Monday, December 27, 2010

Getting Focused on 2011

Even though the holidays are a completely crazy and busy time, I have been thinking a lot about what I will be doing in 2011. While I have a ton of ideas and half-started projects, I will be simplifying things in 2011 and focusing on a few. They are:

Mo Stache (www.mostachecomic.com): If you haven’t been following along so far, my good friend John Cordis and I just posted the twenty-first page of our webcomic. The story of Dave Reynolds and his alien mustache has been going great so far, and our goal is to tell our story in around 100 pages, which should bring us into the beginning of 2012. The focus this year will be on continuing to put out a quality page of the story each week, as well as getting together the first of two print volumes that we will make available for sale. We are also considering getting a booth or table at some comic shows in 2011, but that all depends on how we are doing with getting the comic out on time each week.

lbobi.com: I’ve been working with my good buddy Jeff Rodgers over on his “Little Blog of Big Ideas” for the past several months. We’ve got ten episodes of our lbobi Radio podcast out for public consumption, and we have some big ideas for projects in 2011. I’ll be talking more about that stuff soon, but one of the projects will involve me writing a series of articles over on lbobi.com.

Secret Identity: As always, Matt Herring and I will continue to put out two podcasts a week, covering everything from comics to movies to games, to whatever. We update www.secretidentitypodcast.com daily, and our goal is to have more reviews, creator interviews and other features in 2011. As in 2010, much of what I write will be featured over on Secret Identity.

Those are the big three for 2011, but that’s not all. I anticipate my short story “Tony the Bear” will be published in “Strange Aeons” magazine in early 2011. I have an 8-page comic story in the premiere issue of “Monarch Comics Chronicles” that should be getting published in the first quarter of 2011 as well. A few other projects are in the offing as well, and some may get fast-tracked, but my goal will be to focus on the projects that are real in 2011, and see them through to completion.

Last but not least, I will be updating “See Brian Write” every week, keeping everyone posted on all of my projects and where people can find them.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Thoughts on Google's new Chrome Web Store

I just wrote an article over on lbobi.com about Google's recently-launched Chrome Web Store.  I already use Chrome as my primary browser, and the smartphone-like apps that I can now install into Chrome have really changed the way I think about web browsers.

You can head over to lbobi to read the article and see a few screenshots of the new Chrome Web Store by clicking here.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Mo Stache Webcomic Trailer

I mentioned a while back that a friend and I had started a webcomic called Mo Stache. If you've been checking it out on http://www.mostachecomic.com/, then you've probably already seen the trailer I put together for the comic using Animoto.

A friend pointed out to me that the trailer should be posted here as well (shame on me for not doing that already). So if you haven't checked out Mo yet, enjoy the trailer below, and then visit the site each Wednesday for a new page. We've got eighteen already!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Writings and Happenings

Man, it's been a busy few weeks. Between the holidays, my regular job, and two podcasts, I haven't had time to do much else. I have been writing, however, and here are a few of the highlights:
  • A couple of comics reviews over the Secret Identity website ("Traveler" #1 and "Impaler" #1);
  • A review of the classic videogame "Splatterhouse" over on the Cartridgecade blog;
  • A review of the downloadable game "Dead Space Ignition" over on Invest Comics;
Also--big news! I will be traveling to San Antonio, Texas for the big photography convention Imaging USA in January. The fabulous Jeff and Allison Rodgers are flying me out to hang out at their booth and represent the great stuff we've been doing over at http://www.lbobi.com/. I'm hoping to take a trip to the Alamo and see if I can find Pee Wee's bike in the basement.

If you're looking for some holiday gift idead, Jeff and I are doing a gift guide on the next epsiode of lbobi Radio (http://www.lbobi.com/) and Matt and I will also be talking gift suggestions on issue #292 of Secret Identity.

Back to the grind!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Adventures in Tablet-ing: Part Deux

So, its been a few days since I wrote about the S7 tablet, and since then there's been a new development--I no longer have it. As much as I dug the S7, I was struggling with a few things about it that ultimately made me decide to return it. First, the more I used the resistive touch screen of the S7, the more I struggled with it. At the end if the day, it just wasn't as responsive as I needed it to be. What concerned me the mt was they virtual keyboards--both the Huawei and the standard virtual keyboards were poorly laid out. The keys were too close together, and on way too many occasions, I had trouble getting the correct letters to register. Because I planned on using the tablet for writing as well as for consuming content, that meant I'd need to buy a wireless keyboard to get any real writing done on it. Which brings up another big problem--the complete lack f accessories for the S7. There is nothing out there in the way of keyboards, cases, chargers or anything else fir tyebS7, and no real sign of when thy might be coming. Because of the size of the S7 (its longer than mt 7" screen tablets), none of the generic cases fit with it. You also can't charge the S7 through a usb charger, which is a real bummer since he device has a lousy battery life, which necessitates frequent charging

So, for those reasons and more, I decided to take the tablet back to Best Buy.

