OPP Blog, News and Updates

It's Not About You

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 23:32:12 GMT

Who do we write for?

There's something I recently realized about myself. It begins with an internal dialogue I had about dividing authors up into two types.

The first type of author I thought about was the author, who is writing a story for you, the audience. It's going to be a story with certain expectations that make it a mystery, romance, or some other type of established genre. They know what you are looking for, and you are going to get it.

I want to be clear; I am not bad-mouthing these stories. Many established writers can be unique and clever in their own right and still fit this idea, like James Patterson. The author can really put their own sense of self and cleverness into their story. Though, in time, this too can be expected by you, the reader, and becomes another binding. In the end, they are writing for you, and you are the final decider.

Then, there are the types who are not writing for you. In fact, it has nothing to do with you. Yes, they hope you'll buy it. Yes, they hope you'll read it. Yes, they hope you'll love it. But in the end, none of that mattered in its creation, because it was never about you.

These authors are writing from the depths of their private or dark hearts, and it will not be bound by your expectations. They are taking a journey into the unknown and, for the most part, probably don't even know where they are going to end up. I thought about this while reading The Dark Tower series. Stephen King very much wrote it for himself. You, the reader, may want more or less of some part of this world that truly resonated with you. You may want him to be less self-indulgent in putting himself into the role. You may want less of the Deus Ex Machina that becomes actively discussed in it.

But it was never about you.

Realizing this made me think about the story I wrote about a Kaiju who knocks up his lover and skips town. I was not trying to fit some standard mold or genre. I did not even consider who would want to read this other than realizing it would most likely be an incredibly small niche. But in the end, I did it anyway because...

It was never about you.

I wanted to admit this with no reservations or apologies. None should be needed. I never wanted to exclude or confuse you. I never wanted to try and recreate the wheel. I just wanted to ride my own personal mental rollercoaster. And, if I'm lucky, I hope you enjoy the ride.

It's not about you.

Maybe I Do Like Scary Stories?

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:46:21 GMT

Thoughts on Horror from J Pat

“You’re going to submit something to Scary Stuff?”

I remember both Jacob and Nicholas looking at me with raised eyebrows when I told them that I was going to submit a story for our first submission-based anthology. I’ve always had a very rocky relationship with the genre. Bad things happening to people for no reason gives me nightmares. Fiction was always an escape, a chance to slip into a world where heroes did heroic things, and evil always carries the seeds of its downfall. In horror though, most often the bad guys win. Even if the villains don’t win in the end, the heroes always lose for the majority of the narrative. That kind of story, which usually is supposed to fire your adrenaline and allow you to live vicariously through situations that you would never survive otherwise, just keeps me up at night and gives me anxiety.

Something funny happened though. I read through the submission guidelines, and it suggested to read Creepy and Eerie magazine to get a feel for the tone to strike in your story. I hadn’t read either before but I headed online to see if I could find some examples. What I found was an archive of the old eerie comics, and in reading through them I discovered a world of horror that I never knew about. It shouldn’t have been surprising that the genre is not body parts flying through windows and heavy gore, but if something was labeled as horror I would just take a pass. The few movies that I have seen that might qualify as horror ( The Universal Monster movies , Resident Evil , Aliens ) are not horror movies for me. They are all either black and white films from an era where the limits of special effects neuter the impact of the horror, or are action films that happen to use a few horror elements. So when asked if I would like to see/read/hear about horror, I would politely decline.

Scary Stuff , however, is an anthology built on the back of the spine-tingling tales of an older genre of horror. Where bad people are featured front and center and we do revel in their wickedness. These tales also almost always end with them getting what they deserve. For a horror-averse nerd like myself, this was something I felt I could dip my toes in. My story, Killing Time, was a blast to write. There are elements in the story that are horrific, and there are some people that don’t deserve what happens to them in the course of the story. The fun for me was in getting to write a character that is almost entirely despicable, selfish, and awful. My story is by no means the most horrific in the book, but for me, it was stretching outside of myself as an author. It was also an opportunity for me to realize that there are a lot of things about the horror genre that I do connect with.

The first thing I look for in a good horror story is a character that goes from being a victim to a hero. The best example that I can think of is Ashley Williams from the Evil Dead series. In the first Evil Dead movie, Ash is just the victim that happens to live till the end of the movie. You would not charge into battle with Ash leading your group. In Evil Dead 2 , however, we get to see Ash transform from hapless victim into the true hero of what would become the Evil Dead Franchise (I’m counting Army of Darkness as well as Ash vs. The Evil Dead series). For me, in any good story, I need someone to root for. Horrific things can happen, but there needs to be someone who is fighting against the darkness. Deep down the hero’s journey resonates with me and I find that if that is a tenet of your story, there’s a good chance that I will be along for the ride.

