Ursa Minor

This weekend, I’m at Las Cruces Comic Con. If you’re in town, I hope you’ll drop by the convention center, say “hi,” and browse our fine selection of books. Back in June at Duke City Comic Con, I had the opportunity to meet Tom Hutchison, owner of Big Dog Ink and writer/creator of most of the company’s titles, which include Legend of Oz: The Wicked West and the superhero comic, Critter. Another title he publishes is Ursa Minor, which imagines an alternate world where, in 2012, a pair of werewolves emerged and killed the president of the United States. Soon after that, vampires made themselves known and offered to out the werewolves, tag, and control them for humanity. However, these vampires aren’t the altruists they appear to be on the surface. They’re actually seeking a position of power among humankind and a way to utilize humans as easy food stock.

David and Tom at Duke City Comic Con

As an astronomer, I know the constellation Ursa Minor well. Its name is Latin for “Little Bear” and it’s also known as the Little Dipper, which is the constellation containing Polaris, the pole star. In Tom’s comic, the title character is Naomi, a young woman who also happens to be a werebear. In this world, werebears are among the most dangerous creatures to vampires. They are one of the few creatures strong enough to do physical harm to a vampire and they have silver in their claws, which make them an especially potent force when fighting vampires. Unfortunately for humans, werebears are quite rare and it looks like Naomi may be the only one currently alive.

As the story opens, Naomi works at Papa Gamboli’s Carnival, a carnival-themed nightclub in Los Angeles. Late at night, Naomi and her best friend, Angela, stalk the streets of LA hunting vampires. It soon becomes apparent this is a losing battle. The vampires can make more of their own kind faster than Naomi can kill them. They seek advice from their friend Onyx, a rock golem who tends bar at the Carnival. Onyx takes Naomi and Angela to Japan in search of a witch named April who he believes can help them be more effective vampire hunters. April tells them all vampires are descended from one of four “Legends.” These Legends are ultra-powerful vampires: Countess Bathory, Dracula, Vlad, and Orlock. Our team sets out to take on Dracula, but when they realize the vampires can easily deduce their plans, they change tack and confront Elizabeth Bathory instead.

One of the things that was fun about meeting Tom in person was the opportunity to get his thoughts on creating a vampire/horror comic. We also talked about how I had created a short comic based on my novel Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires and he told me he had actually novelized the original Ursa Minor miniseries. The novelized version of Ursa Minor is available for just 99 cents at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ursa-Minor-Fear-April-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B01EHK50FS/

Ursa Minor and Guinevere and the Stranger

It was interesting to compare the comic book and prose novel versions of Ursa Minor. Tom’s prose novel is mostly a blow-by-blow retelling of the comic, but there are a few expanded scenes and the novel extends a little beyond the end of the first comic book mini-series. Interestingly, in the comic book, I felt like some of the fight scenes were over and done very quickly. In the novel, he took some time and built more suspense, making me worry more for the fate of our heroes. Overall, I felt like I got to know Naomi, Angela, April, and Onyx just a little better in the prose novel than I did in the comic series alone. As with many small press works, the prose novel would benefit from another round of copyediting, but it was enjoyable and it would be interesting to see Tom try his hand at novelized versions of some of his other universes.

You can learn more about the Ursa Minor comic series at: https://bigdogink.com

You can find my vampire comic at: https://hadrosaur.com/GuinevereStranger.php

My Scarlet Order vampire novels are at: http://davidleesummers.com/books.html#scarlet_order

A Man Among Ye

I love a good pirate story. Given that I have written a series about space pirates, that should come as no surprise, but I’m pleased to read a well-told tale about pirates in any era. One of the reasons pirate stories appeal to me is that pirates exist outside the norms of social propriety. Because of that, you can use them as a way to examine social structures and moral codes. Do those structures, laws, and moral codes keep people from harm, or are they about keeping certain people in power? They’re also interesting in a narrative sense, because the best pirate stories explore these kinds of issues while giving us an anti-hero we can root for and putting them into a situation that’s fun and exciting to watch.

Tom Hutchison, owner of Big Dog Ink comics, has a show on the Comic Book Shopping Network called the Midnight Collector’s Club, where he sells interesting collectable and new titles from other comic companies. One of the books he showed off was issue number one of A Man Among Ye written by Stephanie Phillips and featuring art by Craig Cermak. The cover caught my eye as something that looked like it took on the topic of pirates in a way that was both serious and fun. I read the first issue and immediately wanted to know what happened next. I lucked out and my local comic shop had issue 2.

The time period and general setting of the comic will be familiar to viewers of the series Black Sails. The protagonist is Anne Bonney. She’s aboard the Kingston, commanded by Calico Jack Rackham. We have some scenes on Nassau and Charles Vane makes an appearance. Unlike Black Sails, we’re not mixing in characters from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It’s clear Stephanie Phillips has read many accounts of real life pirates and is both inspired by them and understands their limitations.

A Man Among Ye opens with the crew of the Kingston raiding a British ship. A young sailor from the British ship survives and sneaks about the Kingston. The young sailor soon proves to be Mary Read. Those who know their pirate history will recognize Mary as another real-life pirate who sailed with Rackham and Bonney. As the story progresses, we discover that not all the crew are happy about Anne Bonney’s presence on the Kingston or with Rackham’s captaincy. A sailor named Biff makes plans to dispatch Bonney and lead a mutiny against Rackham. All of this makes for an exciting and thrill-packed adventure story. Phillips shows a deft hand in her scripting by keeping the action moving and making me want to turn the page to see what happens next.

While there’s plenty of action, there’s also an exploration of women’s roles in society. We learn that Anne was expected to marry and become a housewife. She rejected that life to become a pirate, but clearly not all pirates think she has a place among them and they are even less thrilled when young Mary Read shows up. Even beyond that, there’s some mythological underpinning with the story taking some inspiration from the Greek myth of Actaeon and Artemis. Two issues in and I’m hooked. If you’re looking for a good rip-roaring pirate yarn that will also make you think a little more about society and its structures, check out A Man Among Ye. If you want to do the same, but in space, checkout my Space Pirates’ Legacy Series.