Enter the Nook Color. The device that started me on this quest for a tablet computer. Basically, I was getting impatient for the Nook Color's release, and I convinced myself that if could spend $50 bucks more than the cost of the Nook Color and get a more full-featured computer, I should do it.  After failing to find what I wanted with the Cruz and the S7, I went back to the Nook Color.  And while the Nook Color is not really a full-fledged tablet computer yet, it's got a lot of potential.


One of the things I appreciate most now about the Nook Color is it's design.  The device feels solid, and the "power" and "home buttons" are its only moving parts.  The 7" screen is absolutely beautiful, and most importantly, extremely responsive.  The screen is capacitive and supports multi-touch, so you can resize images, including the book covers that populate your home screen.

The eReader functions are the Nook Color's bread and butter, and they work flawlessly.  As I mentioned, you can keep frequently read books on your home screen for easy access, or you can tap the toolbar icon to bring up a menu that can take you to the B&N shop, let you browse through your books and files, or open up the web browser. When reading, you can adjust the brightness of the screen easily, so while the Nook Color doesn't have the E-Ink display of the non-color version, you can adjust how muck backlighting the eReader uses. Paging through books is easy, and you can navigate by either tapping or swiping.  You can also highlight certain text and either make notes for yourself, or share quotes through Twitter and Facebook. The Nook Color can also read PDF files and other documents, so chances are it will read most of what you throw at it.  I loaded a couple of comics onto the device, and despite some slowdown when reading large files, the PDFs displayed well.  I'd like to see the Adobe Reader app in the near future though, as it's just a better app than the PDF reader the Nook Color uses now.

On the "computing" side of the Nook Color, the browser is fine, and I had no trouble setting up my bookmarks for easy access.  I haven't loaded any of my videos onto it yet, so I'll update when I do. So far, the biggest plus I see over the tablets I tried is the virtual keyboard, which is well-spaced and easy to use.  Combined with the responsiveness of the touchscreen., there's a lot of potential for creating content with the Nook Color.  Right now however, there are no dedicated writing apps, or even a simple notepad, and the browser is not ideal for content creation.  I can return emails, or even make blog posts, but the lack of a visible cursor when editing text makes it nearly impossible to edit.  I actually wrote most of this blog entry on the Nook Color, but had to switch over to my laptop for editing and formatting.

There aren't many apps on the Nook color right now, just a few games and the Pandora music app.  However, B&N will be launching their app store in the next couple of months, and I am hoping that there will be some apps that improve the Nook Color's content creation ability.

So, I'm still playing with my new toy, but so far it seems like the Nook Color is a great device for consuming content (books, web browsing, email), that has the potential to be a solid tablet computer.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the platform evolves in the next few months.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Adventures in Tablet-ing

As a nerd, I am a fan of shiny, new gadgets. I have an iPhone and a Nook, but I've been tempted to get a tablet since the iPad came out. I don't really want an iPad, as I am very curious about some of the Android tablets that have been in development for a while. When the Nook Color was recently announced, I decided that I would either get one of those, or one of the android tablets, as they pretty much all run eReader apps now.

Interestingly, most of the Android tablets are pretty new, so there have not been a lot of reviews on them. As I was doing some research, the Velocity Micro Cruz eReader and the Cruz tablet caught my eye, as Borders was partnering with them. Borders has an online eBook store, and they were pushing the Cruz devices, which just launched in the past few weeks. The devices had color displays, ran on Android, and could download apps, browse the web, play video, etc. The tablet was a more robust device than the eReader, so I set my sights on that one.



I went to Best Buy and they had just gotten a shipment of the Cruz tablets in. They didn't even have a display up yet, but I looked at the box, read the specs again, and decided to go for it. $300 for a tablet I could run Android apps on? Sold!

Big mistake.

