So how was Family Fun Fest? Our single public appearance this year

Hey, I took every cheer and clap to heart! That's the energy I give you back on the next tune And it keeps me out of weighing things from any personal, negative evaluation---because, why the heck are you standing up in front of a crowd anyway, right? If no one's listening, it has no purpose and you could be doing it somewhere more comfortable And yet, you can assume just who IS listening when, at an event spread out like so.

Lots of folks came out. Thing is, most of the adults were there as part of a table to sell food. Not a lot of people came just to buy, but a few did come to play and I hope everyone hungry got some tasty wings and everyone thirsty tried some mango punch, as it was all homemade and outdoors to boot. Kim invited us up to sing almost as soon as we got the equipment set up for our table and, oh yeah, our film crew buddies made their first foray with the new equipment and got the first shots of the new film in the can. Children danced, played tug of war (I had a drawing request, sorry Ryan! You were the only adult on your side!), even painted their own t-shirts.

I am more self-critical when I fail to incorporate my failsafes, but it was a very loose environment and there was no need to feel bad about the three amateur mistakes I made in packing. Heh, we had all our tunes in the slipcases at Schroeder's that time, and you know what? After the lights came on, we couldn't read them! lol! There WAS one thing I noticed; three of my five channels on Wash wouldn't play thru Orange Amp. I should really learn the technical reason for that. Running a bass, acoustic guitar, or vox through it should be no problem, and next time Angela's guitar will be repaired, which will broaden the sound of some numbers and bring back some of her cool solo covers (where my left hand returns to regular size and elasticity, too---that's why we space them just so!). You could think of this as one performer comparing notes with another. My issue this year has been that I concentrate on video-making, writing, drawing, even painting, and then I have to keep my music kick-started. A public performance comes up and you try to whip your skills quickly back into shape. I can't say why I always push for at least two numbers I never performed before every time, except it's good to keep learning! I think the challenge gets my pulse going in a way similar to gambling. I had that big Ed Sheeran hit "Thinkin' Out Loud" up my sleeve, but no capo (it could've been with me; there's always one missing thing that turns out to be with you after all, right?), and Phantogram's "Fall in Love" (dependent on Angie's voice; that's hers), and I meant to incorporate "California Rolls" but wondered if it would be offensive (but even church goers smoke weed ;-D), but what I end up thinking about at these mixed events is, there's no one at our table while we're performing. I spent an hour of Killer Comics playing on the sidewalk at Imagine, which was a delight (someone made a cool panorama photo-Mo?), but I never set up my slideshow there, either, nor did I stay at my table to sell anything, as Kay didn't know any prices.


The lesson going forward will be: success will depend on the integrity of those working beside me, and even my best ideas will always work in tandem with someone else in some way. I can envision a five person touring operation where we play and display at conventions around the world, private parties, and other kinds of public dates. You keep everything alive and vibrant until circumstances change to develop the newest opportunity. It's much like the principle of seeds, only it's also like keeping a garden alive at present while waiting for the conditions to plant other things in their season. There are many possible configurations where that five-person operation could be many more, as with much larger tours-but you CAN go too big, like Bowie did with Glass Spiders. Then, you could be Black Flag or X, low ticket prices and DYI all the way. Now how all that works alongside writing books, drawing comic books, and optioning theatrical projects? I am honestly making up this life as I go along, because I can't point to one single person stuck doing it my way. Gerard Way is probably the most successful example close to what I want, and he only wrote Rainbow Academy (though he may have done thumbnails or designs), while bringing in other talents to execute the comic rather than going the painstaking auteur route (the Broke-As-A-Joke method), as he was often busy with My Chemical Romance in those same years. But this also means he has other career choices following the band's dissolution. Well...that's lots to read. Send! And have a nice day.
Oh, Umbrella Academy, lol

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Introducing: Integr8d Comics Number One, from the ever elevating ground floor, up!

In July, I hoped I'd have Pop's story ready in time for his birthday the 24th, write some of Philomena's realm and her encounters with Sunstrike, and get Danger Bot #1's pencils done by September, so I could embellish and letter in dialogue. Could I draw at Manga weekly pace, several pages a week, a single strip? Then, by September 22nd I wanted to start the brand new Not Another Comic Book, so I could keep my promise to Jenn to make her a comic book character. Hey, she keeps HER promises, I think, and I will keep that one.
Sulinar Vix and Danger Bot, never before imagined by me in directly the same story, just the larger tapestry--until NOW!