The next, and last thing for me, is that the characters need to be flawed in some fundamental way that is exploited in the story. I can’t handle the innocent being butchered. Movies like Hostel , or the endless stream of home invasion movies of the last decade just cause me to change the channel. Gore for the sake of gore, or reveling in the wickedness of your villain is okay to a point, but if the story is merely a vehicle for the torture, it ceases being a narrative I can get behind. Evil Dead, in all of its incarnations, happens because people messed around with forces they should not have been messing with. The Necronomicon is the true villain of the story, but it’s the actions of our heroes and victims that spur the action on. Hostel, by contrast, is about rich people getting to be sadistic to people just because they showed up and were unlucky. I realize that these types of movies have things that they are trying to convey behind the horror, but I can’t see past the gruesome to get at the commentary.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that for those out there that don’t like horror stories, don’t be so quick to discount Scary Stuff as an anthology you wouldn’t like. Speaking as someone who is normally outside the realm of the genre, I can truly say that the stories in this collection will do more to tingle your spine than turn your stomach. We have worked very hard to compile a list of stories that will thrill you and bring you back to the days of sitting around a campfire telling stories to one another. And if at the end of reading our collection you need to sleep a little closer to the fire, we’ve done our job.

IndieGoGo!

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:24:16 GMT

Indiegogo Campaign Launches This Week!

This upcoming Saturday, November 9th, Oddity Prodigy Production s will be launching an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for our upcoming anthology “ Scary Stuff !” This is our very first crowdfunding campaign and we’re all pretty excited.

When we started OPP we saw it as a way to support each other in our creative endeavors. Eventually as we moved into the idea of doing our own publishing and finally formed our company, we talked a lot about crowdfunding. Our goal since we decided to start publishing has been two-fold. The first, and most important, goal is to do what we can to lift up other new creators when we can. To this end “Scary Stuff” features several brand new authors for whom this will be their first time in print. We’ve mentioned it on the podcast a few times, but from personal experience that first time holding a book with my work in it was huge for me and being able to give that experience to other writers is something we’re very proud of.

The second goal was to be able to make enough with each project to fund the next project. This starts with “Scary Stuff” and this Indiegogo campaign. We want to make sure that our first full anthology is as good as it can be, and this is the best way to insure that.

We didn’t jump into this blindly. We’ve spent a lot of time researching how best to run a campaign and how to provide the most bang for our supporters buck. We’ve talked to a number of people who have run successful Kickstarters and Indiegogo’s, particularly Caleb Thusat whom we met at Baltimore and was an enormous help. At this point we feel like we’re prepared and ready to go.

We’re also really excited. The book is going to be incredible. As one of the editors, I’ve read all the stories and I am deeply in love with each and every one of them. I’m genuinely in awe of the writers who contributed and cannot wait for you to read them.

It’s not just the writing. The comic art and pinups in the book are equally incredible. It’s going to be a special volume.

To that end we’ve finalized our levels of backing and there are a variety of ways to get the book and some fun extras at the higher levels, including original art and autographed copies.

You’ve probably seen some posts about it already, and you’ll likely see a whole lot more over the next month. Keep an eye out here for any updates and be sure to check out the Indiegogo once we’re live.

What Are You Supposed To Be?

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 21:03:35 GMT

Don't Call it "Play"

I legit cringe every time I hear that question, and as a hobby costumer (more on that later), I hear the question, nay, judgement, a lot. My humble beginnings as a child in love with playing dress up are fairly standard, but my journey to sleep-deprived costume fairy was fraught with side-eyes and etymology shade. If you’re even a little curious about the cackling voice you hear during our Oddity Podigy episodes, grab an over-sized mug of Earl Grey and I’ll rant a bit about why I’m here--both on this blog and in my hobby.

Back when this Oddity Prodigy Productions venture was merely a fantasy, I was toying with the idea of fiction writing. Science fiction and fantasy have always been my jam, and I’d dabbled in the NaNoWriMo festivities once or twice. Oh, and, I figured I should try to legitimize that English degree that I keep secret and safe on my studio wall...as cartoon dollar bills fly out of my wallet and off to their home at the student loan office. Anyway, I never aimed for Octavia E. Butler status, hell, I’ve never even attended a writer’s workshop. I just wanted to see what it was like to write a story from start to finish. And then, life distracted me. Those who have read the OPP story know that it took time and a few well-placed gut punches to motivate our fellowship into gear. For my part, I stepped away from writing almost entirely, only making notes on story ideas when the mood struck. I filled that headspace and my basement with costumes.

Back in the dark ages--middle school, I started to get really picky about what my Halloween costumes were. I gave my seamstress (Thanks, Mom) explicit instructions on how my pieces needed to look, and at some point, she told me to fuck off and make my own. By the time I reached my mid-twenties, a friend remarked, “You have a costume for everything!” I don’t remember how true that statement was at the time, but soon after, I discovered costume-friendly events outside of October, that didn’t involve keg stands. Only scratching the surface of playing dress-up as an unpaid adult, my gateway activity was attending renaissance faires as a “playtron”--a patron of a faire who dresses in pseudo-historical garb. That opened up a whole new world of comic cons, steampunk-pirate-fairy fests, and bonafide costume conventions. I even did a stint as a historical reenactor while working for a museum. At some point, I started a blog about my costume trials and tribulations, which soothed my writing itch. Nearly two decades later, I am considered a “cosplayer” by pop culture standards, and I can’t express in words just how much that title irks me.

