George Hall's Creative Weblog

Good Things Come...

2011-12-04T18:57:00.001+11:00

It's been a while since I last posted here. January 2010, from what I see on the last post.

And things have changed again.

This year, 2011, my Twitter emergency information relaying had to take in Israel's Mount Carmel fire (December 2010), then Australia's Queensland and Victorian floods, plus the Christchurch New Zealand earthquake and Japan earthquake and tsunami.

In the middle of the year I found my role had been acknowledged in two separate studies into the use of social media in emergencies. One study to do with the Queensland floods, the other to do with the Victorian floods.

Finally to this past week...and I got the surprise of my life one night mid-week discovering that "A Question of Theories" had been distributed by Lulu.com into both the Apple iBook store and Barnes & Noble's Nook Books...then also in paperback form on Amazon.com

My missus took ages to get the smelling salts to work on me after I fainted from the shock.

Then SHE took a look and I had to revive HER.

Thank you, Lulu.com.

The ebooks even have ISBNs, so this novel is now officially published, going a step beyond the previous print-on-demand self-publishing.

It's been a five-year journey since I first wrote "A Question of Theories" in 2006. Finally, the journey has crossed a milestone. A big milestone.

Though I'm still trying to get the shocked look off the missus...she keeps mumbling: "Omigod...he did it..."

Hang on a sec while I go faint again myself...

So Much Changes...

2010-01-31T00:25:00.005+11:00

One year after the last post on this particular blog, so much has changed.

Almost a year ago, Black Saturday and the associated bushfires changed Victoria Australia forever.

It also changed my direction entirely.

In those six weeks of the Victorian bushfires, I ended up suddenly having to learn to use social media, first to help my niece, then my state. On Twitter, as @geehall1, I became a relayer of emergency and CFA information.

In the months after that, I turned to the social aspect of social media as part of the Tweetupmellers/Twums tweetup, becoming a video interviewer and delving into producing video content from those interviews.

One year later, the @geehall1 social media properties include accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, identi.ca and Plurk, to varying degrees.

In the end, a whole new direction was taken.

That has meant my Terrorgard serial was postponed to an undefined later date.

Boy, what a difference a year made, especially when I look at the last sentence of the post I did almost exactly one year ago.

Yesterday, January 29 2010, I finally added two dotcom domains to the list.

With a greater profile in social media and a following of over 500 on Twitter, there's a lot of potential and a few opportunities yet to explore. I consider it an ongoing journey worth following, which may help things with my novels a bit further down.

In the meantime, there's still geehall.blogspot.com and geehall1.blogspot.com, used for tech/social media and bushfire/emergency blogging respectively on a non-specific schedule.

For near-daily stuff on tech/social media and the rest of my social media endeavors, there's now also georgehallonline.com and www.geehall1.com.

And it's a whole new year AGAIN.

Let's see where it takes us.

Back to Blogging...

2009-02-01T17:40:00.002+11:00

Hard to believe it's been over a year since my last past here. It ended up being a busy year, with my partner, Maria, recovering from a broken ankle sustained in December 2007. Baby David is now over two years old, work has settled down after a transitional period and we're about to see the other two lads off to school tomorrow.

Since my last blog post, the free ebook idea for "A Question of Theories" has actually borne some results, and it is effectively a little sleeper hit. I posted, almost a year ago, versions of the novel to Memoware, Feedbooks, Scribd and a couple more sites. Memoware alone has now reached well over 3,000 copies downloaded, Scribd has been viewed 700 times, Feedbooks nudging around 400, while the remainder add perhaps another hundred or so.

Not bad for around seven or eight months.

There seems to have been a bit of a spike in downloads of it in the months before the American Presidential Election.

As an interesting aside...one of Australia's morning shows aired a "blooper" reel of Dubbya's best lines. Anyone watching this would have agreed...Dubbya has a great future ahead of him as a comedian.

President Obama keeps his Blackberry, although he's probably had to put up with a few high-level security additions to it. But it's good seeing a Prez who knows his way around social networking and gadgets.

