Another snow/ice storm is nailing us even as I write these words. Already went out early this morning to get a jump on it and cleaned up the wet snow. Now a cold rain is falling and slicking things up. Hopefully the temperatures will rise a bit before nightfall and we won’t be left with a sheet of ice as our driveway. Oh, the joys of winter.

The picture above is of my son, Scott, and his daughter, Taryn. Recently he paid a visit to her pre-school and gave her classmates a demonstration of model trains. It is quite obvious from this picture, that Taryn was thrilled to have her dad in school. And it sure brought back tons of memories when I use to go to Scott, Kevin and Heather’s classes and give my little comic book presentations. All these years later and now Scott is sharing his hobby, that he loves as much as I do comics, with others. I think it’s great.

Well, the year is really winding down fast, isn’t it? I saw THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA last weekend. What a remarkable film and beautiful adpatation of C.S.Lewis’s marvelous fantasy classic. Lewis, a devoted Christian, imbued his stories of Narnia with lots of Christiam themes, including brotherly-love and sacrifice. This is truly the perfect movie to go see this Christmas season with your entire family. Am hoping it does well enough to warrant sequels.

Writing wise, my 18 pg. comic thriller, FRANK NG-HIRED GUN is complete. The last of the pages were turned in this week. All that remains now is for yours truly to interview filmmaker Rob Fitz about his forthcoming horror movie, GOD OF VAMPIRES, which will be included in the back of the comic. With fingers crossed, should have this ready to go the printers by the end of Feb.06.

On a depressing note, I just finished writing a comic script that will mostly likely never get printed. You see, about a week ago a friend asked me if I’d like to get involved with doing a presentation based on a very popular Marvel Comics superhero. (No, I won’t tell you which one.) This friend had done up an outline for what the story would be and asked if I’d be the writer. I thought it was fun, but realized I hadn’t read this particular title in twenty-years. My friend said not to worry, what we were doing was one of those WHAT IF stories, thus the book’s continuity wouldn’t be an issue.
Fine, I thought, and proceeded to write the script. I turned it in this morning, satisfied I’d done a decent job. Then, on a whim, I sent a copy to a friend who happens to be a real fan of this particular Marvel character. A few hours later, said friend responded and said, with much regret, that there was no way my particular story would ever be accepted. He then proceeded to tell me what had been happening to this “hero” over the last twenty years worth of adventures. It seems the powers that be at Marvel had decided to darken the character’s basic personality and nature. To make him cold, mean, merciless..and in the end, even worse than the actual villains he fought.
I was both shocked and disguested as I read all this. My God, what is wrong with comic publishers and editors these days? Will they sell their very souls to sell a few more issues of a title by pandering to all the baser sides of human nature? I detest the word anti-hero.
It’s semantic BS. Don’t tell me your principle character is dark because he or she is an anti-hero. There is already a word in the dictionary that defines the opposite (anti) of a hero; that word is VILLAIN. I’ve since written to the fellow who first wanted me on this gig and told him, after getting my pal’s eye-opening letter, that it is very unlikely Marvel is going to accept my story as it is. And I suggested, if he wants to play in their nasty sandbox, he really should find another writer. I’m too old to change. I like my heroes being heroes. End of story.

And that’s my homily for this week, airmen.
With fingers crossed, will finally see Peter
Jackson’s KING KONG sometime tomorrow. Hot dog!
We’ll report next week. Till then stay warm, happy and nice to your neighbors. Tis the season! Ron, over and out.