Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Books - New
TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE': We attended this past Saturday's Long Beach Comic Con Expo, and I'll be sharing with you photos that Tina snapped and our reviews of publications found there... One table at the LBCC Expo was manned by Christian Beranek, as pictured to the right above, who introduced us to several projects he has had a hand in producing, writing or publishing! This blog post is about 'The Minions Of Ka' that he is shown holding in the photo at the top right of this post. Christian was a co-founder of Silent Devil, which started in October of 1996. Christian was the Production Manager of this graphic novel that I'm blogging about here. Another of my Facebook Friends, Chris Moreno, was the interior artist of this graphic novel! Chris is so busy at comic cons that I have seen him at, that I wasn't aware of the many projects that he has illustrated for, including this one! Anyways, what is this GN about, and why did I pick this one to blog about first after the Con? Here's the promo info: "The Minions of Ka have commanded the undead for thousands of years. Their power has been used to create and destroy empires. In possession of this great power, The Catholic Church has their sights set on the throne of Charles II. An unnamed warrior for hire finds himself caught between the Church and the English Monarchy in one of the greatest conspiracies of all time." Here are the credits: Minions of Ka Okay, so once again I'm blogging about the undead / zombies, even though I have stated that stories of this genre are not ones that I ususally read for myself. That's true, but when I saw that I recognized several of the names associated with this project, especially Chris Moreno's, I put this at the top of my reading list this weekend while we were staying overnight in the LA area! Yes, it's been out for a little while, (First Printing was August of 2008), but like I stated above, I don't normally read this publciations in this genre. So other than the fact that Chris Moreno was the interior artist, and Christian Beranek was the Production Manager of this project, what else drew my attention to this graphic novel (GN)? The fact was that the front cover, (by Ken Kelly), made me pause when thumbing through the stack of publications that I received for possible review in this Blog. Then thumbing through the interior pages of this GN, which were in full color, made me realize that this could be a quality publication to read first. Plus while reading it, I found the story to be steeped in historical background. Being a student of history, this background engaged me in the story. What 'grabbed' me was that many of the world's greatest historical disasters were exposed to be attacks by the 'undead'! Yes, Egypt's civilization brought down during Cleopatra's reign, the Fall of Rome, the Crusades, and even the Great Fire of London in 1666 as shown as having tangible proof that zombies were involved during those periods of crisis! Indeed, even though the main story in this GN takes place during the late 17th Century's well known squabbling between Church and State, the actual zombie plague itself originates in ancient Egypt with their obsession with immortality! Okay, I won't go into more detail than that for the storyline here... Suffice to say that it grabbed my attention and held on to it to the end of the graphic novel! I enjoyed seeing Chris' interior artwork, and can say that because usually I only see his sketches that he does at his table at comic cons! He is always so busy sketching at cons, that I didn't realize the extent of his published works! And yes, we do have a couple of photos of Chris Moreno sketching again at this LBCC Expo to share with you in the days to come! For those that are into this genre, I would think it would be a good read for them. For those that aren't into this genre, I feel that it is a good storyline and the artwork isn't over the top as seen in several other publications of this genre. You do have an opportunity to view nine pages of this GN at the following web site, PLUS have an opportunity right now to buy this book at a $5 off discount: http://www.silentdevil.com/minions-of-ka.php
BTW, Christian is also the Producer at Disney's Kingdom Comics. He is currently producing a couple of graphic novels/films for Disney via their Kingdom Comics brand. You can see what else Christian is doing by checking out his own web site at: http://www.christianberanek.com/ You can also check out who's attending the upcoming 2nd Annual Long Beach Comic Con, (the Full 3 Day Con), that is happening in late October 2010, by clicking here for their Facebook Fan Page that YOU can interact with! My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts! Join us again soon, as we publish another 'Main Feature'. And don't forget to check out the 'Featurette' shown below this 'Main Feature' article at the bottom right! ~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
http://www.comicbookscircus.com/
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My thanks to Christian Beranek for bringing this publication to my attention at the Long Beach Comic Con Expo this past Saturday!
Note: Comic books / graphic novels like the one mentioned above can be found at our own web site for sale at:
We also have an on-line exhibitor table at the virtual Facebook Comic Con. You can view the table by 
If you are a Facebook member and would like to join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'.