As a hobbyist, I am an enthusiastic maker and appreciator. I love the ways in which the items we wear tell a story, from overall mood down to small details that give us a whiff of days gone by. I have a bookgasm anytime an author can accurately describe the rustle of silk taffeta along garden pavestones or the protective comfort of stays (the precursor to corsets) when a lady is gearing up for a long day of turning away suitors. My costuming preferences vary with the events that I attend, but I lean on historical options whenever possible. The fun part for me is creating, so the other aspects of the hobby--being in character, doing photoshoots, entering contests--tend to cause an unexpected level of stress. The idea of “playing” in my 100 hour build-time costume, outside of a courtly dance or a selfie with some kiddos, is an easy way to get me back into leggings and t-shirts. I prefer to wear my most elaborate gowns in peace with a turkey leg in my hand and sea shanty in my heart. Being called a cosplayer feels like I’m being put in a bucket with the prop-wielding Deadpools, and I just can’t accept it. I believe in the power that words have over us...and my pinky is forever in the upright and locked position. That said, my very favorite aspect of costume design is combining fandoms to break fanboy brains, and I will tell tall tales of my Kobayashi Maru to all of the younglings just to get a reaction.

And since it is currently Spooky season, I’ll go ahead and briefly touch on my feelings about interactions with the rest of the world while I’m in costume. I hate them. While the question “What are you supposed to be” is, in theory, innocent and honest, the tone, especially at this time of year, can be combative--costume contest competitors at work, grouchy candy-givers, drunks on a bar crawl, confused mundanes at the gas station--everyone is awful. If you expect me to explain my Art Nouveau Medusa as you furrow your brow in judgement, you uncultured swine, you have another thing coming, and I have a Mucha themed absinthe tasting to attend. While I acknowledge that my ensembles can be difficult to decipher as compared to your Sexy Daddy Shark from the Halloween store, a simple, “Tell me about your costume” will suffice, Chad.

The Trouble with Adaptions

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:58:54 GMT

It, The Goldfinch, and Doctor Sleep

In September of 2018 I took a seat in a favorite movie theater in Fairfax, VA. I had a bottle of water, a bag of popcorn, and a whole lot of trepidation. I was there to see the new adaptation of Stephen King’ s seminal novel “ It ”.

I saw the original It TV mini series as a kid when it aired and fell in love with it, even though I didn’t read the book till much later. It was a well told coming of age story, filled with fascinating characters, and a scary-as-hell Tim Curry as Pennywis e. The special effects are pretty dated, but otherwise I think the original holds up pretty well. It does a great job getting at the core themes of the book. Themes like friendship, loyalty, fear, bravery, and the sepia-tone haziness of childhood summers as puberty exploded our emotions in a million intense directions.

When the lights came up in the theater, I had very much enjoyed the new film. I liked it more when I saw it a second time a few weeks later, but that’s almost always the way with adaptations. The first time through tends to feel more like watching a checklist than a movie. “Ok, so they did the scene with Bev in the bathroom, but they left out the deadlights? Huh.” The second time through I was able to take it in on it’s own merits. It certainly had problems but overall did a good job and made for a really entertaining movie. It also made a metric ton of cash, and so the sequel got fast-tracked. After enjoying the first one, I was very excited for the follow up.

It Part 2 was one of two adaptations I was looking forward to seeing over the last month. The other was “ The Goldfinch ”, based on the magnificent novel by Donna Tartt .

“The Goldfinch” is the story of a young man who loses his mother in a museum bombing and becomes utterly un-moored in life. As the novel progresses, each time he starts to find his footing, something happens to pull the rug out from under him. Through it all, he holds onto a painting he took during the bombing as a talisman and a constant. It’s a profoundly moving and sad novel. As wonderful as the novel is, when they announced they were making a movie of it, I was mystified. It’s a very methodical novel, much of which is centered around the main characters internal struggles. Large parts of it delve into antique furniture restoration in fascinating detail. Making a movie out of it just seemed unwise.

As it turns out my expectations should have been switched. I enjoyed the Goldfinch movie, and very much disliked It Part 2, although I would say both movies highlight the trouble with adaptations.

It part 2 never gives itself a chance to breathe. Despite the terrific cast, it doesn’t let the characters grow or change, everyone plays their part as if they’re holding up a mirror to the childhood actor who preceded them. The way the book works is that it shows how we grow up and are affected by our childhoods and the way we change and don’t change. The movie never gives the adult actors time to show any evolution. We simply meet them in a bit of a rush, and then they’re off to each have their own individual scares.

The scares themselves don’t really work either. One of the issues I had with the first movie was it leaned way too much into Pennywise, with him featuring heavily in all of the kids fears, rather than focusing on the stuff they were scared of. Essentially the monster was too present to remain particularly creepy. The sequel has the same issue, but it’s exasperated by the repetition of character x walking into slightly off place y, only to be confronted by Pennywise in some morphed fashion. One of the scare scenes even plays a clip of music as a gag, completely neutering any fright the scene might have contained. As it went along I began to be keenly aware of the movies run time, which is never a good sign. The final confrontation is overlong, bloated, and to my mind, completely misses the point of the story in the novel and the original mini-series. I left the theater disappointed, although the folks I saw it with liked it to varying degrees, so my guess is most people’s mileage will vary on this one.

The trouble It Part 2 had was that didn’t really know what it was. The director and writers wanted to make a large story more concise, while hitting important scenes from the original material. The trouble is it just ended up feeling bloated, and didn’t work at all as a horror movie. Part one had some failings in this department too, although it worked very well as a coming-of-age story, which made up for it’s horror-issues. Part 2 didn’t work as a reunion story at all, and so couldn’t cover up it’s bloat and lack of identity.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the Goldfinch a few weeks later. The movie is filled with competent performers who do a good job portraying the essence of the characters from the book, although none of them really stood out. Finn Wolfhard was probably the most memorable performance as Boris . Coincidentally, he’s probably the stand-out performance in It as well as the young Richie Tozier .

