The Grim Library

Okay so I watched all of Neo Yokio and my thoughts are as follows: It's okay. If you're looking for an okay parody of anime and pop culture with some decent moments and music it's worth at least a look If you're looking for a serious hardcore anime with deep character arcs, methodized storytelling, stylistic action, and a unique art style you better look elsewhere. The animation is shit. Right off the bat. Egoraptor coulda done a better job if you paid him with a half eaten subway sandwich. I've made smoother powerpoint animations. The fact that this type of product made it off the show floor kills me. It shows we're really in a time where you can release a half assed product with no heart or soul and still make mad money and I hate it. Animation quality aside there's some interesting sequences like fighting a demon skull inside an art painting or a race through an underwater city but there's very few ideas that will wow you. But there isn't...

It's not a well known thing that I have anxiety but I do. Okay that part is done I can say what I want to say. I have a true problem with appearing imperfect. I hate the idea of my flaws ever being put out and laid bare. I'd much rather hide my imperfections and maintain the facade of a tough exterior and a higher state of knowledge but truthfully it's more exhausting than hiding. I keep myself secluded from things rather than getting myself out there and getting my hands dirty and taking a few falls and getting up. It's honestly how I was brought up. I never had the room to fail. It was either be great or not noticed. My works meant nothing to my immediate family if no accomplishments followed them. It caused me to become a perfectionist. A really sad perfectionist. I truthfully, in a selfish way, just want to be noticed. I want to be bragged about, talked about. I have a need for it. Being told I was stupid for a good portion of my life caused me to be defiant at ...

Okay so that challenge was impossible to pull off with my current 45+ hour work weeks and I barely have time to write so just uh stay tuned lol.

So I'm going with a weekly story exercise. By the start of the week I'm going to post a writing prompt and by week's end I'll present whatever I've got, rushed or otherwise. No matter how crazy the idea I'm coming up with something. I'm going for ten weeks of this. Here's to better writing! First Prompt!: AND GO!

Exactly what the title implies, I'm gonna be practicing my writing here with writing exercises to help me stay sharp. Writing from a cold start is actually not fun I discovered. Anyway stay tuned

So this is an update on the manga that I've been challenged to create with my friend and it's coming along really awkwardly I gotta say. There's a lot of elements to consider when making a manga/comic especially the art. A lot has come into play for my decisions here because I take this challenge as an art exercise I wanted to talk about the conflict between the main Protagonist and Antagonist: Vayne and Drakkon. This manga/comic is gonna have political reigns in the plot at pretty much all points. What you'll see is a clash of two very powerful leaders in their own right both who wanted what was best for their people. As a prince Vayne went under the guise of a human while walking with a slave woman, Ophelia. He witnessed first hand the horrors of his father's reign first hand. Slavery, poverty, underfunding, and worse no hope for a better life elsewhere. The experience of walking amongst his subjects under cover changed the life views of a young obnoxious Vayn...

I will atone. Shuja sat still in meditation. His eyes closed and ears open; he felt the energy of the forest cascade around him in freedom. The leaves rustled with the wind in the sway of the canopies above. A brief moment of inner peace. But even in his time of peace he couldn’t help but to remind himself, they want me dead. He tightened his fists in frustration. Shuja left his tribe under the title of traitor. A decision that was not made lightly and not without bloodshed. The memory of his slain wife and daughter sprawled across the ground remained branded into his mind. An agonizing heartbreak that shattered his momentary bliss. He fell to all fours in his strife, a cold sweat glazing his skin. Tears forming in his eyes. But now was not the time idle in his agony. There was a journey to nowhere ahead of him and he needed to be ready to move at any moment. He brought himself to his feet and began again down the path of the dense jungle, clothes wrapped in a thick...