After getting the device home and playing around with it, I was very disappointed. First off, the Cruz does not connect to the Android marketplace, but instead to a watered down version of it called the Cruz Market. The Cruz Market only has a handful of apps, none of which were really appealing to me. The Borders app that comes installed on the tablet crashed repeatedly. The touch screen was non-responsive at times and overly sensitive at other times. No instruction booklet came with the device, and the manual you could download from the official website was not much help. When I loaded a few PDFs onto the device, the reading program could not process them, so I had comics that featured word bubbles but no art, or art with no lettering. All in all, the Cruz didn't function well as an eReader or a tablet computer. I decided after one night of using it that I was going to return it.

Once I had decided to return the Cruz, I was initially thinking of getting the Nook Color and being done with it. I did some further research on the Android tablets though, and found a few rave reviews of the Huawei Ideos S7 tablet. Huawei is mostly known for their cell phones, so I wasn't too familiar with them. However, the S7 tablet has some pretty sweet features, namely a great processor (Snapdragon) and full access to the Android Marketplace. When I went into Best Buy to return the Cruz, I spoke with one of the staff and actually got my hands on the S7 tablet. It seemed to get right all the things the Cruz got wrong, so I took a chance and exchanged the Cruz for the S7 tablet.



In the past five days, I have put the Ideos S7 through its paces, and I am very impressed so far. First off, the thing runs like a dream. Moving from app to app is smooth, and the user interface is solid. The touch screen is resistive, not capacitive, so there’s no multi-touch, but it’s very responsive overall. While the S7 virtual keyboard isn’t great, I was able to switch to the Android keyboard with no problems. The S7 also comes with a stylus, which I prefer for certain tasks.

As advertised, the S7 does have access to the full Android Marketplace, so I have loaded up on everything from the Opera Browser to Angry Birds. I also downloaded the Adobe PDF Reader app, which means I can view all of my PDF comics with no problems. That alone makes the S7 a better deal than the Velocity Cruz.

As an eReader, the S7 way outperforms the Cruz as well. In installed the Nook app on the S7 and had access to my Nook library in a few minutes. Everything worked smoothly, and the 7” screen is perfect for reading. The one drawback is the lack of E-Ink, so you’re reading off of a backlit screen—not the best for prolonged reading.

So, I’m really digging the S7 so far, and I haven’t even played with all of its features. There’s a 2 megapixel camera (mostly for video calling), and the tablet can function as a phone if you put a 3G sim card into it. The biggest drawbacks so far are the battery life (3 hrs or so), the lack of multi-touch, and the fact that it runs Android 2.1 instead of 2.2. My understanding is that sometime next month I’ll be able to upgrade to 2.2, so that shouldn’t be an issue for much longer. I also want to get a mini keyboard for it, as I can’t see doing any serious writing on the S7 with the virtual keyboard.

I’ll keep people posted on how I feel about the S7 after playing with it some more.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Big Ideas Come in Small Packages

A very good friend of mine by the name of Jeff Rodgers runs a successful photography studio with his wife Allison (www.allisonrodgers.com). So successful, in fact, that people frequently ask them to come and speak about how they do what they do. Not content with being world-renowned photogs, Jeff and Allison launched a new creative venture in early 2010 called lbobi: The Little Blog of Big Ideas (www.lbobi.com). The goal of the site is to focus on the creative process and inspire fellow creatives by talking about the things people create and the process of creating them. Lbobi.com serves as a sounding board for creatives in every field, be it photography, art, flimmaking, music, or what have you. As it stands right now, photographers make up the majority of the lbobi community, which makes sense, as they know Jeff and Allison for the work they've done in that field.

Recently, Jeff and Allison have been looking at different ways to expand the audience of lbobi into other creative fields, which is where I recently came into the picture.

In August Jeff and I debuted the first episode of lbobi Radio (http://lbobiradio.podomatic.com/), the official podcast of the Little Blog of Big Ideas. We put out two thirty-minute (or so) episodes a month, and each one features news from the site, discussions on the creative process, and regular contests that offer cool prizes for those who participate. For example, in our latest episode (which went live yesterday) we ran down a list of some of our favorite desktop and iPhone applications for both work and play. You can listen to that episode here.

So, if you want to hear me talk about something other than comic books, movies and videogames, you should check out the podcast.  AND, if you are looking for discussions that will inspire your creative process, head over to www.lbobi.com and join in!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

NaNoWriMo and Verisimilitude

I wrote a novel in 2007. Yup, an honest-to-goodness novel. The novel was called "Verisimilitude," and while there's very little chance you'll ever read it, I can honestly say creating that novel was the best writing experience I've ever had. That's why every year at this time, I sing the praises of National Novel Writing Month to anyone who will listen.