The movie itself is slow and methodical. It takes it’s time as it moves through the book, hitting all the major scenes and at least touching on most of the plots, while doing a reasonable job of bringing out the central themes of the book. That said, I do understand the poor reviews the movie has received. Even though I enjoyed it, I imagine it would be utterly incomprehensible to someone who hasn’t read the book.

The trouble the Goldfinch runs into in making a credible beat for beat adaption of the book is that there isn’t enough time to delve into the characters motivations or internal lives, or really their emotional reasoning. It shows each scene, but without having read the book to fill in the gaps, it would make little sense how we get from place to place. For example, the movie shows us the bond between Boris, and Theo , the main character, but does nothing to show us why it formed so deeply other than offhandedly saying “They were lonely”. Without this bedrock, each choice seems to come out of nowhere. If you’ve read the book, the spackle between the tiles is all there in your head and you can simply enjoy seeing the characters come to life, but if you haven’t? It’s just a bunch of loose tiles.

At least with “The Goldfinch” I know who the movie is for. I’m less sure with “It Part 2”. It doesn’t work as a horror movie at all, and strips out most of the central themes of the original story. It tries to replace them with other themes, but never really finds a center like Part 1 did with it’s coming-of-age plot.

Both “It” and “The Goldfinch” are huge novels with tons of vivid characters and themes revolving around growing up, childhood trauma, and how we as adults try and deal with the things we can’t ever really leave behind. The books have room to breath and explore and try to understand those themes. The movies made out of them have to pick a path, and unfortunately neither really work.

Next month a new Stephen King adaptation is coming out. This time of his novel “ Doctor Sleep ”. The book is a sequel to one of King’s earliest novels, “ The Shining. ” The original adaption of “The Shining” is one of the most lauded movies made from a book of all time, even if the author hates it. The movie and the book are very different, including how they end and the very essence of the characters. The movie Jack Torrence is pure evil, one of the scariest screen villains of all time. In the book? Much more of a tragic figure.

The “Doctor Sleep” trailer looks like it’s trying to be a sequel to the movie, rather than an adaptation of the book it’s based on. Having my expectations flipped with adaptations recently, and seeing all the problems and pitfalls with them played out on the screen recently, I can’t say I’m holding out much hope.

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are Dead

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 03:51:23 GMT

The Best Buddy Duo in Comics

In the ancient ritual of comic book fans everywhere, I made a trip down to my comic shop this past Wednesday. If you’ve followed Oddity Prodigy Productions at all, you’ll know that the shop in question was Captain Blue Hen Comics. It was a solid week of comics. The new issues of Shazam and Freedom Fighters came out, two books I’ve really been enjoying. There was an appearance of Naomi in Action Comics, which is exciting. The mini-series introducing her was a recent highlight.

That’s not what I’m here to talk about however. One of the fun things that Captain Blue Hens does is ask a question of the week. They put it up on a board behind the counter and ask everyone who comes by to vote on the answer. This week’s question was “Who are the best superhero buddies?” As you can see in the pic, there are ten options.

All of the pairings are fun, but really only one can be the answer, and it’s pretty obvious right? Despite the obviousness of the answer there were votes all over the place. In fact as I stood in line, a customer voted for ‘Damian/Jon’. I couldn’t not believe it. I could perhaps give some slack for someone voting for ‘Danny/Luke’ since “Power Man” will always sound weird if not immediately followed by “And Iron Fist”, but ‘Damian/Jon’? Absolutely not.

I used to run a comic book shop so I try very hard to not be ‘that guy’ when I’m in them. Comic shop employees will almost always be up for talking about comics with customers, but rarely do they want to engage in dumb arguments about things like ‘Who would win in a fight?’ While I may be speaking out of turn, I think most probably don’t enjoy being the arbiter in disagreements between friends. Regardless, when it was my turn at the counter, I may have suggested to the handsome devil at the cash register that anyone who voted for a pairing other than Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, might in fact be a federal agent.

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are comics ultimate buddy cop duo. This isn’t to say the other duo’s listed aren’t good, or even great it some cases! Green Lantern and Green Arrow, the original hard traveling heroes, were brought together on the strength of their shared color schemes for some incredible stories. The problem is they don’t even really like each other! Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are fine, but really more of a couple than buds. Rocket Racoon and Groot are fine, but it’s more of a pet/pet situation. The rest are all fun pairings, but hardly central to any of the characters existence. Even Power Man and Iron Fist have had their own TV shows, separate from each other. And frankly, Wonder Woman and Superman aren’t buds. Not really. Even if you replaced them with pairings like Hawkman and the Atom, Captain America and the Falcon, or Cloak and Dagger, they’d still be the wrong duo.

Nope, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold top this list.

