to them for more than 45 minutes. In the end, it was a phenomenal time and the best I’ve been to so far.
I just wanted to thank everyone who attended (thankfully I made enough cards!). You guys asked a lot of great questions about webcomic designing and even gave me some tools to look up to help with mine. I truly appreciate and hope you visit and like the blogs. I also want to thank everyone who has liked my two blogs and follow them. It has been a great ride so far and I’m just getting started.
Be blessed.
Is the Superhero movie era going to burn out?
Another Friday is here and one more day closer to the annual Cincinnati Comic Expo. While I have finished up the latest page of Shield of Justice and thinking about what I can get prepared for my panel at the Expo, I was watching Captain America 2. I can honestly say I’m a comic book guy and that’s being modest. There’s plenty of reasons I enjoy comics. The art and writing. The process that goes into the book. The affordability of the hobby. The list is long but all in all, I don’t have a true single reason not to like them. I’ve grown up reading them and now I make my own. Stan Lee had said that making your own characters and worlds for them to live in is a reward in itself and I totally agree.
I was wondering about something I have read on Screen Rant a few weeks ago. If this is the Golden Age of the comic book movie genre, is it safe to say that burn out will eventually happen for it as well? Let’s be honest, as much fun as I am having with seeing my childhood stories being brought brilliantly to life, the party has to end at some point, right? People will get tired of this genre and start to look for something else. Now it is going very strong right now with not much ending in sight, but fanboys (hate that title) can and will be fickle. One wrong casting or change of a character and it can be sunk. How much longer can studios keep the product fresh? I know that I don’t have the answer, all I know is that I’m enjoying the ride and can’t wait for the next one to hit the theaters.
Be blessed.
Good news from the Cincinnati Comic Expo this year
I just found out yesterday that I have been chosen to be a panelist in the Expo this year! I just offered an idea, which many people had done and I checked the updated panels list. I pretty hyped about the opportunity to talk about Shield of Justice: First Wave and about webcomics in general. They have come a long way and are starting to become more common for people to share a message that they want to send. The Expo is September 19-21 and I will present on that Sunday the 21st at 2:45. I can’t wait. Hope to see you there if you attend!
Be blessed.
Movie review of Xmen: Days of Future Past (SPOILER ALERT)
Okay, with all the comic movies that are scheduled to arrive soon, it has been hard to find the time to actually write a review of any movies that I’ve seen that are comic book related. XMen DOFP was one I’ve seen last week and I have to say that it was entertaining if you take it for what it was as a movie. It was good on a lot of levels for me: Seeing how that future looked was dark and was close as I thought it would be. All those new sentinels and how they adapted to mutant powers was a nice touch. In the past, how those came to be and who was the key to them being built was shocking to me. Seeing Professor and Beast working together was nostalgic in a lot of ways but overall, I’d say it was good but not great.
I have heard plenty about the continuity problems in the movie and yeah, they were there in bunches: From kitty being able to send Wolverine’s mind back in time was NUTS when in the book it was Kitty who had taken the trip back. It was some other weird things that I don’t want to type about. The bottom line is..I DIDNT CARE! There are far too many great comic movies out and more to come that I wanted to sit there and complain about how the movie was bad because some things were lined up with the comic. I just enjoyed it for what it was and that was that. I liked it for being something that I can just watch and relax.
Be blessed.
New webcomic news
hey everyone. I just posted page 7 from Shield of Justice: First Wave on the SOJFW blog so get over there and check it out, after reading this one first. In a previous blog I talked about the ideas I’ve written and typed out about other ideas for webcomics in the Pisces Concepts stable. Since finishing up the page today, I have been thinking about what ideas I can run with when I finish SOJ. Now the ideas are just that..ideas and need to be fleshed out more, but over the years they have caught my attention. Here are a few that I have thought about working on in the near future…
Shield of Justice: Second Wave-The idea will carry on with Project Peacekeeper, but go with the ESP unit (Elite Sentinel Police). I always seen this as my version of a SWAT unit, but with advanced firepower. Gabriel may play a part in this but not in the unit.