Over three months later, "Dragon's Line: Storm of the Hidden Temple" was completed and given on August 5th; I started not at all the Danger Bot paintings, maybe now, but I did paint many more times than I anticipated. But, no comic book pages. Even the Stuckwayze couldn't maintain a page/panel a day pace. I'd been invited to be the subject of a film documentary. I'd said good bye to T.J. and also to BS, scraped away the unnecessary, said goodbye to the white truck, t.i.j. (Totaled in Junkyard), and finished my painting spree with a full dimensional, spacious cavern painting wherein is held The Last Rumble, applying some special narrative element to a story invented by Dixie Bowman and shared with me, where we returned Rumplestilskin to Story with an allegory for her own struggle to help out a nephew she considers her son, for he has no need of the mother he had now. I did write the nephew in question thirteen times, and a batch of skits is already three pages thick for his next letter, which I hope is not being withheld from him! Many of my letters were not only tardy, but not even received by the time I saw him, take my word for it, wasn't acceptable or logical, it's his property. Oh yah, and I have to make a mandatory court appearance November 5th two and a half hours from here in Habersham County, because of the accident. yeesh.

I started drawing again, in October, on the second, while celebrating Angela's latest trip around the sun with us. I used "Drawloween" goals each day until after the zombie a week later, when I took Angela's advice and drew what I want. Tonight, I re-organized the room, too, and the drawing table's now right beside me, one reasonable rolling chair trip away.

A plastic zip bag made for newly purchased sheets (a gift from Mom and Pop Bowman to us) contains comics I want to let Joe and Heather next door borrow. VAMPS #1-6 (no #3), Iron Man #149-151 with Dr. Doom, then Camelot, too, then Ant-Man solo, & Giant Sized Iron Man #1;
House of Secrets #17-19 Justice Inc. #1, The Flash #75-79, Marvel Knights: The Punisher #2, Amazing Spider-Man #267, Peter Parker #105 & 106, Incredible Hulk #222 (yep, Starlin one-shot) and #335, perfect for Halloween.

Also, these, of special note:

Yi Soon Shin #1-4 by our pal Onrie Kampan and David Anthony Kraft, drawn by Angel Tempano; tell you more about that one! The GN just sold 1500 copies at NYC Comic Convention! WAy to go Onrie! That is a guy who put it all on the line.

The Map #1-4 Chad Cavanaugh is already at work on his next comic series, from Blam! Comics in our spiritual homeland, San Diego. Chad put it all on the line, too. For America, as a soldier. Now, he's keeping the kitchen safe...and growing all the muscles a Dad could ask for!

So, Integr8d Soul Comics, and why are we Number One, again?

I was rambling to our Awesome Club friend Danny J about Danger Bot, who I had drawn a bit differently, but hadn't started Danger Bot #1, even with the new improved ending.


Then a few minutes later, he says:

Danny Johansson: You should do an pretty unexplored manga genre: robot romance rumble :D
C Disharoon: heheh. Ah. If I thought you had time and wanted to do it, I'd just ask you to do that cover. I have no excuse not to do it, really, Well, a robot romance and rumbles are all together possible in the future of DAnger Bot. It won't always be what it is now. heck, I've already posited a version, two, living in the distant future (one is essentially a satellite, converting itself into a battle station). And the other one's a little heroic one, a Sentai, trying to debug its gigantic "cousin."
Danny Johansson: But robot romance! You must do it! And fight in rumbles with the love rivals! :D
C Disharoon: It's great :-D
Danny Johansson: "Your hard casing makes my circuits overload!" :D
C Disharoon: Especially if one robot doesn't really want all the fighting over her...no, wait...she will not be the first character...we need one who wants LOTS of drama and trouble over itself.
Danny Johansson: Yes!

C Disharoon: hahah! Writes itself. And we don't quite know what our p.o.v. character sees in "her" (I don't know if I'll bother with gender per se, since, ya know...)
Danny Johansson: But robots does have genders! :) Fembots!
[10/17/2015 4:27:35 PM] C Disharoon: Then, and only then, have the one who loves peace come along, and wants nothing to do with our battle-hungry hero (oh, that 's what "he" likes" fighting! And that's why he stays attached to the first one, because she brings lots of battles).

