Comics: Made With Love

Progress is still being made on the comic. Issue one should be completed for submission by the end of May at the latest. I plan on using my summer to write and plan the rest of the arc, as well as submitting the idea to several different publishers.

I wish I had some new art for you, but I don't. I'll probably get some once I send off my latest draft for pages 1 through 14. No worries, though! Things will still be going as planned.

It isn't often that I share my influences from the comic book world. I could say that my love of comics was inspired by Stan Lee, or Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil or Green Arrow, but that would only scratch the surface. My love of comics goes much further than that, and I want to use today's posting to point out a great comic that few people have heard of: Point Guardian.

Created, written, and drawn by Benjamin Carver, Point Guardian is possibly the best superhero comic that no one is reading. It's an ongoing series with pages published daily online, and it's as true to the superhero genre as any print comic, if not more so.

Point Guardian tells the story of Ultra, superhero of Point City. As a child, James Gardner was struck by lightning, giving him powers (and here's the line) "far beyond those of mortal men." Working as a private investigator by day, and hero by night, James works hard to protect the civilians of Point City.

With a heavy anime influence, Carver weaves a classic story complete with the archetypal characters found in the annals of comic history. We have Ultra, the most powerful man on the planet, protector of the Earth; there's Ultima, his equally powerful archnemisis; Psi-Kid, whose origin is an omage to the recently deceased Superboy in DC Comics; the Icons (Justice League, anyone?), and so much more!

Carver's work can best be described as "Learn-As-You-Go", as the first issues (before being redrawn) lacked heavily in style and pacing. There are still some minor issues with the comic itself, but nothing that can't be shrugged off. This is, after all, the internet!

This series has been going on for about four years now, with Carver finishing each issue with 28+ pages each month. A trade paperback collecting the first three issues can be purchased through ComiXpress, though all three issues can also be found for free on his website.