The village had a tradition. Every youth spent a year traveling abroad. It was a rite of passage that signified their adulthood. The children would choose their destinations, and their parents would make the arrangements. Most boys took apprenticeships or jobs on ships or caravans, and came back having learned a trade. Most girls stayed with distant relatives or family friends, and many came back with husbands. Some never returned, and were mourned as though dead. The practice ended when the War started. After the village was bombed, friends from all over the world came to mourn and help rebuild.
We are so back! Welcome to Everyday Drabbles, a daily 100-word short story. After participating in The Dog Days of Podcasting by recording some of my favorite stories from my original run, I got inspired to get the project going again. Please bookmark this site to read a new story every day, and subscribe to receive a weekly summary email in your inbox!
Hello Readers! It’s finally summer, so I hope you’re staying cool wherever you are! It has been a minute, but this is the (allegedly) weekly update of what I’ve been up to and what’s coming up.
News!
Safety Guidelines My short poem Safety Guidelines was recently published in the poetry zine Dreams and Nightmares! The issue is a bit difficult to order, but click the link to find out more about the magazine.
Reviews!
Hugh Likes Comics: Zatanna: Bringing Down the House I was snared by Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodriguez’s new take on DC Comics’ magical heroine Zatanna, which puts a Noe-Noir spin on the character, starting her out as a Vegas stage performer haunted by trauma. This is the first issue of the story, and it’s a great jumping on point, with no canon knowledge necessary.
Hugh Likes Fiction: The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed This dark fairytale novella is a short but brutal examination of the rules of power, how to bend them, and how they break you. A sort of inverted retelling of Hansel and Gretel, it’s the story of a woman sent into a magical forest to rescue the two young children of the Tyrant who conquered her village. Tense and thrilling.
It’s the summer, and not too much is going on that I’m ready to talk about yet, but I can announce that I will be appearing at the Better Off Read Festival at Artpartk on August 31st! I’ll be selling books and other goodies, so please stop by and say hello! My very short story collection, The Mountain’s Shadow, is still available from amazon or your preferred online book retailer. Stay cool, and I’ll see you next week!
In this episode, Michelo Chariot returns, but it’s too late for him to become Domon’s nemesis. Plus, Wong blows smoke, Chibodee is chased off the road in his flying car, and Allenby rushes the mic. Plus, Team Neo-Russia can’t be blown up by someone else’s bomb, and Gundam Heaven’s Sword can transform, but still looks like it’s wearing a silly hat.
Astro’s Playroom Developed by: JapanStudio, Team Asobi Published by: Sony Interactive Entertainment Played on Playstation 5
The Skinny: A colorful and vibrant tech demo that might finally give Sony the Mascot Character they’ve been looking for.
Entering the Video Game Console market as a 3rd entry in the mid-’90s, Sony historically struggled to create a family friendly mascot to represent its brand the way Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog did. The transition from 2D to 3D games made the sorts of platformer games they starred in trickier to pull off, and Sony was famously resistant to older 2D and sprite-based graphics. They had a few entries like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, but they didn’t quite carry the day. They didn’t have that same main character energy. Sony soon found its footing as a more grown-up console fronting game franchises like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid, and later God of War. But a true mascot platformer remained out of reach. But with the release of the Playstation 5, which includes the pack-in tech demo Astro’s Playroom, they might have finally done it, with a short, snappy little game that shows off the system’s capabilities with a hefty dose of Playstation nostalgia. Astro himself is a cartoon robot that lives inside your PS5. He and his friends do the work of bringing you your games, and the game consists of a hub area and four zones that each represent different parts of your Playstation’s hardware, such as the CPU, themed as a busy speedway of flying cars, or the cooling system, which looks like a beach resort. It’s fun and clever, and the levels are challenging without being too tricky. They also make full use of the PS5’s Dualsense controller, teaching players how to use the upgraded shoulder triggers and the other new features of the system in a low-stress environment. Each level has its own mechanics as well as sections that transform Astro into a vehicle such as a robot gorilla who climbs using the triggers or a frog that hops using the analog sticks. The game is also loaded with Playstation references and easter eggs. Throughout the levels, Astro will come across his fellow robots ‘filming’ scenes from various Playstation franchise games in little costumes. You might pass by a bot dressed as Kratos or Ratchet and Clank, posing like a part of that game. Each set of levels is also thematically tied to a specific Playstation console generation, with hidden collectables from that era, such as consoles, controllers and accessories that can all be viewed back in the hub. Players also find puzzle pieces that create a Playstation-themed mural on the hub walls. Astro’s Playroom is a great little tech demo that is just the right length and level of challenge as well as finally scratching that nostalgia itch for Playstation fans. It is included with the PS5, so if you own the console it is well worth checking out if you haven’t. Sony recently announced a full-game sequel, Astro Bot, coming this fall.
Hello Readers! Welcome back, after quite a long time, to Nice Kicks! The blog where I tell you about what I’m backing on Kickstarter! Today I’m promoting a trio of really worthy publishing projects that could use your help getting to the finish line. Please follow The links below and support these endeavors to bring new stories into the world.
This graphic novel adaptation of the memoir by writer and podcaster Chad Anderson is a personal story of his growing up Queer in the Mormon church and learning to accept and love himself. Gorgeously adapted from the memoir with beautiful illustrations by Remy Burke, this is a story about learning to be who you are while still caring for the people you love. Chad is the host of the Greymalkin Lane podcast, and is a genuine, warm, and excellent person. This project is reaching the last ten days of its campaign, and it would be a shame if it did not see print.