SMOKE and Mirrors: This will focus on an idea of a teen superhero (somewhat) who uses special effects and 3d images to fight crime. This idea has gotten some run in my mind for a few weeks now.
Kaliber Investigations: This one will be a spin off as well from the Shield of Justice First Wave. Kaliber, a Private Investigator, is a human who works in the fuser underworld and hires herself out to certain clientele.
Veil of Darkness: This one I thought of being more of a quest-like story involving 5 strangers who set out to stop their world from being engulfed by total darkness. I already have a partial script for this one.
That’s it for now but these are ones that have really been on my mind as of late. Stay tuned for more in the future.
Be blessed.
Finding an artistic rhythm
Well, I’m taking a break from studying tonight to blog about my next page for Shield of Justice is finished and the fact that I thought it would be later in the week when it would be finished. I was just working along and ended up not thinking about how much it was to do and just started creating. I guess I found an artistic rhythm right now and just want to keep it going. It was weird but everything started flowing together, whether it was pencils to inks or flats to shading it was just..rhythmic.
It was also just doing a little bit of work each day and not trying to do everything at once. I’m pressed for time on most days, so I just cut out a small piece of time at night, say 3o minutes, and just focus on that. It really does help me relax after the day is done at work and I still have time to get studying in. Well that’s how I can explain it.
Be blessed
Difference between a villian and an anti-hero is..?
What’s up everyone? Today is my birthday and it’s been a cool day so far. Nice weather, went to the Millennicon in my city for the first time and had a good experience. I knew that it would be smaller than the usual cons and expos I attend but it had a very nice personal touch by people talking to me one on one. I went to a panel by sci-fi writers and they discussed how villains are portrayed in books and other media such as being antagonists and not really “villains”. Antagonists can be seen as having the same goal as the protagonist but trying to achieve it differently.
I thought it was a good panel to help with my character development in the future. One of the crowd members asked about the difference between a villain and anti-hero. The panel each had different answers. The one I thought up and asked about dealt with the example of Anakin Skywalker before the change. He thought that his way to restore order was by one ruler, while Obi wan was about democracy. They both wanted the same thing, but in different ways. I feel that anti-heroes are willing to go to another level to what they feel is the right thing to do. Villains are willing if it only suits their needs and desires. One crowd member gave an example of two people deciding to overthrow a government for different reasons. One may do it because they are corrupt while the other because they want to rule themselves. It was a better discussion than I thought it would be.
Be blessed.
Check out the new Shield of Justice page
The title says it all..Why are you still here? Enjoy on the Shield of Justice blog!
Be blessed.
What new comics are out that are actually good reads?
I’ve been watching several anime and animated shows lately, such as Witch Hunter Robin, Noir and even some Batman Beyond. I’d admit that I do enjoy how not just the animation goes in the show but the stories as well. Witch Hunter Robin took some time for me though, due to feeling sooooo slow in its buildup. I also watched Phantom as I was finishing up my next page of Shield of Justice (not posted until Friday, see the new post in my other blog!). This was also a slow buildup for me, too but the last cds were extremely good and well written in my opinion. My question is that what comic book that is out now is considered quality reads?
I’ve been trying to read Damian, Son of Batman limited series(?) for the last few weeks, but I just cant get into the book. I’ve been having a problem finding quality reads lately and everything has been either mediocre or just plain stinks. I could ask my comic guy when I’m there, but normally I can find them without his help. I think I’ll start going to do like I used to do and pick one or more that I see are up and coming instead of my usual.
Be blessed.
Why anime is better off staying as anime
Hey everyone. I’ve been watching some of Spawn episodes from the HBO series just to get into the art mojo this weekend and I forgot how GOOD this was in the day. It’s not for the faint of heart by the way but was just a really deep series. Take away the killing and cursing and things like that and it actually talks about a story of redemption, revenge, Heaven and Hell and the choices that tips the scales. I always try to find animated shows that pique my interest and this one was always one of my favorites.
I never understood why movie companies try to make live action movies from anime stories or movies. It just doesn’t work out. I can’t remember a movie that is based from an animated movie that works well, and not just financially. Money is the ultimate test for a movie and I understand that. I just would like to see a movie that, if it was done, just having it done right. Still thinking and still can’t think of one.