National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as NaNoWriMo, is an annual event where people around the world take up the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. Between November 1st and November 30th, participants write an average of 1700 words per day, which means there's no time for editing, spellchecking or second-guessing--and that's what makes NaNoWrimo such a great experience--you just create. Think about it--when was the last time you created something with no concern for whether or not it was any good? Probably never. Most creatives are perfectionists when it comes to what they do, and because of that, we can sometimes be our own worst enemies. What NaNoWriMo does is allows writers to practice their craft in a very focused way, with an emphasis on output. All the polishing comes later on, if ever. NaNoWriMo is about proving to yourself that you can create, and taking part in NaNoWriMo  kick-started all of the creative projects I've been involved with since 2007. I cannot recommend NaNoWriMo enough, and everyone should take the challenge at least once. I seriously considered taking the plunge again this year, but I have several writing projects I'm working on right now, which is a good thing. I've no doubt I will participate again however, as it's a great tune-up for writing skills.

As for the novel I wrote, I actually have a copy of it sitting right here next to me (the image in this post is the actual cover for the book). The folks at CreateSpace gave all of the 2007 winners a free proof copy of their novel. My plan is to eventually edit the heck out of the book, polish it up, and then either publish it or adapt it into a graphic novel script. There's also an outside chance I may try to edit the book chapter by chapter, and post each revised chapter on the site here. We'll see...

As it stands right now, "Verisimilitude" (which was just a working title, BTW) was a b-movie style horror story that has ties to Robert Chambers' horror classic "The King in Yellow." Here's the cheesy synopsis from the back cover of the book:

"When Melotte Pharmaceutical moves into the economically challenged city of Springfield, residents see it as a godsend. But while the economy is turning around, something sinister is happening with the city's homeless population. When four friends stumble onto the company's true intentions, they have to figure out a way to bring the truth to light before they become the latest to disappear."

Oooohhhh! Scary, isn't it?

Friday, October 22, 2010

Old Games Are Cool

A little over a year ago, my good friend and fellow gamer Jason May started doing a retro gaming segment on Secret Identity called Cartridgecade. We are both huge fans of the NES, Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and every other retro gaming console, and the podcast segments are a great opportunity for us to discuss the games we grew up playing. We even held a retro gaming challenge for listeners of the show this past summer, and their prize was the print to your left that Jason created.

Not long after we started doing the podcast segments, we created a blog for Cartridgecade, where we post reviews, compile information on arcades, and talk about anything having to do with retro gaming.

The blog is updated weekly, with Jason and I alternating entries. So, if you enjoy discussion on the games of yore, check us out.  I recently reviewed the Atari 2600 classic "Haunted House," and you can read the review here.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Adieu, New York Comic Con!

Wow! What an awesome show. New York Comic Con was great this year for a lot of reasons. First, and most importantly, I got to see some close friends that I only see this one time a year. On top of that, Matt and I got over 30 interviews for Secret Identity, which people can hear on the podcast in the coming months. I also got some great feedback on Mo Stache, and I am really excited for next year's show, when I will be pushing that project in a major way.

The con was packed all three days, and Saturday was probably as crowded as I've ever seen the show. I have tons of pictures to share both here and on the Secret Identity website, so keep an eye out for those.

It's back to work tomorrow, but I've got some nerd chores to finish before I can relax. Until next time, enjoy the pics below!




Wednesday, October 6, 2010

NYCC Bound!

Tomorrow I'm heading down to New York to attend New York Comic Con. Next to San Diego, this is pretty much the biggest comic convention of the year. This year will be a little diffrerent however, beacuse for the first time, I am going as both a member of the press and a creator.


In additiont o doing tons of interviews for Secret Identity, I'll be handing out flyers for Mo Stache, trying to get the word out as much as possible.

There will also be a sneak preview of a short story I wrote for Strange Aeons magazine at the show. My good friend Vin Ferrante (of Witch Hunter fame) has printed up a bunch of copies of the story, which will be appearing in the next issue of Strange Aeons. The story is called "Tony the Bear," and it's based on an imaginary friend my son had a couple of years ago. I'll talk more about that in a future post, but if you're at NYCC, you can grab a free copy of the story at the Monarch Comics Booth (#2422).