I gotta admit, although I just recently got an iPhone on a two-year plan, I'm looking forward to seeing the Palm Pre when it hits Australia.

It's a whole new year.

Blood Of The Terrorgard Chapter Five - iPaper

2008-04-19T13:25:00.003+10:00

Here's the latest chapter hot off the word processor...

From next chapter onwards, I'll be merely posting the link to the scribd hosted iPaper chapters, so the main blog page isn't over-burdened with longer loading times.

Blood Of The Terrorgard Chapter Four - iPaper

2008-04-18T21:37:00.000+10:00

Blood Of The Terrorgard Chapter Three - iPaper

2008-04-18T20:45:00.001+10:00

Blood Of The Terrorgard Chapter Two - iPaper

2008-04-17T21:18:00.000+10:00

Blood Of The Terrorgard Chapter One - iPaper

2008-04-17T21:15:00.002+10:00

Here's the first chapter redone in iPaper format:

Brief Interlude

2008-04-17T20:13:00.002+10:00

In exploring new ways to promote Terrorgard and A Question of Theories, I came across www.scribd.com, a document-sharing site which has this lovely format called iPaper, which allows documents to be embedded in a website and read by any flash-capable browser.

I've since uploaded A Question of Theories to iPaper and can now allow a free version of the book.

A Question of Theories is still for sale through Lulu, so I'm using the free version to help promote it.

I've also started uploading the first chapter of Blood Of The Terrorgard to this format, and within a few weeks, I'll start placing iPaper versions here on this blog.

It's a nice way to read an ebook.

Now a Proud Father

2006-11-03T23:01:00.000+11:00

Something a little different this time round. At 8.34am Melbourne time November 2, 2006, I finally became a dad. My son David Gabriel Hall was born.

Now, does anyone know where I can get some cheap cigars?

Now For Something Different

2006-10-05T21:09:00.000+10:00

I joined Hal Spacejock's Support Crew

I didn't pay anything,
I didn't sign anything,
and I didn't read the fine print.
Just like Hal!

No space pilot can exist in a vacuum (hah!), and behind every successful pilot there's a talented and dedicated support crew.

Hal Spacejock is one of the least successful space pilots in the history of the galaxy, and a worldwide support crew is needed just to get him off the ground.

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Hal Spacejock ... Après moi le wreckage

"A Question Of Theories" Novel News

2006-08-20T11:16:00.000+10:00

Feast your eyes on the E-Serial Corner's FIRST published work. The long-awaited "A Question Of Theories novel finally went LIVE today, available from Lulu.com.

The work itself can be bought direct from my lulu.com storefront, or you can use this direct link to the book itself.

A printed version is available for $US 9.75, or you can download the e-book version for $US 2.50.

This is the first of the Corner's e-serials to go to print. The story has recently been revised and rewritten, totally, and is a polished, fun read.

BEGIN THE BUZZ!

Bloodgard 1989

2006-08-12T21:18:00.000+10:00

After REVERIE closed, I still wanted to continue doing Bloodgard, so I kept an eye on the Australian comic scene.

REVERIE had managed an interesting record, being the first Australian comice of the eighties to go PAST a four-issue barrier, making it to seven full issues. But that record was to be beaten by a bunch of comic creators in Sydney.

Cyclone Comics were THE Australian comics of the LATE eighties, publishing the Southern Squadron and The Dark Nebula, amongst other titles. And last I remember, they got up to 12 or 14 issues of the Southern Squadron...four issues of which were reprinted by an American publisher in the nineties.

In 1989, I prepared a character submission of the Bloodgard concept, which used THIS graphic (although, the original version of it also had Southern Squadron characters in it, too) and sent it TO Sydney.

I eventually travelled up there and met Gary Chaloner and David de Vries, although we weren't able to do much more. I forget exactly why Bloodgard didn't make it into the Cyclone line-up, but it was a good attempt anyway. And it was quite a night out with the crew. Anyway, the Cyclone crew ended up doing quite well for themselves, with Gary Chaloner doing, most recently, Will Eisner's John Law...and David de Vries and Glen Lumsden doing a very nice updated, futuristic batch of Phantom stories for Marvel Comics. I'd still like to know what happened to The Dark Nebula, which was a comic I'd always enjoyed for years before it became a Cyclone Comics staple.

