Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

Being a lifelong DC and Superman fan, this new Man of Steel trailer has made me go nuts over a live action superhero movie the likes of which I’ve never been before. The recent Batman movies were very, very good and I was eager to see them, but they didn’t have that element of the fantastic because they’re Batman movies. They’re not supposed to. As cool as the whole Marvel Phase One project was, being a DC fan, there was still something missing for me.

Now that missing piece is in place. Even if Man of Steel is only as good as this trailer, the future of DC heroes on the big screen is going to be something bigger and grander than anything ever unleashed on the world, and Marvel–whose presently the leader–should take notice and should start to worry. DC is killing it in the direct-to-DVD features, something Marvel has just stepped up to with Iron Man: Rise of Technovore. In my opinion, though DC Comics has fewer characters than Marvel–that I’m aware of–the mythology attached to each is more interesting and more vast, easy content for the movieverse.

Enough rambling. The great “Who’s Better? DC or Marvel” debate is one I’ve been having with a friend for a decade and a half. Soon, I won’t need to argue. Man of Steel, Justice League and the others to follow will put an end to it, if this trailer has anything to say about it.

On a side note: I don’t know if the music in the trailer is the official Man of Steel score by Hans Zimmer or not, but following in the footsteps of the great “Superman Theme” from John Williams is no easy feat and the music in this trailer got me going and says to me one name: Superman.

. . . in DC Universe Online, anyway (available for free download for PC and PS3). The other day I saved Superman from Lex Luthor and was officially invited to the Hall of Justice and bestowed a Justice League emblem and an offical induction into the League.

This game has become a pretty big part of my life lately and is especially cool because I get to play as my own superhero character, Axiom-man. First Axiom-man was in novels, then in comics, then in cosplay . . . and now is active in the DCU.

Of course, he’s not a DC Comics character and is exclusive property of Coscom Entertainment, but to “role play” as him so to speak–takes it to a new level, especially since he has superpowers in the game, something you can’t get out of cosplay.

Below are some screen shots of Axiom-man in the DCU. I was able to get his costume pretty close based on the templates/formats available for players. Also in the shots below he’s wearing his Justice League emblem–given to him by Oracle–which he only wears in-game, at least for now.

Take a look, click to zoom in:

I’m so thrilled DC Comics is really going hard with getting out cool-looking products for their characters. If you ask me, it’s about time.

With the amazing gameplay of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and the much-anticpated follow up, Batman: Arkham City, looking to be stunning, it’s cool to also see another of DC’s heroes getting center stage: Green Lantern (especially with the movie coming out in June). Sure, there was DCU-Online, but I couldn’t justify spending $15 a month playing it nevermind the $60 to buy it “just so I can play it.”

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters game looks great! (And Ryan Reynolds does the voice, too!) Can’t wait to pick it up for my PS3.

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1

April 2010

Writing and publishing for a living is a dream come true for me. Sounds horrifically cliché, that last bit, but the truth is it’s what I’ve wanted for about ten years, and the ability to not have to go to a 9-5 for even longer.

I look back at high school and all my friends talking about their plans for the future, what universities they were enrolled in, the profession they were aiming for—direction. I never had that. Sure, I had “direction” in the context of wanting to be a comic book artist for DC or Marvel, but in terms of the “how” I’d get there, I didn’t know. Not really. Something about commercial art, but nothing specific. We don’t have cartooning schools here, you see.

Oddly, there was a comfort in not knowing the precise steps but knowing I’d get there eventually. When most of my friends were cramming for exams, staying up ’til all hours studying for tests, aiming for the high marks—to be honest, I was more concerned with just getting by. Not getting by as in barely passing, but if I got a C, I was fine with it. The way I saw it, was aim for average and if you score better, you’ll feel like a genius. So there I was, kind of cocky, thinking, “Man, so glad I won’t have to bust my butt to get good grades just to get some job I don’t like.”

When I was a kid and I thought of what I’d be doing for a living, I didn’t have an answer. All I knew was that it’d be “something.” Maybe something at a desk. Writing on paper. Maybe signing my name on a few things, but not much else. In terms of what industry or specific job, I didn’t know.

Then I got into comic art in grade eleven and found out I could express my love of superheroes for actual money and not just as a fan.
It’s been a long road since then and I’ll tell you about it sometime when I post my memoirs here. I’ve already begun putting to paper my writing journey as a separate series of entries.

Back to the beginning: writing and publishing for a living is a dream come true, but it can also be a frustrating one sometimes, and remember that bit I said about not having to bust my butt? Well, I might not have done so academically, but I can tell you I’m working it hard every day to bring you entertainment, whether it’s my own personal books or the books of those I publish through Coscom Entertainment.

And so here we are, frustrated again because I’m writing this super long entry which is my second attempt at a monthly newsletter. I started Coscomment: The Next Generation a while back, before I was posting daily at www.CanisterX.com, the idea being that instead of maintaining a blog, I could just send out a monthly newsletter. Well, it turns out I could maintain a daily blog and have developed the habit of doing so, but I still also like the idea of a newsletter, one giant info session discussing everything from writing, to publishing, to cooking, to my day-to-day life and areas of interest not related to my career as an artist. Almost a brain dump of sorts, but with a little more structure.