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Getting Organized

So, way back in September of 2010 when I started this site, I mentioned that one of my goals was to collect and keep track of my writing projects. I've already been making a lot of progress toward that goal, as I've been able to dig up some of the things I've done, like the column I wrote for the Enemi catalog, which had been sitting in email limbo before I dusted it off and posted it here.

I also went through various notebooks, emails, folders and every other place I could think of and pulled together all of the projects that I have worked on over the past three years. Turns out I have about 30 "in progress" projects that range from vaguely written ideas, to completely finished drafts, to submitted projects on the verge of being published. Now, I've had a pretty good idea of where most of these projects are at, but not all. I've now been able to organize them into spreadsheet, prioritize them, and figure out he next steps for each one. I've also created a system for all future projects to flow through, which is good, since I just added a new project yesterday.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, I can focus on getting ready for next week's New York Comic Con, where I'll be spending time with friends, interviewing a whole bunch of creators, and talking about a lot of the projects on my spreadsheet. Coming out of that show, I'll have a clearer idea of where my writing energies will be focused for the upcoming year.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Adventures in Columning (2009)


Back in 2009, I did a short stint as a columnist for a comics distribution catalog from Enemi Entertainment. The publication was like an independent version of "Previews," and the guys at Enemi invited Matt (my Secret Identity co-host) and I to write columns for the catalog. Did I mention it was short-lived? We only ended up writing a couple of columns before the catalog underwent some changes and eventually stopped publication.

Searching through my old files I found the first column I wrote for the catalog, and I've posted it below for you to enjoy.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

My New Webcomic--Mo Stache

With CBR and Secret Identity, I've talked about what I've been doing for the past couple years. Today's subject, Mo Stache, is also something I've been working on for a couple years, but it's just starting to see the light of day.


Mo Stache is a webcomic that my good friend John Cordis and I launched on September 1, 2010. We have been working on it in spurts since 2008, and it's great to finally see it come to life.

Mo Stache is a story about a man named Dave Reynolds, and a mustache named Mo.  As the story opens, Dave is leading a pretty normal and boring twenty-something life. All that changes when he wakes up one morning to find he's grown (or so he thinks) a big, bushy mustache overnight. Things take a further turn for the weird when that mustache starts talking to him.

I don't want to spoil too much else right now, but you can see a new page of Mo every week at www.mostachecomic.com. John and I will also be posting some behind the scenes stuff, like scripts, sketches and the like. The picture to your right is the postcard we'll be handing out at this year's New York Comic Con.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Secret Identity Saga (2006-- )

Secret Identity is a twice-weekly podcast that I've been doing with my good friend Matt Herring for close to five years now. We have recorded and produced over 250 shows, and for the past 200 or so, we've followed a pretty consistent format. Our first show of the week is very comic-centric. We discuss news and listener feedback, review current comics and look back at old comics each episode. The send show of the week covers, movies, TV, gaming and more, and features a Creator Spotlight segment, where we talk to someone from the comic, movie/TV or gaming industries. All told, we've interviewed well over 200 creators for the show, something we are extremely proud of.  You can see a complete list of the people we've interviewed on the About page of our website, http://www.secretidentitypodcast.com/.

Which brings me to the website portion of Secret Identity. For over three years, Matt and I have had a site dedicated to the podcast, where we post news, reviews and interviews related to all areas of geekdom as well. The site started small, but now features new content daily, as well as a forum where listeners hang out and talk about the show, comics, games and just about everything else.

Without Secret Identity, none of the other projects I have worked on would exist. I've met a ton of amazing people because of Secret Identity, and it has created opportunities for me to write that I am very grateful for.

I was actually interviewed about Secret Identity by Bob Heske over at InvestComics.com last year. Here's some excerpts from that interview that better detail what Secret Identity is all about:


Bob Heske: Your website is called "Secret Identity," yet I've just told the world who you are. Does this mean you have to kill me? By the way, how did Secret Identity come about?

Me: Are you kidding me? If I killed you, I'd be robbing the world of your creative talent, and I couldn't have that on my conscience. Not to mention, it's not often anyone wants to interview us, so we're very appreciative.

Secret Identity came about because a Matt and I and another friend of ours used to get together every Friday night during the first season of Battlestar Galactica. When the first season was coming to an end, we were looking for a reason to still hang out on Fridays. I was an avid listener of podcasts at the time, and had been thinking about starting one. So, we decided to start a podcast and talk about the same things we talked about at the comic shop, or whenever else we were hanging out.