I've been hard at work on a Manga to compete with a friend of mine in making one. It gives me some time to practice drawing too. So I thought I'd 100% wing it and just make a story on the spot in five seconds. I thought hey what the heck, challenge myself; break some barriers. I've gone a route I haven't tried before and I see why I hadn't before. My main character is one Vampire named Vayne who is my first balls out off the wall protagonist. Vayne is a hemomancer and does a lot of nasty things with blood and enjoys causing pain. He's fast, loose, and fun as far as a protagonist goes but at the same time he's hard to contain. I realize that Vayne's involvement in whatever plot I can set him in DOESN'T EVEN MATTER.  There's no ally or villain for someone who just wants to watch the world burn now is there? And it's been boiling my blood as of recent when I'm trying to come up with a decent enough plot for him to work with.  Anothe...

I never thought I would actually see the day someone wanted to go head to head with me in writing. My friend wants to race to create a Manga first. I've never done a manga nor Manga art but I've been training up my art and I say I'm up to the challenge. So in addition to Shuja, you'll also see pages from a Manga I'll be putting together. Mind, this is a massive leap for me so mistakes are bound to happen. For me though it's a perfect writing and drawing exercise, I can use it to keep my skills sharp. The series will be called Vain and it's about a cocky Vampire lord who oversteps his bounds a bit. I have no planning going into this and it's a play it by ear thing. I wanna see how I can perform in a week to week setting. Here are some scratch shots I sketched up in 10 mins or less The Protagonist, Vayne Intended First Cover Vayne has some ... weird... abilities

D'Angelo Peers - D'Angelo is a complex, hardass character. On the outside he's a complete tough guy who drinks a lot of alcohol and has an affinity for guns and pulling heists. Raised by the great pirate Cain he was taught the ways of the cutthroat world of pirates. A grand design of women, wealth, and infamy is the only life for D'Angelo. He's strong willed and hot headed in most bits but can be a surprisingly cunning mind when he has time to think. He's never to be taken lightly by his enemies and that's a fact most should learn quickly especially given his crew and resources. Slig - Former veteran army sniper, Dennis "Slig" Wolfe, is the straight man of the bunch. A married man with three children and well accomplished sniper in the military. Despite the extremely polarizing lifestyle of it all he finds catharsis in doing a bit of sailing. He's very laid back and chill about life. On the crew he serves as D'Angelo's right hand man,...

When's the last time I've posted up a story? It's been a while hasn't it? Well don't worry I've got a five part tale for you and it's my first attempt at trying something ... Anime-esque? Not really but sort of. I'm writing a tale that feels like a mythological story. It's about a West African Warrior during the African slave trade and his role in it. So it indeed has a personal connection to me myself. But it also has a close resemblance to tales of other ancient warriors who've pushed extraordinary odds.

A man cannot be always be judged based on his past. Moretto Carlone is a solitary pastor living in Arizona. He enjoys taking forest runs and preaching the gospel. His life seems to be at bliss. He, like many men before him, has a past he'd much rather forget and live in the now. But he's no longer able to maintain this peace as the very heaven he seeks seeks to collide with him. He meets an Angel straight out of heaven itself and she brings a message of war. He becomes entwined in a conflict that drags him across his own imagination and Heaven itself. You'd recognize this character from the Judgement #1 preview and the Angel as Kindra. He's still a pacifist character but with the direction I'm going to take Judgement you're gonna see him come out of his shell. He's a character who's good heart and nature is the key to resolving a war.

I remember starting this writing with the objective in mind to build a superhero team of my own. I'm a big fan of the Avengers, X-men, Justice Leagues, and other hero teams. And when I came up with my own idea for a team I just ran with it. Tonya is very Nick Fury inspired, but in a more colder sense. However I realized more and more that one, writing a story every week is difficult, and two, there's no real substance to the characters and I'm an ant pushing a brick across a desert here with the pacing. There was no legitimate setup to the team members coming together. I eventually let it sit on the shelf til I could eventually replace it with different series based on the members. Because it was originally meant to set up each member with their solo stories and eventually have them partner up down the line with a new threat. But it just didn't work for me. Felt too loose still. "Remember we were on that prison team together? Let's fight baddies!" While ...

