Real men don’t wear tights. It should be obvious to anyone who’s read my books that I love superheroes. Despite this I haven’t picked up very many comic titles recently, for a reason I imagine I share with a lot of older readers: the sheer weight of superhero mythology. What do I mean by this? … More Marvel Mystery Men
I found my cover-artist on Deviant Art (an art posting site that’s cleaner than it sounds, at least if you engage the adult-filter), and I regularly surf the site for desktops and inspiration. I ran across this charming picture not long after I published Wearing the Cape, and promised myself I’d track the story down … More Small Victories.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” is one of the most famous lines in comic-book history, and in most superhero universes anyone who gets bitten by a radioactive spider, doused with exotic chemicals, or just spontaneously mutates is going to pull on the tights and go fight crime (or experience a psychotic break and start … More Oh Lord, It’s Hard To Be Humble.
The Hulk has always struck me as the perfect example of Character Degeneration. In the “original” origin-story, Bruce Banner was a nuclear physicist designing bigger and better bombs for the US government; think of him as another Oppenheimer. On the day they test his new Gamma Bomb, after the detonation sequence has commenced, he sees … More Hulking Up
In the run-up to this summer’s superhero blockbuster, The Avengers, I’ve decided to take some time and look at the core heroes of the much-anticipated movie. This is partly an exercise in meme-mining for my own uses, since I have a deep interest in what makes successful superheroes iconic, but mostly because I just find … More Captain America, Superpatriot.
I learned about the book In Hero Years… I’m Dead while I was still writing Wearing the Cape, and avoided it. Not because I didn’t like the Amazon description, but because at that point in my writing I didn’t want to take a chance on cross-contamination from a great book by an established author. But … More Superhero Noir
It takes longer to write a novel than I thought. And you’d think I’d know better, having been through it once with Wearing the Cape. However, Hope fans will be happy to know that tonight both Villains Inc., Episode Four: Endgame and Wearing the Cape: Villains Inc. have been posted to Amazon.com. Approval and publishing … More Villainy Victorious?
Now that I have finally seen all the superhero movies of 2011, I find myself meditating on the question of what makes a superhero. More particularly, what makes a person with the power to Make A Difference actually put on the metaphorical cape and go out to fight the good fight. Let’s look at the … More Calling all Heroes.
Almost a couple of months ago now, I promised to talk more about world-building and superheroes–how I arrived at the Post-Event setting Wearing the Cape takes place in. So let’s talk about comic-book history and choices. Where do superpowers come from? In the golden age of superhero comics, the answer was easy: anywhere. You could … More Cosmic Questions
One of the things I was warned about, when I started marketing Wearing the Cape, was that some nosy Parkers would actually want to interview me about the book. Why? I’m not trying to be obtuse; it’s simply that, as a reader, I was never that interested in authors or interviews with them. If I … More Q&A: Loving The Grilling.
Marion G. Harmon, A Writer in Vegas. 