I might be wrong on this topic but they are few and far between. I hope Hollywood gets the message.
Be blessed.
Review of Damian, son of Batman limited series
Hey all, after watching some playoff football, and my Bengals get knocked out (again), I decided to post on a new story I picked up this week. This is Damian son of Batman. I’ve read one and two of four this weekend. I don’t know if I’m picking up the other two yet. This story so far has been nice but I’m not sure about getting the rest. The artwork is decently done but I felt the story was lacking. It was just a story that I couldn’t really get into but I’m interested to see how it plays out in the end. I do like certain aspects of the story, however. Once I read the others, I will have a more detailed review. Until then…
be blessed.
soj update
Been working on the inking section of the next chapter of shield of justice. I’ve been pretty busy lately with other things but will continue to put in work. Stay tuned to the shield of Justice blog for other updates.
Be blessed
A bit under the weather and in a designer’s funk
Not feeling great this weekend so I dropped the new page late (on saturday instead of friday) and now it is raining all day on Sunday. I actually enjoy when it does rain but I just feel awful and want to stay in all day anyway. But as far as the work is going, I’m using today to do sketch work, updating some files and getting into a video game mode. I’m working on keeping that to a minimum even though it’s been several months since I turned it on. Star Ocean: the last hope can be a real time killer.
this blog is kinda random so just bare with me. I’ve been working myself up to get back to the Pisces Concepts routine again but it’s been hard for me. I dont know if I was in a funk or I just have so many other things to deal with that it just took a back seat. It’s starting to lift, I think, and I just want to crank my creative engine back up so I’ve been hitting the comic shop pretty hard these last two weeks. I’ve been trying to find some books that I normally dont buy or find some that are original. I’ve re read the script for book 2 and writing ideas for book 3, which afterward I’ll be going in a different direction.
Im ending this for today so I can get back to business
Be blessed
Question about cartoons more pics from Ohio Comic Con
I have to be honest, for me many cartoons out don’t interest me like they have in the past. There are only a handful now that I truly watch and some I just buy. So without further ado. My favorite so far is Young Justice. I love how they’ve worked with each character and made them stand alone shows if need be. I think it was a great show that ended too quickly. Why does the good ones get cancelled so quickly but the ones that need more help stay on? Is it too expensive (which is what I’ve heard)? lack of interest in some? No one knows but the executives and such. Anyway, here are a couple more pics from the Ohio Comic Con, Enjoy
Be Blessed,
This was just sharp. A Black suited Stormtrooper? Nice!
Has that look down and even the Phoenix pose!
Thinking ahead for more stories to tell
Well, I’ve been sitting at this computer for a little while, just thinking about when I should continue the next chapter of SOJ (page one is already completed), and I started thinking about what other characters I can work on in the future? I’ve put alot of character and title ideas on paper and computer, so I have a good list. they all intrigue me and they have different vibes to them. Some are upbeat, some are dark and moody. It just depends on what I want to start with soon. I’m enjoying the SOJ, but I also want to expand my art and writing to new directions.
What I should be doing though, is developing Gabriel’s background story more because he’s more than just a police officer with a hyped up suit. I’ll be adding more of his biography and other character developments into the Shield of Justice site soon (possibly this weekend), as well as other developments as to where the book is going, such as the Second Wave.
Be Blessed.
Where have the good animated shows gone?
Why is it that once a good animated show comes on, is developed well, and that has high ratings, it gets CANCELLED? The list of shows that are good based by a wide variety of people are few and far between. Some of my favorites are a short list: Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Spider man the new animated series, Young Justice, Xmen Evolution, Batman the animated series and even the new Thundercats has grown on me (I dont know if it’s still making new episodes). Is it because it’s very expensive to make them in America? Do the creators believe that its better to quit it while its good? I dont know but the shelf life on new episodes are very short. I just wonder how can the Simpsons, which is a great show has been on for over a decade, but others which are fantastic, such as Batman tas are gone? Just some food for thought.
Be blessed.
The Learning Curve 
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