Tell us about the co-conspirators behind SI - who the heck are Brian LeTendre and Matt "Matman" Herring? (Whoops, there I go again - blowing your cover!) How do you two divvy up responsibilities?

Matt and I are two very different people who happen to have some very strong common interests. He is an old school comics fan, and has a collection of well over 20,000 books. I am a lifelong gamer, having grown up on the Atari 2600 and Dungeons & Dragons. We're both big movie fans—Matt's a war movie fanatic and I love horror. As I mentioned above, we're both sci-fi fans, and I would say our love of comics and Battlestar Galactica was where our initial bond was made.

What's awesome is that when we first started Secret Identity, Matt and I had not known each other very long. Our relationship has developed along with the podcast over these past 3-plus years. Now we're like an old married couple, which is something the wives like to joke about on a regular basis.

In terms of responsibilities, it's a pretty good split. We alternate updating the website daily, so if I update today, he updates tomorrow. I edit and produce the podcast, which can be time consuming, but I've streamlined the process to a point where it's not too bad. Since I've been doing some freelance writing this past year, Matt has really stepped up and done a ton of creator interviews, which has allowed us to continue to feature a creator interview each week in the podcast. Matt is also a great ambassador for the show, and he's helped form a lot of great relationships for us in the comic community.

Everything else we sort of adjust on the fly. If one of us is sick, if work gets crazy, if there's a vacation—we adjust.


How hard is it running a website and a podcast and posting reviews for DriveThruComics? You also do periodic creator interviews and review games and films. What don't you guys cover ... and how do convince your wives let you get away with having all this fun?

It's extremely difficult, but we love it. We have put out at least one episode of Secret Identity every week for the past 200 weeks in a row. We've never taken a week off. That has only happened because we have very understanding families, and we really enjoy doing it.

On the Drive Thru Comics front, Matt M. McElroy from Drive Thru approached me about writing some reviews, and we cross-promote one another, which is really great for us. What I love the most about Drive Thru is that it's a hotbed of Indie creators, and I get exposed to a ton of books that I wouldn't otherwise come across. When I see one that really stands out, I can use the podcast and our website to highlight the book. That's actually one of the best things about Secret Identity, is we've really connected with the Indie community, and we can be a voice for it.

The most difficult part of whole thing is that after the podcast, website and recording interviews, Matt and I don't have a lot of time left over for marketing. For the past couple years, Matt and I have been very focused on making sure we were producing quality content, both on the website and through the podcast. We kind of had a 'if we build it, they will come” mentality. We're very confident in the quality of Secret Identity, but we know that we need to step up the marketing aspect of what we do in order to attract more listeners.


What's your traffic like for the podcast and on the website? How has it grown during your three-year tenure?

We're still pretty small, but we have a very dedicated group of listeners. We get approximately 400-600 downloads per episode of the podcast, and about half of those people regularly visit the website. That's a big jump from the 11 listeners who checked out the first show we did in 2006. We usually see some spikes around big conventions or when we have big-name interviews.

In addition to the listeners that have stuck with us since the beginning, what's really been surprising is the amount of friends we've made in the comic industry. There's a good bunch of creators that listen to us on a regular basis, and it always blows me away to see someone like Jimmy Palmiotti give us a shout out on twitter, or when we run into someone at a show and they've actually listened to the podcast.


You've recently hit the 200-mark for podcasts. What have you learned doing all these shows, and focusing who have been some of your most entertaining and outrageous guests?

What I've learned is that there are some amazing people in the comic industry, and comic creators are so much more accessible than other industries (gaming, movies/tv, etc.). We are very fortunate to have made some great friends that will remain in our lives long after Secret Identity is done. Here's a quick list of some of our coolest guests:

Todd McFarlane (Spawn)--One of our earliest interviews. Forget what you've heard about him, he's a really nice guy, a die hard sports fan and a great interview.

Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica)--A totally laid back kind of guy, Matt spoke to him when Battlestar was at its height, and before the whole Cylon thing happened with Chief Tyrol.

Jim Salicrup (Papercutz, Marvel)—Every time we interview Jim, we are reminded that he is one of comics' great ambassadors.

Billy Tucci (Shi, Sgt. Rock, Heroes for Hire)--Billy's enthusiasm for what he does is infectious. To hear him talk about Sgt. Rock will bring a tear to your eye.