Blue Beetle was originally created way back in 1939. At the time he was Dan Garrett and was being put out by Fox Comics. Eventually Fox went out of business and Beetle ended up with Charlton. While at Charlton the Blue Beetle moniker went to Ted Kord to the 1960’s. Charlton eventually faced the same fate as Fox Comics, and would sell Beetle, along with a number of other classic characters, to DC Comics. The character, as Ted Kord, was introduced to the DC universe just prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and he had his own series that ran for 24 issues in the mid-80s. He is as well traveled a hero as they come, but never found his true calling until 1987.

Booster Gold was a new hero created in 1986 by Dan Jurgens. A down-on-his-luck former sports star from the future, Booster came back in time along with his robot companion Skeets, to find fortune and glory in the present day. From his introduction he was a different kind of hero, and his series ran for 25 issues before fizzling out.

I loved both books as a kid. They quickly became two of my favorite heroes, but it wasn’t until 1987, when Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire joined forces to create a new kind of Justice League, that they found their true selves.

The Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League runs was one of the most influential and enjoyable runs of any comic anywhere. It’s the kind of run spoken of like Walt Simonson Thor, George Perez Avengers, or Chris Claremont on (every X Book). It had a huge impact on almost all of the characters involved, but none more so than Beetle and Booster.

The two characters had been non-traditional heroes without much success, but then through Justice League, they found each other and became something more. They became lovable doofuses, always struggling for respect, but never quite taking anything too seriously. In the era of “Grim and gritty” comics, not long before the birth of Vertigo, Spawn, and a million other titles where no one dared smile, they were a modern Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. Their very existence and popularity was something of a ‘screw you’ to the prevailing winds in the comic industry. In a post Dark Knight / Watchmen world, instead of killing criminals they were making jokes about oreos and having fun.

While they couldn’t stem the tide of pouches, big guns, and increasingly violent characters, they became avatars for a kind of fun superhero style that has been swimming up-stream ever since. Without them there’d be no Quantum and Woody, maybe no Impulse, and possibly not even a Young Justice. Making superheroes funny wasn’t invented with them, but it was to some degree perfected. Perhaps in part by proving that fun and goofy could sell just as well as grim and gritty.

Over the years since they were paired together, they’ve never really been apart. Well, except when DC decided to kill Ted Kord for a while. The less said about that the better, but during that era there was a Booster Gold solo series, in which the whole book was driven by Booster’s existential crisis of being without his best friend.

When looking at that list of characters above, they’ve all had their own books, or stories. They’re fun together but their stories don’t NEED the other to function. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold don’t really work without the other anymore. Their place in comicdom and comic history is that they are the ultimate buddy team.

And you’re going to tell me that Damian Wayne and Jon Kent are a better duo?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Akira

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 02:38:16 GMT

A YOUNG YOUTH ROCKING THE GOLD TOOTH

When I was younger, my family used to take long road trips. One summer we went across country out to California and back to Connecticut, where I grew up. Another summer we drove North and explored the Canadian Atlantic provinces. In the words of Johnny Cash, we’ve been everywhere man. One such trip took us across Canada and up to Alaska. On this trip we spent a day in West Edmonton. The town is famous for it’s huge mall, but it wasn’t the mammoth shopping center that ended up having a lasting impact on my younger self. At the time Edmonton also laid claim to a large comic book shop. I can’t recall the name, but I remember it was two stories. It was there in Western Canada, on our way to America’s wildest state, that my brother and I discovered Neo Tokyo and Akira.

Akira is the masterwork from Manga creator Katsuhiro Otomo. It was serialized in Japan from 1982 through 1990. During it’s run in Japan it was picked up and published in color by Marvel Comics imprint ‘Epic’ starting in 1988. It was the Epic reprints that my brother picked up a few issues of. It was the first bit of Manga that either of us had ever read, and among the first published in the US. We had seen cartoons like Voltron and Battle of the Planets, so we were at least marginally familiar with the style and look, but Akira was something else entirely.

PEEP THE SHAPE THE STREETS

Akira is the story of Kaneda, a street punk in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Tokyo. He and his gang accidentally get involved with the government’s research into psychic powers and psychic kids. Things spiral out of control in incredible fashion. The plot is too complex to really get into, plus I’m fairly certain most people reading this blog will be at least passingly familiar with the comic or the movie. It’s enough to say it’s a great neo-noir science fiction story and you should read it if you haven’t.

My brother was the one who bought the issues, but we both ended up collecting it going forward. It was an odd thing for him to pick up to be honest, we were mostly into superheroes and fantasy comics like Elfquest at the time, but it hit all our buttons at the time. Teenagers battling adults, rebellion, cool motorcycles, super powers, vague romance, and an engrossing story. Plus it’s beautiful to look at. It was one of the first comics digitally colored, by venerable colorist Steve Oliff.

RESPECT MINE OR HERE GO THE TECH NINE

Those Epic issues were groundbreaking in so many ways, not the least of which was the quality of the paper and the printing. The series was impactful to the larger comics world it how it helped change production values across comics, not to mention being the gateway for many western readers into the world of Manga.

Chasing the Akira high, my brother and I tried some other manga, including books like Crying Freeman and Grey: Digital Target. Although we’ve read some here and there, neither of us ever became huge fans, certainly not like so many fans today going to conventions like Otacon. Despite that it is a comic that remains a touchstone for both of us. I go back and re-read the Dark Horse trade paperbacks periodically. I still have the original Epic issues, and will flip through them just to enjoy the art, but the black and white Dark Horse trades are enough for just reading the story.

