Nightmare World Vol 1.

Psychological horror in the vein of The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt! In this first "Definitive" Collection of stories from the acclaimed online comic series, we delve into a world of ghostly lovers, demonic abductors, vengeful victims, and sexy Cthulhu priestesses as these loosely connected stories weave an epic tale of a world not unlike our own where nothing is what it seems. Welcome to Nightmare World!

Welcome indeed.  This fantastic collection of horror stories easily has Nightmare World sitting high up on my list of recent reads.  My one regret is that it took so long to know about this webcomic, but I shall soon remedy the late start.  Probably right after this review actually, I am that anxious to continue.

The writing we get from Manning squeezed into 8 pages per story is just superb.  It’s made all the more impressive by the fact that it all somehow comes together in a larger picture.  Even if you don’t catch it, he’s kind enough to write up a nice little summary to give you a feel for the overall scheme.  One extra bit that I love is that each book was titled after a song.  I think I might just put together a playlist.

With each wonderful story we are treated to the unique work of a different artist every time.  Challenged with so few pages, they all manage to further bring the accompanying short tale to life.  Regardless of the constantly changing style within the book, you never feel like anything is out of place.

This is without a doubt a must read that everybody needs to experience at least once.  Hopefully more, because you can even vary the order you read them in next time.  Whether or not you’re a horror junkie, you are bound to open page one and fly right through the first volume of this amazing series.  Then you’ll probably be rushing to get to the next chapter, as I sure am.

For more information on Nightmare World, check out Shadow Online.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual author.

Kickstarter of the Week: You Are Not Alone

A 150+ page anthology of hope with tales of overcoming bullying, homophobia, racism, depression and abuse. You Are Not Alone.

OUR PROJECT
Over the past three years GrayHaven Comics has released over 17 editions of THE GATHERING anthology, one shots like THE DUNES, ARCHIVES and THE DARK and are about to launch the PHASE TWO mini-series.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE is our most ambitious project to date. This very special anthology (released in trade paperback size) will feature the work of nearly 100 comic book creators from small press talent to pros like Raven Gregory, Dirk Manning, Patrick Shand, Gail Simone and Len Wallace. Once again new and upcoming creators will have an opportunity to see their work published alongside some fantastic pro creators for an important creative cause.

To those who have suffered in silence facing abuse because of the color of your skin, sexual orientation, weight, or interests. To those who are depressed and feel there is no place left to turn...YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Along with our own money that's been allocated for the project, successful funding of this Kickstarter will allow us to print upwards of 1000 copies of the book.

Why We're Doing This

What good is having the ability to reach people with our stories if we can’t put that to use in a beneficial way?

It goes beyond the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School. It goes beyond the victims of Aurora. This is not about gun violence or gun control. This is not a political statement. This is a statement of being good to your fellow man.

This is about a 14 year old boy who took his own life after being bullied for coming out to his friends and classmates.

This is about a young African American who was tied to a locker at his High School as classmates taunted him with cheers of ‘slave for sale’

This is about the 11 year old developmentally challenged child who was held down on a kitchen table by four adults who took turns beating him.

This is about the victims of physical abuse and others like them

This is about the children who are ridiculed or worse because of the color of their skin. Their sexual orientation. Their mental capacity. Their weight. Their interests.

This is about the children who no longer feel safe going to the movies or to school.

This is about the millions of kids who suffer abuse and suffer in silence thinking that no one cares.

This project is designed to show that we hear you. People care. WE CARE. And what they can do to get help.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE is a very special Graphic Novel Anthology featuring stories inspired but not based on real life events like the ones mentioned above. With this book we hope to give people the means to get help and know what to do should they ever witness or face such situations themselves. .

To learn more about this Kickstarter, please go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1429812861/you-are-not-alone-1

Editor's Note: As someone who has survived rape as well as various types of abuse and the mother of a special needs child, this Kickstarter is close to my heart. Please, go over and help them reach their stretch goals. The more we give, the more the word can get out that none of us are alone in this world.

Geek-o-Rama's Geeky Gift Guide Part 5

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. Up here, the days turn brisk and snow falls and everything is lovely. There are snowball fights and icicles. Even better though are the days and nights curled up on the couch, watching geeky movies to my heart's content and reading comic books while sipping a cup of hot chocolate. This year, my wish list is geared a bit more towards my kids with a bit of me and a bit of business thrown in.