I mean I have characters. Lots of them, but what drives them? What drives the sociopathic Tonya Harding? The peace loving Evelyn Shields? The rich businessman Christopher Hughes? What drives them? My real trouble is coming up with a reason why these characters can't just up and leave their arcs and say "screw it all." That's always been a real sticking point for me. I'm currently working on the Tonya-centric series Aftershock in which Tonya Harding is brought back to life after being brutally murdered by someone she trusted. Who she is is very apparent to her, but who she was is all a blur. Being brought back to life wasn't much of a gift. Some time has passed since her own passing and a lot has changed. She struggles with severe memory gaps and just trying to readjust to things as they are now. Her will to even live is fleeting. And her ugly past starts causing more trouble and her mental teeters on a razor's edge of sanity. So what motivates her ...

Nicholas Blade is being reintroduced along with Tonya Harding with a new series on his own. He, like the others, is no longer bound to the prison framing device. He's free and out on the streets. His ability to be ruthless is well preserved too. His story is now focused on a blood war he was born into versus a rival family, the Drakes. Several tragedies in his life are attributed to the actions of his father's transgressions and have formed a thick black cloud over his life. He lost his mother and he lost his wife out of collateral damage of a war he was born into. The last thing he has left is his daughter and he'll be damned before he lets them take her.

Throughout this long break in the writings I've changed the stories around significantly and more importantly I've made a drastic change to the Sentinels. Well, actually the change is that there IS no more Sentinels, not yet anyway. I felt that the whole prison setup really barred off alotta possibilities in story telling and branching and that the bond between these characters would be temporary as they go their separate ways and most likely never talk to each other again. Evelyn wanted to be left alone, So did Nick, so did Chris, etc. So the whole idea of this superhero prison task force assembled under the nose of the government under the supervision of the Prison supervisor herself sounded way too ludicrous for me, personally. I want it to feel less forced and more open. Tonya Harding has undergone quite the transformation background wise. She doesn't recall many years of her life outside her brief stint in the army as part of a meta-human task force to which she did ...

As you know, due to some bizarre glitch The Sentinels 1-6 were wiped out and I have to write it all over again. Which is actually great so I thought I'd just explain where I'm going with the rewrite. Chapters 1-3 will be through the eyes of Tonya and Tonya only: Sans the chapter where we meet Nicholas I feel that some consistency is well deserved and the constant breaking from Tonya as a character wasn't needed. The Rufio encounter: Yea, this in my opinion was one of the weakest points of the early chapters. It'll be rewritten in a better way. Better character interaction: Some of the characters, acted well, out of character. I didn't much care for that. Alot of these mistakes I made is because I was trying to go through this as I go. But as I began learning more and reading more I realized that winging it isn't the way to go. So with a mind more focused planning and crafting the story I'll give a much more quality read.

It was bound to happen. I look toward only the positives in a situation like what happened and I see this as a big opportunity to finally go back and revise alot of the mistakes I feel I made during the writing of the first 10 Sentinels chapters. There was a lot of characterization and plot error that I feel shoulda been done much better and I honestly feel a bit of the plot went loopy or nowhere at times. SO it's time to put Tonya on another ride.

Just to remind you guys that I have not forgotten about the series here's a preview of what goes down in the next chapter! ________________________________________________________________________________ Tonya’s ride home was full of discontent. Raymond tried cheering her up the only way he knew how: being ironically unfunny, but it didn’t work. She kept silent for the entire ride, her mind lost in deep thought. The situation was getting out of her control, she didn’t like that. The car came to a complete stop at the outside of her neighborhood.  She looked up to a horrible sight. Several large pitch-black pillar of smoke arising through the sky and heat she could feel through the insulated car. Each and every stark white house now doused in raging hues of orange, yellow and deep red and they were torn asunder. Lawns once green and tendered engulfed completely in raging flames. Even a couple street lamps had fallen over and fire hydrants had burst ironically to no effec...