Joe Caramagna (Marvel letterer, Iron Man and the Armor Wars writer)--One of the hardest working guys in comics, Joe is starting to make a name for himself as a writer.

Kyle Baker (The Bakers, Plastic Man)—A great guy, and always very open and honest about what he thinks.

Bill Rosemann (Marvel editor)--Perhaps my favorite guy to interview. He loves comics more than anyone, and to hear him talk about the cosmic stuff is really fun.

Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms D&D world)--As a huge D&D nerd, I was totally starstruck while interviewing Ed. Truly a legend in the fantasy genre.

It's hard to pick just a few from the over 200 interviews we've featured in the podcast, as they are all interesting. My favorites are always the ones where we get a look at the process behind the product, be it a game, comic, movie or show. I'm a sucker for director commentaries and behind the scenes documentaries, so I love to talk about that stuff with creators.

**You can read the entire interview over at Invest Comics here.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

It's Business Time!

Got a new batch of business cards in yesterday.  I think they came out good, although next time around, I'll go a little bigger on the print.  I wanted to have these in time for New York Comic Con.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Comic Book Resources Years (2008-2010)

I just wrapped up a two-plus year stint as a freelance writer for Comic Book Resources (www.comicbookresources.com), arguably the biggest comic news site in the known universe. For the past year and a half, I headed up the gaming coverage for CBR, coordinating pretty much everything having to do with video games. Working for CBR was the first real freelance job I had, and the experience was invaluable. I had the opportunity to shape the way we covered games, and over the last couple years we developed a great reputation for coverage that focused on talking to the developers and creators behind some of the biggest games of the past few years.

All told, I wrote over 100 articles for CBR. I'm not going to list them all on this site, but you can see each and every one of them by clicking here. I would, however, like to highlight some of the coverage that I'm most proud of, which was the series we did on the "Batman: Arkham Asylum" game in the Spring and Summer of 2009.

We worked closely with the PR team at fortyseven communications, as well as the creators behind "Arkham Asylum" to do a series of articles on the making of the game.

The first article I did in March of 2009 was an interview with developer Rocksteady Studios' Natham Burlow, the producer on "Arkham Asylum." You can read it here.

Next up in April I interviewed writer Paul Dini ("Batman: The Animated Series"), who penned the story for "Arkham Asylum." Read that interview here.

July's article featured an interview with David Hego, the Art Director at developer Rocksteady Studios. Check out that one here.

The final interview I did about the game in August focused on gameplay, and featured an interview with Lead AI Programmer Tim Hanagan. Read that here.

To cap it all off, I reviewed "Batman: Arkham Asylum" when it was released it late August 2009. This was the only game review I wrote during my entire time with CBR, but it seemed appropriate to review the game we had spent so much time covering in the preceding months. You can read the review here.

That series of articles on "Batman: Arkham Asylum" perfectly captures the style of coverage I aimed for during my time at CBR. I am immensely proud of my work there, and you will not find a nicer guy to work for than CBR head Jonah Weiland. I owe him a great deal for giving me a shot, and I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that my good friend Dan Evans put in a good word for me when I first applied to write for CBR.

So why did I leave? Primarily because I was spending so much time on coverage for CBR that I was neglecting all of the other writing projects that I had started. My decision to leave CBR and focus on those projects is the reason that seebrainwrite.com came into being. Let's hope that move works out for the best in the long run.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Hello, neighbor!

Hey! It's you! I didn't know you'd be stopping by, so I haven't really cleaned the place up or anything. I've only recently moved in, and there's still so much to do around here. When it's finished though--wow! You are going to be amazed. Trust me.

What's that you ask? What is this place? I'm sorry, I got a little ahead of myself and forgot to tell you what "here" is all about. This place is sort of my home away from my other internet homes--Secret Identity, Comic Book Resources, Drive Thru Comics, etc. It's a place where I'll be collecting some of the articles, interviews and reviews that I've written over the past few years, kind of an easy way for me (and you, if you're interested) to keep track of what I've written

More importantly though, it's a place where I'll be sharing some of my other writing projects, which range from comics to short fiction to a novel I wrote a few years ago that I need to polish and do something with. I have a lot of half-finished scripts, short stories and pitches that have been languishing on my hard drive for the past few years, and even if they never amount to anything, they may at least find a home here.

Through this site, I hope to motivate myself to continue working on my writing skills, as well get feedback from you on what you read here.

So, have a look around, let me know what you think, and thanks for stopping by!

Brian