Upon our return to Connecticut from the trip, we both added Akira to our pull list at ‘The Dream Factory’ our comic shop. The book itself became a bit of a sensation and garnered enough fans that the owners of the store sought out a copy of the Akira movie that had just been released in Japan. Once they got a copy of it they held a showing of it in a local theater. This was before it had been released in the US or translated, so a large group of us watched the movie in Japanese, on a bootleg copy. I remember being enthralled by the visuals and wishing deeply we could understand the words, because the movie, while different, had much more of the story than had been released in the states at the time.

It wasn’t too long before there was a subtitled US release which we excitedly watched when it came out the following year. Being able to understand the dialogue didn’t help much with understanding the end, but it was still an instant classic. I will still occasionally pull out the Blu ray and watch it. Good as it is, it pales in comparison with the original manga.

Looking back it feels weird discovering some a momentous piece of comic art in such an out of the way (for us) place. We visited a lot of comic book shops on those trips, which my brother writes about over at his blog “Comics Comics Comics”, but that one stands out. Anime and manga would eventually explode in the US, garnering millions of fans and obsessives, including many among my friends, and much of that is thanks to Akira. I guess the moral is you never know what you’ll find if you keep yours eyes and your mind open.

OPP Picks

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 02:28:39 GMT

Scary Stuff Gets Closer to Reality

Oddity Prodigy Productions upcoming anthology ‘Scary Stuff’ is starting to take shape! We’re so excited to be working on this project and can’t wait to get it into people's hands.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share some of our recent favorite genre comics and movies to give you an idea of what we like here at OPP.

Gideon Falls

First up is the best horror comic on the shelves right now, Gideon Falls . Gideon Falls is written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. Published by Image Comics, it’s a piece of psychological horror that centers on a barn that holds terrible secrets, and the people affected by them. It’s a combination of rural and urban horror mixed with explorations of evil, mental illness, and the very nature of reality. It’s the rare comic where the story and art are completely in synch and combine to tell a dark tale that’s starkly beautiful in the telling.

It’s not the most recent movie, but last year’s “Hereditary” is still very much on my mind. Director Ari Aster’s follow up “ Midsommar ” was just released and as terrific as it is, it’s not quite the overall movie Hereditary was. Hereditary is the story of a woman grieving the loss of her mother, and dealing with the repercussions of her fractured relationship with her and how it affects her own family. It’s hard to talk about without spoiling things, but the movie does a few things that are very unique in the genre. Most of all, the answer to every question is ‘Yup it is what you think it is’ which sounds dull but genuinely makes the movie terrifying. It also features the single most horrific extended scene I’ve seen in a long time.

Horror as a genre on TV is starting to get a little bit of steam and more quality offerings. Possibly the best of late (unless you count Stranger Things as horror, I don’t) was Castle Rock on Hulu. It was a story set in the famous town of the same name where numerous Stephen King books are set. The series has some ups and downs but overall does a wonderful job of building tension, adding elements without overwhelming things, and making each episode memorable in its own right. One of the later episodes deals with the nature of Alzheimer's and truly does an incredible job in its portrayal of a real-life horror. If you’re a Stephen King fan, it’s a must-watch, and even if you’re not!

So that’s a couple of our favorites here at OPP. Check them out while you wait for Oddity Productions Presents: Scary Stuff! It’s going to be a lot of fun!

Scary Stuff and Horror Weekends

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 03:42:39 GMT

LIKE HORROR? WAIT TILL YOU READ SCARY STUFF!

Horror isn’t a favorite genre for all of Oddity Prodigy Productions . When the idea to do a horror anthology came up, it was natural for Nick Leamy and myself, but for the rest of the crew scary stuff isn’t their natural element. One of the benefits of working as a collective is that we can have multiple projects in multiple genres and each of us will get to stretch ourselves trying new things.

Nick Leamy and I, the editors on Scary Stuff , are old hats at horror. Both of us grew up reading Stephen King among other horror writers. I read a ton of horror comics and he loved scary movies. As I got older I came around and started watching horror movies and he got into comics. Basically, we’re full-service horror nerds.

One of our favorite things to do is get together with a couple of friends each year and spend a weekend or two in a basement binging horror movies. We live-tweeted it last time and will do so again, but it’s always a good time to immerse ourselves in the genre.

With Scary Stuff, that’s what we’re trying to do, just with short stories instead of movies. We’ve received so many great submissions that we’ve been hunkering down and frankly loving reading so many great stories.

Each new submission I read gets me more excited to share these stories with our readers. The hardest part will be narrowing down the field for the final inclusions. It’s a long process but incredibly rewarding so far. We’re hoping to be ready to make our final selection soon after the deadline.

We can’t wait to read your work!

Midsommar

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 22:32:20 GMT

How a Great Modern Movie Reminded Me of Some 80s Schlock

Early this month, Ari Aster released Midsommar. My friends, Eric and Jake, and I were very excited because we had all been big fans of Aster’s work with Hereditary. I still remember the first time I watched Hereditary. Jake and Eric had seen it in the theater. I was unable to make it that night and they were eager to rewatch it with me. One late night at Jake’s, we set up the movie with popcorn and dug in. It was terrifying. It also happened to be hilarious at times.