I DO like it. Maybe I'll introduce it through Not Another Comic Book, as someone the girls encounter. Then, see if we can get a spin-off! I can never just say no to a cool new possibility to entertain.
Danny Johansson: Why not just fuse your ideas and the new possibilities? :)
C Disharoon: You know, as Danger Bot becomes sentient and evolves, it is drawing its imprint from two people who are rivals, that just may eventually fall for each other.
C Disharoon: Exactly. That's how so many characters like Vado and Shamilal and Merriwyn, from different stories (a novella and an unfinished novel) have ended up in Sunstrike's story.
[10/17/2015 4:32:00 PM] Danny Johansson: :)
C: And Not Another Comic Book is the place for a wild new setting every issue
[10/17/2015 4:32:39 PM] C Disharoon: And the robots are set off nicely by humans

We talked a while longer, but twenty four hours did not pass without my characters from DAnger Bot #1 and Not Another Comic Book #1 now meeting up, teaming up if you will, now in one story, with conflict fueled by a Robot Romance Rumble.

In the next twenty four hours, Sheer-Zan and Miracalla and ancient Lord Dragonvayne all found their way into the story as well, and then, lo and behold, Bonnie shifts the conflict over into a molecular facsimile in Uglyland, so the Stuckwayze are suddenly everywhere, too, and just as I've figured out what's something good visually to depict Telea doing! I learn something brand new about Sheer-Zan that fits nicely with the Sunstrike stories. And my recently-unveiled cross-dimensional arch villain Sulinar Vix? Oh, that sneaky guy. He's here behind the scenes!

Best yet, I even get to use San Diego as my background, a callback to the visual composure of every single Not Another Comic Book since 2007.
AND I have an engine for chaotic ultra violence handy, while picking up a brand new idea from my friend and then bending every single little thing I have in store around it!

The two parts inspired by his suggestion will be joined by a third part, a separate but equal story featuring the origin of Sunstrike from the perspective of Dr. Bonnie D. Light and Princess Jennvincible, with an ending tying right back to events in the opening pages of the Robot Romance Rumble! As a whole, the three stories feature nearly every active Integr8d Soul character I've got. It's like starting the I.S. Universe, for most people, 99% of those to come at least, with the equivalent of Fantastic Four Annual #3, with the energetic enthusiasm of those inventive days of the Lee/Kirby partnership! The third story even has pyramids, pirates, Egyptian mysticism and a chance to homage Ditko and Crowley and Raiders of the Lost Ark while launching my own version of Star Wars/ Trek with Sunstrike's team. First, Bonnie and Jenn must solve the mystery of the man who disappeared from Earth!


For the love of a great synopsis

On a world where robots romantically rumble, contests for consensual companionship, like a mighty axe wielder crushed by a guy with drill hands, as part of several pages of strategic battle and possibly, other combatants. Why? Well, there's a Rizen-Y, and she is the motivation for ol' Drill Hands there to plow through her many suitors.

So a burlesque dancer, Dr. Bonnie De Light, very in her mind and body, has used her mechanical engineering skills to open a multi-space/time aperture, which she calls Portal Immortal. She's brought her friend, Jenny Couture, the webcam entrepenuer; Celestia "Cefe" Englehart, aspiring model; and her cute best friend,Gabby Pepper, a quirky designer who grew up on a commune with Celestia. Jenn's just discovered: when she's Portal traveling, her body and possibly mind are as invincible as her will. Bonnie's gadgets and formulas have a good showing so far.

While watching the Rumbles, they strike up a friendship with a robot, ICR-14, in ID Crisis. Danny suggested him; he doesn't know what he is or wants to be. So, they offer to take ICR-14 shopping, and nickname him "Seer." Once I draw this, Danny J will write "I, Seer"'s lines, and the I.S. characters will respond, a true dialogue!

The Portal Immortal's maiden voyage is a success; the gang lands in San Diego, as planned. But back on Mecha Love Tap World, someone's coercing Lovergirl 67 into cyber seducing ICR-14 with revealed intentions, so ---follow that boy! This way!
And Roberta Rizen-Y, she just CAN'T let that lovestruck fool with no wiles jump through that portal without a wing girl! So, she gets her chauffeur to pick them both up and zip them through the portal. All the dominoes are in place now! But Drill-a-Minute there is...dazed. So our Cupid morphs into NME-9, declares, WITH a STENTORIAN VOICE, Rizen-Y will be his concubine! Through the portal he goes, with Roberto Drill Hands pursuing, hot. And a-waaaay we go!