Small Wonders is a new online flash fiction and poetry magazine and it has been a consistent delight over the past year. Editors Smith and Stephen Granade have brought a treasure trove of little speculative fiction stories to the world, and I want to see them continue their work into the future. In a world of media consolidation and late-stage capitalist demands for publications to devour themselves in the name of quarterly profits, we need small, independent magazines more than ever, even as it is becoming more and more difficult for them to stay open. From stories about buying chips and the end of the world to crow and cactus weddings, to fish desperately seeking bicycles, Small Wonders is doing amazing work bringing small, unique, non-commercial stories to the world. They have been a consistently bright spot in my day every time I see a new story in my inbox.
Originally a series of hard-boiled urban fantasy anthologies set in the cities of Los Angeles and New Orleans, editor C. D. Brown is relaunching the format as a semi-pro magazine. Having written a story for Dirty Magick: New Orleans, and recently discussed the new project with Brown in the city, this is a project that is very close to my heart. As a springboard for great gritty Fantasy stories, and expanding into more experimental genres as well, this is a very exciting project that I am very happy to back. This one just launched, and could use some buzz.
These three projects are just a sample of the many projects on Kickstarter waiting for support from folks like you. As private equity bulldozes the media landscape, small, independent voices become all the more important as it becomes harder and harder to find them. Please go and support these projects, and while you are there, find another passion project to adopt.
Tomorrow, May 4th will be this year’s Free Comic Book Day! This yearly event features comic shops around the US giving out free promotional comics and other goodies. It is a chance for fans, readers, retailers and creators to get together to celebrate the medium and have some fun. It is the perfect opportunity to find a shop in your area, catch up on the storyline for your favorite books, or discover something new that you will love! This Free Comic Book Day is bittersweet for me because it will be the first year in a while that I won’t be celebrating it at Pulp716, which closed last fall. However, I am going to be visiting a couple of shops in the area that are new to me. I’m looking forward to checking them out! In addition to the usual previews from Marvel and DC, there are a number of great books this year, including a new Hellboy story an a retrospective of work form James Tynion that I am looking forward to. You can visit the Free Comic Book Day website to check out this year’s books, read interviews with creators, and use their locator tool to find a participating store near you!
This week, Domon wrecks an arcade machine, Allenby has cold fists, and Rain is totally fine with this. Plus, Argo gets Worfed out of the gate, and the Noble Gundam has strong ribbon game.
Hello Readers! Welcome to The Way of the Buffalo, my new weekly roundup newsletter! If you are receiving this via email, it is because you’ve subscribed to my WordPress blog, and they have rolled out email integration. My plan going forward will be to continue blogging during the week, with a digest post on Saturdays with links to the individual posts. I’ll also be including announcements, links, and other thoughts here, with a bonus piece of flash fiction or a serialized story at the end. Thanks for reading!
This Week in Reviews: Since it was Valentine’s Day, this week’s reviews were romantic. I hope you had a good week, wether or not you were spending it with someone.
This was one of my favorite novels from last year, and the narrator crushed it for the audiobook version.
This week’s fiction – “Captcha”
Click on all the images that contain crabs, the computer instructed. I stared at the collection of underwater creatures, choosing the images. My mouse hovered over the last decapod as I considered the features of the creature in the image. It looked like a crab. I clicked on it, and hit ‘submit.’ A dialog box cheerfully informed me that I had failed the security captcha, and that my login would be locked for the next hour. I sighed and closed my laptop. Not for the first time, I was a victim of carcinization. The squat lobsters had gotten me again.
The Resurrection of Magneto #1 Written by Al Ewing Drawn by Luciano Vecchio Colored by David Curiel Lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino Published by Marvel Comics
The Skinny: Spoiler alert for issue four, I guess. (Also spoilers for Judgement Day)
In Big-2 comics, no character death is forever. Characters get endings, but the nature of serialized storytelling, and Marvel and DC’s highly valuable intellectual property, means that characters move in cycles rather than linear paths, and their stories come around again, through reboots or retcons. As Marvel’s Fall of X enters its finale, The Resurrection of Magneto is writer Al Ewing and artist Luciano Vecchio’s swan song with these characters, and this is by far my favorite book of the final chapter of the X-Men’s Krakoan era. While Magneto’s name is on the event, this issue is focused with laser precision on Storm, following her as she makes the decision to bring Magneto back to life in violation of his last wishes. But while usually resurrecting an X-character is easily accomplished, and in the current era more than most, Storm and Magneto had vowed to forego the chance to return to life, even destroying their ‘backups.’ So instead, Storm has to travel into the afterlife and go get him. She’s assisted by a brief cameo from the Blue Marvel, star of Ewing’s most recent Defenders series, and the ensuing magical journey is filled with symbolic battles and eye-catching, tarot inspired spreads. And let me tell you, Vecchio and Curiel kill it with the art. This is a drop-dead gorgeous book, from the opening panel of Magneto as the 5 of cups from the Rider-Whyte tarot to a climactic battle with a surprising but cool villain, this book hits all the Storm notes, and while it may feel a little bit like it’s going in the same circles, it feels pretty fitting for the end of the era. Magneto’s death was one of the most impressive moments in recent comics history, and is that rare earned ending that characters get so rarely in modern comics. Ewing and Vecchio have their work cut out for them making his journey back to the land of the living as momentous as his end. But this new first issue is a good first step. I can’t wait to see where the journey ends up. The Resurrection of Magneto #1 is available digitally from the usual suspects, and in print at your local comics shop.
Hugh J. O'Donnell 