The most memorable moment of that night’s viewing was one particular scene. I have zero intention of spoiling it for anyone. That being said, I found myself on the edge of my seat, gripping a pillow I was so into the moment. Later I would learn that the two of them stopped watching the movie for this one moment and just watched me. Their attentions were rewarded when I audibly yawped and jumped out of my seat. The movie did not disappoint anyone.

So, that experience made us instant fans. It was the first movie Aster had released that was not a short, and it was a smash hit in our opinion. So, when we heard he had another film called Midsommar coming out, we knew what we were doing opening week. To increase the fun of it all, it happened to coincide with Eric’s birthday that week. The three of us went out for a nice dinner and then raided the movie theater ready to see what Mr. Aster had for us next. We were most pleased.

Midsommar is one of those movies that has the power and subtlety to put you on edge, and then keep you there, even when you are not exactly sure how. Then, that tension is proven warranted time and time again. It is horror in broad daylight. It is beautifully shot, well acted and just very fun. Not sure if I produced the same audible yawp that Hereditary gave me, but I left with a smile on my face.

SPOILER WARNING

Going forward, I’m going to be getting into some specifics. For you kids at home who hate spoilers like I do, please put your trays in the upright position and prepare for an early landing.

Midsommar starts off with a college woman who is worried about her sister. This is used to establish two things. First, it erroneously sets her up as this overly sensitive figure who leans on her boyfriend too much. She’s the troubled one, right? No way it’s he who is unsupportive, gaslighting, and has framed her in an awful light for his friends. Noooooo! He’s such a douchebag.

This sister situation also sets up the first terrifying scene of the movie where the sister offs herself, and their parents. This horrific moment sets up why her boyfriend has not left her yet, and why she goes on a trip to Sweden with him and his friends. In the course of the movie, his awfulness is exposed, and she chooses the small village’s unique ways over him.

It suddenly occurred to me that this felt somewhat familiar. I have watched a lot of horror movies in my time. Some good. Some bad. Some that have made me question the decisions I have made in my life. As such, I sometimes make connections that other sane people tend to not have to make in their lives. In that vein, Midsommar caused me to remember a movie called American Gothic.

American Gothic is a 1988 horror movie starring Oscar winner Rod Steiger, and TV legend Yvonne De Carlo. Two wonderful people who made…. this movie. I would not say it is awful, but it is hard for me to ever actually say that about any movie. The only way for me to truly hate a film are for it to break its own rules, have large gaps in continuity that are never explained, or for it to sound like it was audio recorded in a bathroom. But, I digress.

The short version of American Gothic is Cynthia is a mother whose baby dies. She is distraught and institutionalized. Shortly after being released, her friends decide they want to take her on a vacation to try and get her mind off her troubles and past. They are forced to land their plane on a deserted island where they come across a cabin where two award winning parents live with their three full grown psychopathic sons who act and are treated like small kids. One by one the friends are killed off and Cynthia snaps! She drinks the kool-aid and goes full native with the family. She eventually goes full psychopath and is the last woman standing.

Family distress. Trip to unknown territories. Losing friends one by one. Finally snapping and going native.

The 80s had a strong theme running through most of its horror. If you tread off the beaten path, you will find the modern day savages of our society and they will devour you one way or another. It was neat to see the root of this theme in Ari Aster’s work, yet fully modernized. Midsommar takes the modern day savage motif and turns it into a result of culture shock. This is no longer about taking a wrong turn, and then paying for youthful ignorance. This is now college students egos and pride causing them to willing walk into their doom. That same pride resulting in them abusing and mistreating those closest to them. This same hubris causing them to be chosen for the sacrifice.

Midsommar is a brilliant representation of classic horror in modern times. I can’t wait to see what Ari Aster has to offer next. If you haven’t seen it yet, make it happen. I’d love to hear what you think about it.

The Change: A Novel

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:57:29 GMT

"I got you stuck off the realness"

About eight years ago I wrote a novel called “The Change” and it’s the story of a young man growing up on his own in a world overrun by what are essentially zombies. The story delves into concepts of faith, living in a dangerous world, and rock and roll.

I started writing it just based on a little idea I had as a short story and it just kept going. The story as I wrote got much bigger than my initial idea, and then later infused with some of my own thoughts and feelings on religion, music, and what makes us tick. Once I realized it was going to be a novel, I pushed through over the course of about four or five months to finish and to prove to myself that I could do it. Turned out I could!

"To all the killers and the hundred dollar billers"

I sent it around to some friends and family at the time and got some great and encouraging feedback. And then I sat on it for several years, until recently. It wasn’t because I thought it was bad or unworthy, but because once I finish writing something I feel almost instantly disconnected from it. Once the story I wanted to tell is told, then something inside of my just closes up to it. This is probably just a fancy way of saying ‘too lazy to edit’ but it’s still how I felt.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve had more success as a writer than I ever really dreamed I would have. I sold a few short stories have seen them published both here and overseas . It’s not much but it was enough tangible success to get me to thinking about my dusty unedited novel.

"For all those who want to profile and pose"

Finally, with the launch of OPP, It felt like the right time to do the actual work of editing instead of just being lazy. I spent a few weeks reading through it and fixing things, changing some things, and generally trimming a lot of the fat. After getting rid of a few thousand words, it rounded into a shape that I feel proud of. The whole process felt like reconnecting to an old friend. It read better than it did in my memory, and some of the politics and ideas contained within feel even more pertinent now than they did then.