While at Horton Plaza, Seer tries on outfits of every type, and Gabby advises while entertaining her new friend Kacey on their lunch date. What Cefe senses is NME-9 stalking them! Youka and Shora are having a blast sight seeing, and Miracalla's lunch date is a face-to-face with a vampire so powerful, he's like her compared to most humans, and he seems to know much more about her than she, him. Kacey opens up about adjusting, after being the top of her class, to being hungry for improvement. She ends up placing a grudging call for help to her rival, Ataru Etsuko---bring Danger Bot!

Why?

Because Drill Hands Robotto clanks up to find the object of his bellicose attentions cozying up with Celestia, who really only now walked up, but Roberta Rizen-Y moves quick, everyone knows, he bellows. Youka prepares to protect people as Sheer-Zan.

And our hero ICR-14's no more certain who to be than before, no doubt, but what a lot of fun, and it's still a bit before his trip's thoroughly disrupted by events in the courtyard. As for what follows, it's good this place was built with four floors opening to the air wherever possible, to take advantage of the sun and avoid tragedies amid earthquakes. All the same, Danger Bot's on the way.
*---spoiler!**--
Bonnie's working on shifting the combat to a parallel dimension of some sort, because really, any violence is sort of her responsibility, for opening Portal Immortal, she thinks. So, in part two, she'll shift Horton Plaza into its molecular counterpart, Hurtin' Plaza, in Uglyland.

Which means, the Stuckwayze and their world and concepts make the party, too, with a promising aftermath for whomever makes it out of this two part adventure alive! So it's really going to read at least three parts, since they will have to travel out of Uglyland eventually, along with part of downtown San Diego, which is being replicated feverishly and rebuilt by the Stux, with their own twisted twists, as you'll see. With the Sunstrike story, they'll make four parts we can publish together.


But, first, I want to get out this first one. And to give you a complete story it needs to be part one and two, together. For a limited time, however, I could offer the first 21 pages as a first part, and then press on to complete our story as plotted.
What I envision is publishing a product, Integr8d Comics Number One, with the 42 page lead story, and as an amazing second feature, one 21 page (projected) complete tale, though that one kicks off a whole flargin' series!

So, OK, back to the Robots Romance Rumble. Its two parts form a 42 page comic book story, complete of itself, though with some interesting loose ends left for the near future's playtime. Then, I would love to pair those with the Sunstrike story, since it features Bonnie and Jenn, and follows up on an observation Bonn-Bonn makes in the Robot Romance Rumble tale, about the Vault of Enoch. Their discovery is initiated by the origin of one of my oldest characters, and not the one I've been talking about, only!
Dr. Bonnie D. Light and Jennvincible's jaunt, the third activation of the Portal Immortal, opens the Pyramids of Infinitude, and there, the action-filled origin (part one anyway) of a hero and team bound for an epic adventure I've spent much of this year plotting and inventing. Its star Sunstrike is a hero bound for the novel Eyes of Heroes, which follows that run. That novel's been pecked at for two years, and the run was given tender loving care by me for the first half of this year, before I got invested in Danger Bot and Making Comics. The story I wrote this summer, “Storm of the Hidden Temple,” receives its second narrative tie-in, as we revisit one of its scenes in this story thanks to the Pyramids of Infinitude. When you put all this together under one cover, hopefully in time for next year's conventions, right, you have every active Integr8d Soul adventure character united- Integr8d- in One Great Story!

The two parts inspired by Danny's suggestion will be joined by a third part, a separate but equal story featuring the origin of Sunstrike from the perspective of Dr. Bonnie D. Light and Princess Jennvincible, with an ending tying right back to events in the opening pages of the Robot Romance Rumble!

As a whole, the three stories feature nearly every active Integr8d Soul character I've got. It's like starting the I.S. Universe, for most people, 99% of those to come at least, with the equivalent of Fantastic Four Annual #3, with the energetic enthusiasm of those inventive days of the Lee/Kirby partnership!

The third story even has pyramids, pirates, Egyptian mysticism and a chance to homage Ditko and Crowley and Raiders of the Lost Ark while launching my own version of Star Wars/ Trek with Sunstrike's team. First, Bonnie and Jenn must solve the mystery of the man who disappeared from Earth!

I'm saying, you can invest in these guys and expect a well-thought out story, with high-energy invention, heart, originality, if there's any anywhere in the known galaxy! If you're hungry for more, I promise, these characters are built to last, with rich pasts and links to one another that support their distinct identities. I envy you! All you gotta do is read'em!!!

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short and sweet

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