The Last Jedi Teaser Poster

Star Wars The Last Jedi – Teaser

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On Friday April 14th, I set my iPad up with the live stream of Star Wars Celebration in time for the 11am The Last Jedi trailer. Josh Gad hosted Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, newcomer Kelly Marie Tran, and finally, Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.

After nearly an hour of Q&A, which included some teases about Kelly Marie Tran’s new role, as well as some speculation that Finn may not want to be part of the resistance after the wounds he suffers at the hands of Kylo Ren, Johnson finally showed the audience what they had been waiting for. Continue Reading

Apply Now

Why Hiring People Almost Always Sucks

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I was on LinkedIn recently, when I read a post from a friend of mine.  He was appalled by the fact that during a recent job search, he didn’t hear back from more than 90% of the places he applied to.

He also shared a note he got back – 3 months later – from one organization.

In a pretty standard looking form letter, the organization thanked him for applying to the role, and said that they got 820 applications for the position, and unfortunately wouldn’t be pursuing him for the selection process.

People on the posting were mixed, about 50% were impressed that he got a response, and 50% were insulted that he got a canned response. Continue Reading

Bernie Wrightson - A Look Back

Bernie Wrightson, One of my Favourite Artists, has died

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Bernie Wrightson passed away on Saturday night after a long battle with brain cancer. He was 68 years old.

He was best known as a comics illustrator who was instrumental in the horror comics of the 60’s and 70’s, and as the co-creator of the Swamp Thing for DC Comics. His most well known illustrations are for his renditions of Frankenstein’s Monster for Marvel Comics’ 1983 adaptation of the novel. Wrightson’s illustrations were based on the descriptions in the novel itself.

I knew of Bernie Wrightson as a child. I remember seeing a copy of Swamp Thing #7 at a flea market when I was seven or eight. I bought that comic and poured over it for days, as I did with every comic book I bought back then.

I didn’t know WHO Bernie Wrightson was, or what he contributed to comics and illustration until I was 19. I bought a few comics off my friend Anthony. One of them was a printing of the Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein adaption. Shortly after that I found a copy of the amazing retrospective book “A Look Back” (I own #28 of 700 numbered copies). That book introduced me to his contemporaries like William Stout, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, and Barry Windsor-Smith.

I gained an appreciation of the Warren magazines like Creepy and Eerie. I learned what made an image horrific, and I studied my copy of Frankenstein like it was an ancient religious text.

I learned about figure, form, and the importance of intricate backgrounds. It took Wrightson seven years to illustrate the 50 pen-and-ink illustrations that accompanied Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein. It was the first time I had read the book in its entirety – even though in high school I was an avowed horror fan, reading everything from Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft to Clive Barker and Stephen King.

Bernie Wrightson was as big of an influence in my own artistic style as Marshall Rogers, Jim Aparo, Matt Wagner and George Perez were. Although I have simplified my style over the years where it’s closer to cartooning than illustration, I’m still able to break out the pen and ink when I want to and I can go into detailed, intricate detail.

2016 Review, 2017 Goals

2016 In Review and 2017 Resolutions

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Each year I write a review and goals blog post, these posts help me to look back on the year, and figure out what I want to do going forward.  There have been a few years I didn’t write these posts, and I regret those years as I can’t look back and figure out where I was at that point in my life.

With that said, this post is primarily written for future me, so if you are reading this and find that it’s braggy, or in some way insulting to you, that is not my intent, this is about me, and for me. I post it publicly so that I have some accountability and can find it easily in the future. Continue Reading

  • Our Fan Expo Canada Stan Lee Experience
  • The All New Comics Booth
  • Cosplayers in front of the booth
  • OH NO! It's ASH!
  • Someone doesn't understand
  • Wait, it's Ash?
  • Umm, will the real Ash please stand up?
  • Don't tell her there's something over her shoulder!
  • Attack!!!
  • Carl, leave my backpack alone!
  • HEADSHOT!
  • HEADSHOT! AGAIN!
  • The force is strong in this one!
  • Captain Phasma had an awesome voice changer.
  • Kaylin was a character from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared...she was not alone.
  • RAPHAEL!!!
  • My true grail object.
  • STAN LEE!!!
  • Our Loot

Fan Expo Canada 2016

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I’ve been going to Fan Expo Canada with Kaylin and Maks for the last three years. They’ve both reached the age where we can manage to do the entire show floor with a minimal amount of whining, and it’s fun.