1. Atari Flashback 4 - This topped my kids' wishlist for this year. They're excited to see the "terrible" graphics and to check out some of the games that their mom grew up with. As for me, I think it's fun to share these things with them as I raise up another generation of geeks. (Retails for about $50)

2. Write or Wrong - Back in April, I got to meet Dirk Manning. Not only is he super awesome, but he has a brand new book on the market. It's filled with 5 years of his column that he writes for Newsarama. If you're at all interested in the comic book industry, how to create comics or how to get them published, well, how can you resist adding this to your wish list? (Retail price: $17)

3. Phineas & Ferb Holiday Favorites - Betcha think this one is for the kids, right? Well, only kind of. We are huge fans of Phineas & Ferb in this house and what better than some of the amazingly fun songs that we've heard on the show? As a sometimes dj, music always appeals to me. (Retail price: $7)

4. Sonic Screwdriver Pen - Ok, little known fact. I love office supplies. Yes, it's true. Okay Okay, it might not be much of a secret. I have a minor obsession with post it notes and sharpies. I also love pens..lots of pens...and this pen is a Doctor Who pen?!? Gah! Seriously, how cool is this? (Retail price: $29.99)

5. 3Tb External Hard Drive - This one? Totally for me. With the number of comic books and write ups that we're handling these days, I am badly in need of an external desktop hard drive for backup purposes. What I love about the larger drives is that they give me some room to grow, which is pretty much mandatory for a site such as ours, not to mention photographs and music and all of those day to day files that I'd "die" without. (Retail price: $150-200)

Con Recap: Wizard World Ohio Part 1

Like any con that I attend, this one started out with travel. I am thrilled to report that my 5 hour drive to the Columbus area was uneventful. Pretty exciting start, huh? Don't worry. I promise it gets better.

My first stop was to check into my hotel room. Now, since we're still pretty small, we went with a pretty small priced hotel. Someday though, we'll be among the awesome who stay at convention hotels. Luckily, I don't mind a bit of adventure when it comes to staying in a hotel. Besides, quite often I walk away with a story to tell. This con choice? The Microtel on Stringtown Road in Grove City. Yep, Stringtown Road. I think I giggled every single time the gps told me to get off there. It's just such a fun name. I figured a fun name was a good start for what would hopefully shape up to be a fun weekend.

Getting to the hotel was a bit of a hassle. The directions said to go past the hotel and make a u-turn. The only problem? U-turns weren't allowed at the next intersection so I ended up pulling onto the street, into a shopping center, driving all the way around the shopping center, coming back out onto the street, turning onto the correct road and then into the hotel. Whew! Check in was a breeze, even if the girl at the desk didn't seem to really love her job. She wasn't rude, just sort of bored. I managed to get everything inside and down to the room...opened the door to find...1970's porno room! Woo!


These pictures honestly don't do it justice. It was just beyond weird to me that the mirrors were placed like that. Ok, it's kind of weird to have a giant mirrored wall to begin with.

After getting over the shock of the mirrors, I headed down to the convention center. My directions were pretty clear which as y'all know means absolutely nothing when the very exit you're supposed to take no longer exists! I tried following signs that said to convention parking..that didn't help. Luckily, my phone has a built in gps app and it saved my buns! I even got super lucky and found parking in the tiny lot that was right next to the entrance!

After parking, I headed in and stood around  hung out with other fine folks waiting to get their press badges. Right on time, they were handed out and even came with an offer of an introduction to any celebrities and artists that I might want to talk to. It felt really good to be appreciated for what I was there to do.

Once I received my press badge, I got to hang out with two of the volunteers and an on site security guard while I waited for the doors to open. It turns out that the security guard was from Flint. We talked a bit about what it was like and had a great time joking around until it was time for me to get to work.

First stop? Zenescope. I didn't mean to. I'm not addicted to them. Really. Actually, I stopped by because Keith Thomas was standing at their table. If you're not familiar with Keith, you should be. Not only is he a great guy but he wrote one of my current favorites, Cricket for Big Dog Ink. Cricket is a one-shot that should be turned into a mini-series with Keith at the helm. Seriously, it's good stuff.

Tyler Kirkham with the awesome Keith Thomas. Watch out for these two!

Since he was standing there, I stopped by and said hi to him and the Zenescope guys. After some chitchat, it was time for me to really get to work so business cards in hand, I worked my way around the convention floor.

This convention is much smaller than others that I've attended but that didn't prevent it from having some seriously quality people there. I confess to sighing longingly at the Doctor Who store and finding it very cool that there was a booth/table where you could go and they would make you fangs that were quality and would last a lifetime if you took care of them.

Since the con was pretty small, I actually managed to cover all of the floor and about half of artist alley on Friday night. I even had the chance to stop by and say hi to friends like, Dirk Manning (author of Nightmare World).

At the end of Day 1, my feet were tired and I was tired from a long day, but content. I wrapped it all up by being brave and grabbing some White Castle for dinner before relaxing on the bed at the hotel. Why brave? I haven't had White Castle since our whole house got food poisoning in 1996 from some frozen burgers gone bad. All in all, I'll give them an "it's ok." They're not my favorite, but they were ok.

Make sure y'all come back tomorrow where I'll fill you in on the rest of the convention and share lots of pictures that I stole totally took with permission from Keith and Blair.

Geek-o-Rama received press passes for the purpose of this con writeup. All thoughts, comments, fan girling and porn room photos belong to the author. All other pictures belong to their respective cameras. 

C2E2 Day 3 : The End Has Come (and a really long drive!)

