Reviews

So Seraphim Wing got reviewed, apparently, on the rec.arts.comics.creative USENET group by two reviewers.

One, by Tom Russell, reviewed the preview thinking it was the entire story for some reason. He picked it apart piece by piece too. Of course I graciously thanked him for even reviewing what he did and pointed out the story was much longer.

Another review, this time by Saxon Brenton, summarized the story, plugged artifice, and then went on to contemplate getting me into some kind of contest or awards thing. I'm not entirely sure if that should count as a review.

Now, as I'm more a nocturnal creature of habit, I'm off to find solace in a slice of pizza and a diet pepsi and lament the fact I forgot my headphones and being unable to dream little dreams.

Anthology 2 - Talisman: Harlequin Novelty

My 2nd endeavour for the artifice comics banner:

Anthology2 #53
By Ashley Corgan

In what is commonly referred to as the ‘Enigma Vestibule‘ by the Apothecary Company, a massive room filled with dark-haired adolescents toil over vats filled with various solutions and meticulously sculpt and shape various material on spartan work benches. Others stand, stone still as they grind gritty materials with a porcelain crucible in one hand and make minute movements with their silver pistils with the other.

Every so often a quiet sob would cause the entire room of young women to lament and wail the names of their beloved friends and partners. Their very tears mixing into the liquids and powders of their trade. A klaxon sounded after one such fit, and with such a quickness most of them dove to the cold floor, save for two.

Both sported an eye patch, covering opposite deformities, one missing the left and the other missing the right ocular orb. Their eye patches nothing more than a small swatch of leather with a matching black thong to hold it to their skull. In rushed a handful of armored dragoons. Each helmeted minion carrying not rifles as their infantry counterparts sport but rather a single long slip of parchment bearing a striking sigil with a brief script scrawled beneath it in curiously, scarlet ink.

Each of their green eyes watched as the soldiers formed a semi-circle before them.

“8695554 and 287421 cease all unsanctioned activity at once,” the middle dragoon commanded, the parchment held stiffly between the fingers of her gloved hand.

The girls grinned dual empty smiles, devoid of teeth.

The unit stepped back in unison, holding true to their semi-circular formation, although one at the far end gagged at the sight.

“I warn you once more 869554 and 287421,” the officer’s voice squeaked out the designations with a once lost girlish tone.

The two bowed deeply and a quiet pop echoed in the silence.

“Ghastly,” said the dragoon that gagged.

The girls snapped up to attention and removed their eye patches to bare their eyeless sockets defiantly at their oppressors.

A dragoon shuddered, briefly, “I’m gonna hurl, 771284.”

the two eyeballs rolled about on the floor, weaving their way to within inches of the feet of the dragoon officer. The outer surface seemed to harden, and then crack, little green licks of flame poking out of the growing openings in the once eye-like casing.

“YOU - WERE- WARNED!”

Oh its absolute crap

So I recently decided to concede to the growing banal urge of being a writer for a public forum and went to task to read my unedited scribbles that I sent Mr Matt, Jac, and Jason. And wow, Talisman: Harlequin Novelty is crap. I don't like it one bit. I really don't.

As much as I enjoy being hen-pecked by a practiced editor, seeing my unedited work and wondering why a writer like Jacob could find any measure of pleasure from reading this dreck is beyond me. Must be the lack of fluoride in UK drinking water.

Le sigh.

I've gotten into the habit of "torrenting" and am catching up on Tengo Tenge, Spaced, and Day of the Dead. An anime series about street toughs and buxom samurai, a britcom featuring the minds and bodies of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and a remake of a passable Romero sequel. I greatly dislike Television unless its encapsulated in DVD form or easily digestible simple mkv files.

Insomnia cum Wiki work

So I stayed up a bit tonight to work on the Artifice Comics wiki entries for Talisman and Ars Magna, respectively. Here is the link to the main page itself. Its a bit lacklust at the moment but free time abounds these days so I look forward to giving it the old college try.

I find it to be noble endeavour as I really detest the timeline system set up on the main artifice site. These wiki entries will be way more newcomer reader/writer friendly and allow for better explanations of concepts and creations that abound in the ACU.

Well its time for sleep. G'night boils and ghouls.

Late Night Boredom

So I got back into the swing of instant messaging, and thus I'm up late talking to yahoos on yahoo. I must note that if I was to pick one male fictional character to take to the marriage bed it'd be Grimlock. Who wouldn't want to ride a giant mechanical tyrannosaurus rex in heels and lace?

Rhetorical Ponderance

I've a bit of fascination with the whole superhero/metahuman lifestyle. Not the slam-bam-thank-you-mayor part but the coping with the "having of powers and abilities beyond mortal man".

In X2 and X3 we see Bobby Drake/Ice Man "chill" Wolverine's drink and turn a fountain into a skating pond for Kitty Pryde (Juno was wonderful, Ms. Page, keep it up). In Spider-Man we see Peter Parker use his agility and "spidey-sense" to recover Mary Jane from a fall and rescue her lunch (how gentlemanly and dorky at the same time).

Also in My Super Ex-Girlfriend (thank you Eddie Izzard and Anna Faris, i love you both with all my blood-valves and chambers), the super intercourse and flying ... well... f*ck was both awkward and painful to watch, but instills in me the wonder how that would really work out. In Dark Knight Strikes Again we see a similar scenario with an aged Kal-El and Wonder Woman, where they literally moved mountains while a kryptonian pelvic thrust sent the entwined couple from the heights of the lower-edge of space to ocean floor (talk about rug burns, ouchies).

Sorry if these are random but its just bits and pieces of thoughts I'd like to get down somewhere for future explorations. Tah tah.

Salutations

Well hello there, I am Ashley Corgan and welcome to the "Enigma Vestibule".

I got dragged into this blogging craze via a pair of internet degenerates, I prefer LiveJournal but apparently those are the online equivalent of a teeny-bopper diary and a Blogspot is like a garage band lyric book that eventually gets published as part of some 7 Disc "greatest hits, special limited edition" boxed set.

So here I am.

Yup.

I guess a bit of rambling can be done to further elaborate on why this blog exists. I'm the current writer of the Dark Fantasy series Ars Magna @ Artifice Comics. Ars Magna is the sister title from the short stories entitled Talisman where a pre-teen girl named Sheila Torrance discovers 2 handsized statuettes that can transform into wonderfully, powerful creatures called Talismans. (Dammit all, there is a wiki entry about this somewhere. Blast it. Ah well.)

In the midst of it all I also created a third storyline to parallel Talisman and Ars Magna (here now known as T/AM), called Seraphim Wing. Where Talisman is focused on the interactions of the Talisman Mythos and humanity, and Ars Magna is focused on Magic in the Artifice Universe, Seraphim Wing is about the conflict of Magic and Technology.

So to recap:

• Talisman = man as creator
  
• Ars Magna = man vs himself
  
• Seraphim Wing = man vs his creation

Thats about it for now. I think there is an interview of me being posted somewhere, I'll link to that once it hits the information superhighway. Expect my story releases to be posted up here and any tidbits and DVD-type extras to pop up from time to time.

I don't intend to neglect this blog but it'll be more of a weekly ritual than a daily diary of what cantaloupe tastes like after my boss throws a shit fit earlier that morning.