Sometime in the next couple of months, I’m excited to finally publish it and get it into people’s hands. I’m proud of it and I think folks will enjoy it. I’m also excited to be doing this through Oddity Prodigy Productions and working with my partners in crime here on it. Once the cover art is available we’ll debut that here on this blog, and once we get some firm dates and details we’ll have those here too.

"Take these words home and think it through"

Big things are coming from Oddity Prodigy and I’m glad to be able to add to that with this story that it turns out, really does mean a lot to me.

Open Submissions: Scary Stuff

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 13:52:00 GMT

Like to write horror? Then this is your chance!

The Pick, Sickle, and the Shovel

Way back in 2005, Nick Leamy started up a weekly Role Playing game session. We started out playing every Tuesday, later shifted to Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The game we all got together to play is Chaosium’s “ Call Of Cthulhu .” This October will be our 15th year of playing on a pretty regular basis.

Over the years the people around the table have changed some. Folks have moved away, changed jobs, gotten married, and any number of other life changes that have caused them to give up their seat at the table. Down through the years, we’ve managed to be consistent.

At some point, and I’m not totally sure who started it, but we began calling our Cthulhu nights "Scary Stuff." I think it was a friend of OPP Dan ( check out his blog! ) who coined it. He insists it was one of the very first players who only lasted a session or two. Either way, it’s become a phrase we regularly use.

The result is "Scary Stuff" has been a part of our lives for a long time now. It’s always a fun time, and we have loads of stories that have come out of our sessions that we regularly bore our friends and family with. We’ve been playing so long and had many adventures it feels like we could put together a clip show of highlights.

2 Cups of Blood

When Oddity Prodigy Productions decided to go ahead and make a horror anthology, we spent a lot of time talking about themes. Eventually, we settled on fun scary stories in the vein of beloved old horror comics like Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and magazines like Creepy and Eerie.

We wanted it to be something fun and not too dark or gruesome. A lot of people avoid horror fiction because they’re not that interested in sleeping with the lights on. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and zombies aren’t everyone's cup of tea. We decided to run with the theme of those comics because even though they were frightening, they were rooted in the fun aspects of horror. People tell ghost stories around campfires because it’s fun and that’s the spirit we wanted to tap into.

Once we had the theme, it didn’t take us long to come up with a name. We decided to go with the one we’ve been using for the kind of fun horror that we’ve been mutually creating around the RPG table for years, “ Scary Stuff! ”

So there you have it, the secret history of our anthology and where the name comes from. As we read through submissions and write our own stories and comics to be featured in the book we get more excited about it.

Submissions close on August 31st, followed by a Kickstarter, and then not too long after that we’ll have this wonderful book in your hands. Sure it’s ‘Scary Stuff’ but it will also be as much fun as a carnival haunted house.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

What is Oddity Prodigy Productions?

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 03:47:30 GMT

"So, you're a philosopher?"

This is a simple question with a not so simple answer. Our elevator pitch is “We are a creative collective and small press publisher.” It’s possible to stop right there, but I don’t think it really does justice to what we’re trying to do.

"No Such Thing as Half-Way Crooks"

The whole thing started a few years ago on a lunch break from a company where a few of us worked at the time. We all had decent jobs that paid the bills for a company that at the time was pretty stable. Despite all that, none of us were feeling very fulfilled creatively. The group there that day dabbled in writing, art, dance, costuming, and a million other pursuits. All of those were rewarding and gratifying and gave us a sense of accomplishment that can be lacking from the daily grind of a 9-5 job. What we talked about that day laid the groundwork for what would eventually become OPP. The foundation is at its core “How can we use our combined talents to lift each other up and share some of the burdens of finding creative success?”

Fast forward a few years and here we are. We have published our very first book, what we call ‘The Oddity Prodigy Primer’. It features pinups, art, short stories, comics and more. We look at it as our business card and also a way to prove to ourselves that we can do this. It’s proven to be an incredible success for us, having sold out at cons and shows and now going back for a second printing. More important for us is that we saw it through from start to finish and did it ourselves.

"But ... But ... Wait it Gets Worse!"

Now we’re in what I would like to call phase two of OPP. Phase one was starting out and proving we can do it. Phase two is about building. Right now we have a number of projects lined up, the biggest of which is ‘Scary Stuff’ our upcoming horror anthology. Currently, we’re taking submissions and have been absolutely overwhelmed with the response we’ve gotten and the quality of the submissions. Our goal is to make our anthologies a mix of established and new talent looking for a break. Thus far we’re on track for that with a number of established writers having submitted and some great stuff from people who haven’t hit the scene yet. It’s exciting!

Coming up we’ll be launching a Kickstarter for it once the submission period is over, so be on the lookout for that.

Also coming soon will be our first novel, written by yours truly. I’ll write more about it in a later post, but it’s something I’m proud of and can’t wait for people to read.

We have goals we’d like to meet with OPP, but the main thing, above all else, is having a place where we can let our creativity run wild and have fun doing it. Having the luxury of working with the industry's best talents and most creative people is a true blessing.

Keep an eye on this space in the future for articles about upcoming projects, discussions of process, art, short fiction, and whatever else floats our fancy. Doing it ourselves is hard work, but the best part is that we can do whatever we want!