It’s fun to just kind of ramble and deposit a large amount of information in one go.

So here we are, back to doing a newsletter.

The frustration? The pretentious statement of “always having something to write,” starting one project after another, sometimes not finishing what you start because, believe it or not, folks, a lot of writers have novels and stories that go bust on them and they dump them off into the nether regions of their hard drives, never to be seen or heard from again, remaining unknown to the general public.

And this monthly newsletter attempt is me yet again having “something to write,” and something to try and entertain you with, and if not that, at least keep your interest.

Hopefully it hits the mark.

Guess I just can’t shut up.

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Been busy as all get out. This month alone I finished up Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, signed a deal with Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint; did all the tasks associated with that deal; launched a free online serial on www.CanisterX.com called Zomtropolis: A Record of Life in a Dead City; edited a book for Coscom Entertainment; did author royalties; have to get ready to send taxes before we head off on a short holiday; got a chunk of the Coscom catalog up on Smashwords.com; launched Animal Behavior and Other Tales of Lycanthropy by Keith Gouveia; arranged a book launch for Zombie Fight Night with a local bookstore; never mind all the other tasks that comes with being a fulltime writer and publisher (including a financial institution switch for the business after my current one really screwed me over). Yeah, crazy busy, but it needs to get done and I’m not complaining. Just feeling the burn, if you know what I mean.

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My compost bin has been collecting various compostable items all winter. Of course they freeze during those months so not much happens rotting-wise, but now it’s all thawed and I’d say the stuff is around 80% ready. The problem is I only have one compost bin—and they’re not cheap: $30-$60, depending if you can get them on sale or not like we did—and if I keep adding fresh items to it every few days from our small kitchen bin, those new items have to start at the beginning of the process, thus slowing down the rest of it in terms of getting the stuff to the garden. Anyway, lately I’ve been leaving what’s in the bin in the bin, and any new stuff is in small plastic bags from the kitchen bin and sitting on our porch in a diaper box. That’s fine for a few bags of new stuff, but with the weather heating up, I don’t want bugs to start swarming around them or the neighbor’s cats tearing them open. I’m thinking a week or so I’ll bury the almost-ready compost from the main bin in the garden and let it sit for a few more weeks then plant, in turn starting a fresh batch with the stuff from the bags.

My current compostable items list includes (and I’m always open to suggestions for more items from other composters):

- fruit and vegetable scraps
- paper
- soft cardboard (i.e. egg cartons)
- hair
- yard clippings
- grass
- dryer lint

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I admit I’m a latecomer to this—especially since I’m really not one to follow the trends and don’t give in to hype or do something because “everyone else is doing it”—but I seem to have an addiction to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and find myself having it play in the background on Youtube while I’m trying to beat Mahjong Dark Dimensions over at Arcadeboss.com. It’s catchy, and I try to counter that addiction a bit by viewing the Key of Awesome’s Lady Gaga spoof, “Lady Gaga: Bad Romance parody (feat. Lord Gaga) #6.”

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Since Zombie Fight Night is so close to coming out as I write this, I’ve also been getting things ready for my local tour and am trying to get local media attention onto the book. I have nearly all the stores interested (still need to make a couple phone calls), but so far only have one event scheduled for May 20 at 7pm at McNally Robinson’s Booksellers. That’s okay. And just the other day I honed my idea to get the attention of those in the store during the event.

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Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead officially launched on Thursday, April 23, 2010. I’m very proud of this book because it combines two of my favorite genres: martial arts and zombies. This is my ode to B-fight movies. If you like action, zombies and Fight Club, you’ll dig this. It’s available at Amazon.com both in Paperback and Kindle, as well as via the usual paperback and eBook channels that I use.

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Watched a Stephen King documentary on the 23rd as well, the one from A&E Biography called Fear, Fame and Fortune. Back when I started writing this was an important source of inspiration to me. That and American Movie. I own the King doc on VHS, which goes to show how old it is. I haven’t seen it in years. I could relate to a whole lot in there, especially the being poorer-than-poor part. The one theme that kept coming up during the documentary was Stephen King’s persistence at making a career out of writing.

And it’s true. In this game you need to push, push, push and keep going even when you want to give up. Even when others say you should give up. You have to. Persistence is what separates the aspiring writers from the real writers. Aspiring writers only want to write, whereas real writers actually write.

This is an industry that is based on getting things done. If you can’t produce then you’re out of the game.

Like I say around the Coscom Entertainment office, “Get it done.”

- A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB

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Leading up to this season, Smallville was more “earthbound,” in that it really was about a teenager with developing superpowers with only mere glimpses into his true heritage.

Season Five changed the tone of the series forever.

I always viewed this season as the mythology turning point for the series. Huge things happen and we’re suddenly thrust from those Twilight Zone-oriented episodes into the DC Comics universe; things shifted from a “superboy” to Superman.