There was one last attempt in 1989 to try to publish Bloodgard myself, but personal circumstances halted anything further. Still...that's not the end of the story.

Bloodgard Episode 1 Page 1

2006-08-12T19:24:00.000+10:00

Reverie 4, 1984...and the first ever full Bloodgard episode...with an intriguing origin story...and a twist in the second part of the story. In this episode, I still covered the art chores. One SPECIAL treat here is that the ORIGINAL REVERIE episode was black-and-white. Both these episodes were computer-colored last year. The way the two episodes are presented here in the blog has to do with getting correct placement; I tried putting them in a single page, tried even using a table, but in the end, they show up neater as seperate posts.

Bloodgard Episode 1 Page 2

2006-08-12T19:18:00.000+10:00

Bloodgard Episode 1 Page 3

2006-08-12T19:12:00.000+10:00

Bloodgard Episode 1 Page 4

2006-08-12T19:07:00.000+10:00

Bloodgard Episode 2 Page 1

2006-08-12T19:00:00.000+10:00

With REVERIE 5, young artist Mark Ryan took over the art chores on Bloodgard. His artwork, considering he was only 14 at the time, was phenomenal...and you should have seen how much more he improved over the next two episodes.

Copyright 1984 and 2006 George Hall

Bloodgard Episode 2 page 2

2006-08-12T18:56:00.000+10:00

Bloodgard Episode 2 Page 3

2006-08-12T18:53:00.000+10:00

Bloodgard Episode 2 Page 4

2006-08-12T18:48:00.000+10:00

Terragard/Terrorgard Origins

2006-08-10T22:00:00.000+10:00

This graphic copyright Gary Dellar and the respective Reverie Artists. Used with permission.

The year was 1984. The place was Melbourne Australia. And the strip I was originally doing for REVERIE Comics was hitting a snag. My first published work was a strip called "Sandy Star: Rebel Force", a futuristic story set a thousand years in Melbourne's future, at a time when the place was ruled by the Science Lords.

Unfortunately, when I first started working for REVERIE, I'd let my now-EX-wife co-plot the story, and she'd effectively plotted me into a corner. There was also the fact even I was having a hard time relating to my own concept. But in the third Sandy Star episode, I introduced a time-travelling character from the 20th century, a super-character...and actually the SECOND Bloodgard, appearing out of sequence.

One slight snag again...I let my ex-wife name that character. She dubbed him "Bloodgard". Years later, I finally figured out where she got the name from. Which meant re-naming him over later years.

During 1984, I drew the first episode for a Bloodgard strip. At the top of its first page, we tied it in to Sandy Star, having her narrate an intro. However, it was Sandy Star's last appearance.

The first story detailed how a lone, young man found a suit of mystical armor in the Buchan Caves of East Gippsland, armor so ancient it existed before the Earth. There were two demi-gods monitoring it an providing comedy relief, while watching it from some other dimension. There was also some ambiguity over whether this super-being would be good or evil.

This was the episode which appeared in the above issue of REVERIE.

And the response from the Melbourne/Australia fan press to the strip was way more positive than it had been for Sandy Star.

Between issues 4 and 5, however, REVERIE publisher Gary Dellar had received submissions from a young artist named Mark Ryan. Mark was only 14 at the time, but boy, could he draw! So we contacted Mark and got him on board for all subsequent Bloodgard stories.

Issue 5 of REVERIE marked Mark's debut, and involved the continuation of the origin story. A certain Australian Prime Minister who was more popular than sliced bread, B*b H*wke was doing a campaign around the Buchan Caves region, and was astounded to see Bloodgard appearing from out of the ground behind him. Spectacular entrance.

The catch was what happened next. A weird coupling of an American agent and a Russian agent close by spelled danger for the beloved Prime Minister. Two miles above, Bloodgard's armor registered the problem. My favorite part was writing a new twist to the "faster than a speeding bullet" routine. "The poor bullet never gets an even break."