Sunday, bloody Sunday...See? Inner dj is still on! There was no blood, I swear! Ok, there might have been but it wasn't real blood! It was makeup blood and it wasn't on me! There were tons of cosplayers with tons of fake blood on them. I don't have any pictures, so you'll just have to trust me that it happened.

I woke up waaaay too early this morning. It was probably close to 2am before I went to sleep and I woke up probably six times overnight and finally gave up and got up at 8:30. This meant that I was packed up and checked out of the hotel by 9am. After a quick stop at the gift shop for a couple of shirts for the boys, I dragged a luggage cart upstairs to the room, packed everything on it and then dragged it alllll the way out to the van and loaded it up. I caught the 9:20am shuttle and was at the convention center by around 10:30. Then, the great hunt for an atm machine began! I couldn't believe it, but a Sheraton hotel didn't have an atm on site and I didn't want to walk 2 blocks down to a gas station so I figured there'd be one at the convention center. There was! Except the first one I tried was plum out of cash! Luckily, someone told me where there was another one, so I stood in line at that one and pulled my spending money for the day.

Then, it was back up to the floor to make my first purchase of the day. It's pretty rare that I purchase review items, but something about this had caught my attention and I decided to take a risk on it. What did I buy (once I tracked the guy down...) ? I bought this:

Image snagged from www.turbopizza.com

It was about 11:20am by that time (yeah, it took me a while to find that atm and then this guy!), so I decided to go sit in line for the one and only panel that I attended this weekend. Of course, I got up there and realized that it was only 11:25 and the room had another panel in it for another 20 minutes! So, I sat down on the floor and got comfy up against a wall with another girl. While sitting there, I snagged these pictures with my phone:

As you can tell, there were a lot of kids waiting in line to attend the Imperial Academy. I don't know who the folks in costume were, but they were great with the kids who were waiting. 

Now, I know you want to know about that bag. Isn't it fabulous? It has My Little Pony on one side and Hello Kitty on the other and it is HUGE! I actually snagged one later in the day. One of the shops was giving them away free with purchase. It turns out I didn't want to purchase and another couple didn't want the bag which worked out really, really well for all of us. 

Once the previous panel was released, my new "friend" and I headed in to listen to Dirk Manning. I guess I hadn't read the description very well in my exhausted state the night before but it was still a really good talk on working with artists as a writer. I wish Michael of Dead Factions had been there. I think he could have gotten a heck of a lot from it. I'm not going to give away any spoilers but I might write up a post where I cover some of the highlights.

I really need to start taking better photos.

After the talk, I headed back to the floor. I stopped and talked with some of the great people that I had met the day before. I even had one really cute guy tell me that he wished he'd known I'd been on my own for dinner because they would have asked me along. That made me feel pretty good. I made my way back to Artist Alley because I'd missed it the day before.

I had a lot of fun talking to people and then I came across Virgil, of prior WWE fame. He kept me there talking to him, mostly because I had a press badge, I suspect. I'm not going into a lot of what he went on about, but let me tell you folks, if you have small children, keep them away from this guy. I don't care if he does teach at a private school one day a week, his language is not anything your kids need to hear. Honestly, his ego is something the rest of us could do without too. That's all I'll say about that. The guy was arrogant beyond belief and I was sooo happy when I managed to move on.

The rest of my day was taken up with moving from table to table, talking to people. I love meeting new people and had so much fun talking with different people. I'm only disappointed by two things. The first is that I didn't get to cover all of artist alley. That means that I missed getting to see Art Baltazar again. The second is that I didn't get to meet Jesse James of Jesse James Comics. I did, however, blatantly steal his picture from Facebook. Wanna see? I stole it just so I could say booo, I didn't get to see this man!

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot to tell you who I did get to meet! I got to meet Mr McFeely from Mister Roger's neighborhood! He was so nice and we stood there talking for a few minutes. Then, he gave me this:

 Isn't that fantastic? Yeah, it's the only celebrity autograph I brought home for the weekend, but I think it's the best! I'm not much of a squealing fan girl but yeah, this makes me go wooo! hehe...

Sadly, before I knew it, the time had come from me to leave the land of omg awesome comics and entertainment folks and head back home.

Another shuttle, train, shuttle ride and I was back at the hotel and started the long drive home.

The GPS helped me to tour Michigan and I finally rolled in around 1am early Monday morning. Would I do it again? Hell yes. If I'm not on the press list for next year, you will find one majorly sulking reviewer here. I might be getting hooked on cons because I'm already mega excited for Phoenix in May. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday so expect another series of con posts after that trip. Between now and then, keep your eyes open for review posts and the standard life of me posts. Life keeps rolling along, even when I get to go pretend I'm real press for a weekend.

Thank you to C2E2 for believing in me, Big Dog Ink for hanging out with me, to the many vendors/exhibitors/artists who are taking a chance on me and lastly to Justin and Eric for not only believing in me and pushing me, but for keeping me company on those long train rides. I wish you could have been there with me, but we'll all be together in Phoenix next month and I can't wait for all the hugs and loves from you and from other friends who will be there, as well.