Significant events go down this season, including the emergence of a certain location and the death of a certain loved one. We’re also introduced to a couple more characters from DC Comics continuity.

For me, this was the season where the show grew up and strolled down the Superman road with purpose instead of by happenstance. (Those who’ve seen the show know what I mean.)

The only thing that irked me about this season and going into the next was the whole Clark and Lana thing was getting played out and it seemed the romantic subplot of the show was going in circles instead of officially stating, “Let’s get these guys together for real and keep it that way.” But, as per usual TV show fashion, something always has to happen to drive the couple apart. Though romantic tension is good up to a point, Smallville set the bar high in terms of driving the audience nuts–even to the point of bad-TV frustration–with the Clark and Lana relationship. Sometimes we as viewers just want to see things work out, you know?

Other than that, good times to be had in Season Five of Smallville.

Recommended.

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5 out of 5

Where do we begin?

Three years ago, movie-goers wouldn’t dare touch a Batman movie. I mean, what happened? Did you get your act together and deliver us one of the best bat-flicks ever?

Seems so.

And now you’ve done it again . . . times ten!

Batman has made a difference in Gotham. Criminals are running scared. Underworld organizations are toppling. He has indeed become the symbol he set out to be.

Now a psychotic clown-faced criminal is tearing his way through the Gotham City underworld, quickly establishing himself as the Clown Prince of Crime. His method: death, and lots of it. His motive: madness. But is he crazy? As he would say, “I’m not. No, I’m not.” And he’s right. He’s not crazy. This man–this “Joker”–is brilliant, and if he gets his way, Gotham will fall into his hands.

Unless Batman can stop him.

The Joker’s reign of terror starts in the underworld but reaches deep into Gotham’s social structure, various men strategically placed throughout the police, mayoral offices, everywhere. And they listen to him. Except for Gotham’s White Knight, Harvey Dent, the do-gooding District Attorney who’s dedicated himself to cleaning up Gotham and taking down the crime syndicates that have oppressed it for so long.

Death reigns supreme in this movie. People die, and Batman is faced with the hard choice of becoming that which he hates . . . or risk losing Gotham and those he loves to this madman.

I cannot say enough good things about this movie. Going into this thing back in 2008, and despite the crazy good trailers for The Dark Knight, I wasn’t sure if Batman Begins could be beat or even tied. Batman Begins was what put serious superhero flicks back on the map in a big, big way. It was what restored the faith of us fans in DC Comics and gave us hope that they’d start the journey to taking down their number one competitor at the box office, Marvel. And with Superman Returns being just plain poopy, I hoped against hope they’d at least get Batman right a second time.

And they did. They so did and me and everyone in that theatre were gushing with joy that not only was The Dark Knight as good as Batman Begins, it was even better.

Christian Bale delivered another solid performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. The new suit rocked hard. Loved the detail. Though he was less buff than the previous film–why? who knows? You’d think a crimefighter would maintain a fitness regime–he did a great job differentiating between the boring and dull playboy Bruce Wayne and the rage-filled-justice-driven Batman. My only issue was the voice. In Batman Begins, it was gruff, cool and tough. In this one, he sounded like he was growling the whole time and he had to force the words out to make them all gravelly. (And, FYI, WB, Batman’s voice doesn’t have to be like he’s talking through pebbles and sand; Kevin Conroy proved that.)

Heath Ledger’s Joker was utterly amazing. Creepy. Gothic. Funny, but not comical (like Jack Nicholson’s was). Eerie, disturbed, crazy—delicious. What I loved the most was two things 1) the clown make up was just that: make up. At first I didn’t like this idea and wanted the Joker to have been a victim of an acid bath ala his comics backstory, but after watching the movie, I see why they went this route. Bringing us to 2) Joker was a genius. It was his brilliant criminal mind that enabled him to quickly establish himself as a powerful evil force in Gotham and the make up was his edge in doing that both in a scary-because-I’m-crazy way, but also it made others think he was merely a lunatic in turn making them drop their guard so he could move in.

Once more, I really dug Gary Oldman’s James Gordon and seeing him officially become commissioner in this was cool.

Likewise Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and, eventually, Two-Face—hey, he did a good job on both sides of the, um, coin. My only thing with Two-Face in this flick was that I wasn’t expecting him to show up. I thought this movie would establish the Harvey Dent character in turn setting him up to become Two-Face in the next one. So, yeah, that part was a bit rushed but them’s the breaks.

I enjoyed Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes better than Katie Holmes. Maggie’s kind and cute, but can be rough and touch when she needs to. Worked well for Bruce’s childhood friend/love interest, especially when that twist came that changed Rachel’s future forever.

My only other little quibble was the whole bat-sonar thing. That was venturing into Batman Forever territory and we all know how that one turned out, but the positives of this movie more than make up for the couple of minor issues I had with it.

This movie is just tremendously good. Good fighting. Good story. Good stuff.

Very recommended.