I decided about five years ago that I was done with Fan Expo, it’s huge, it’s crowded, and I always feel exhausted at the end of a day there.  Against my better judgement I took them the first time and they absolutely loved it, seeing the show through their eyes made me love it too.

This year I have been to more comic conventions than any other year. I’m going out and marketing Manage Comics, so I am meeting retailers, and talking to people.  I’ve been to the April Toronto Comicon (which happened to fall on a PD day, so the kids came), the May Niagara Falls Comicon (which I flew solo), and I’ll be attending at least two more shows this year, so I had floated the idea that we skip Fan Expo past them. Continue Reading

Destiny the Rise of Iron

Still With Destiny, After All These Years

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It’s hard to believe, but we stopped working on BalanceDo two years ago.  In order to truly wind down, I bought a game that had just come out two weeks before.  I had loved the Halo series, but hadn’t really played a game fully since GTA IV, and Destiny looked like the right balance of dumb and fun.

I picked it up, breezed through the story mode, and played the weekly strikes and other match made content.  It wasn’t until Christmas when I started using LFG (looking for group) sites to match up in order to play some of the end-game content. Continue Reading

Ad Blocking

Why I’ve Started Using an Ad Blocker (and why you should too)

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I want to start this post out by saying how hard this decision was for me, and how much I hated doing it.

For the better part of a decade I worked for a large Canadian media company. In my division, all of our revenue was generated by Advertising, so ad dollars paid my salary.  I have watched as ads went from a scarce commodity to something so common place that they are worth literally pennies.

I understand how hard it is to build an online business, and how integral advertising is to online business.

In the last year however, ads have become so incredibly horrible that I had to start using an ad blocker. I installed it on Friday August 19th.

Why?  What prompted me to do such a thing? Continue Reading

NorthIQ Business Solutions

One Year Later – What am I Doing?

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A year ago I walked out of the Info-Tech Research Group for the last time as an employee, and walked into my new career as a small business owner.  It’s been an incredible year, and I’m doing things now I couldn’t have imagined a year ago.

So what have I done in the last year?

I created a business! YAY ME! NorthIQ is a sole proprietorship in Ontario.  I use Xero for my accounting needs, and I’m accepting payments using Stripe. Continue Reading

Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad Not Quite the Mis-Step Others Would Have You Believe

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Don’t believe the negative press, it’s a good fun ride with strong performances, awesome characters and great moments for each character.  Liam and I talked at length about the movie on Sequential Fiction Episode 38 – Suicide Squad.

There are amazing cameos, and a brilliant mid-credits coda that ties into Justice League out next year.

There were tons of scenes from the trailer that we didn’t see in the movie. From little things like a half burned Joker firing a gun to major set pieces like Harley tending bar that looked like a good character development piece. All of these little “flavour” pieces would have given the film a longer run-time, so I understand them being cut, but the bar scene in particular felt like it needed the bar tending scene to set the stage. Continue Reading

Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip

Thank You Gord Downie for Reminding Me What Being Canadian Means

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Something has happened in this last year, it might be because we saw the depths of idiocy with Rob Ford acting like a laughing stock, or it may be that we looked into the eyes of Stephen Harper and found him lacking. It might be because we elected a fourty-something former school teacher with model good looks as our national leader, but despite how horrible the rest of the world seems to be getting, Canada has been a haven for feel good stories.

We’ve brought in more Syrian refugees than we had originally planned. I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer at my kids school for some field trips, and I am amazed by these kids who’s lives were totally upended, but who are embracing their new lives in a new country where they don’t even understand the language.

On Saturday when 11 million Canadians came together to celebrate the Tragically Hip, it was a particular show of unity, and something that made me so incredibly proud to be Canadian.
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