But then, the even bigger twist. An ASIO agent comes up, alerting B*b that the Soviets AND Yanks were BOTH firing nuclear missiles and that the world had only minutes to live.

Up into space zooms Bloodgard, locating and destroying all missiles from either side. He tunes into both sets of war rooms...then makes a fateful decision. Being INFINITELY POWERFUL...Bloodgard unleashes amazing energy on BOTH countries.

The final scenes were of our PM, crying over a LOT of beer and reading the next day's papers..."B*b's "Mate" destroys Super Powers." Behind him, a shadowed Bloodgard announces he's taking OVER.

This first set of episodes took place on an alternative TIMELINE. When NEXT we see Bloodgard in issue 6 of REVERIE, we're on ANOTHER timeline, and we find Bloodgard has dumped four versions of his civilian identity, from different timelines, all together.

Issue 7 of REVERIE, the FINAL ever issue, showed the start of the conflict between Bloodgard and these four. Had the series and comic continued, in issue 8, ONE of those versions would be dead.

In addition to the four dopplegangers, we had three of their ladies also taking part in the action.

But, by 1986/87, REVERIE would be cancelled. Which is a real pity, because Bloodgard (NOW Terrorgard, and intermediately TerrAgard) was actually ahead of his time at the point of his creation. He was actually AHEAD of similar trends in DC and Marvel Comics that would crop up a few years later, and during the nineties.

The beauty of the Bloodgard/Terragard/Terrorgard concept is that it was well-thought out, and had a clear direction. The characterisations were understood by me down to the finest detail. Even better, I could relate to the characters myself. This was why Bloodgard turned out so much bettter than "Sandy Star."

But that wasn't the end of the Bloodgard concept. And there was another Australian comic to contact...but that's a story for another time.

"A Question Of Theories" NEW Edition PREVIEW

2006-08-09T23:44:00.000+10:00

The first four-to-five chapters of the UPDATED, REVISED version of "A Question Of Theories are NOW available over at the main E-Serial Corner website, as a PREVIEW.

The NEW version WILL be available for sale within a short couple of months. This preview will whet your whistle while you wait.

Go to the E-Serial Corner "A Question Of Theories" page to read.

Change of Weblog Focus to Terragard/Terrorgard Showcase

2006-08-03T21:17:00.000+10:00

It's Spring Cleaning Time here in Australia (well, almost Spring) and all my associated sites/blogs are undergoing revamp.

I decided the past few days this blog would be the perfect vehicle for my super-powered character, Terragard/Terrorgard and showcase his prior history and current story potential.

Perhaps the e-serial "Blood Of The Terragard" may continue here and reach its climax and conclusion.

Starting from the next post, I'll recount Terragard/Terrorgard's original published history in the eighties Australian comic REVERIE as "Bloodgard", and show some of the original stories from that time. From there to character designs done as part of a proposal to a Sydney comic group in 1989. And after that...the return of our e-serial

In the meantime, to whet your whistle, here's a few pictures of Terragard/Terrorard done more recently, using technology we didn't have in the eighties, but would have loved to have used.

One of these graphics has been done on a 160x160 palm screen, while two of these have been done using a 320x240 pocketpc. Much more precise than a digitising tablet I have, even with the smaller screen real estate.

I'm waiting till tablet PC's come down in price, anticipating their screens as being even better than pocketpc's to draw on.

We would so have liked to have had such equipment when this character first appeared.

In the meantime, I've trimmed out a lot of old posts which were no longer relevent and left only the best of the originals. And as you can clearly see, installed a nicer template for a decent look-and-feel.

Enjoy.

A Bit of History

2003-08-12T21:01:00.000+10:00

As the description says, I used to be an Australian comic artist/writer between 1983 to 1986, working for REVERIE.

If you haven't heard of Reverie, perhaps you've heard of a couple of Reverie alumni, Fil Barlow and Michael Dutkiwicz. The latter I remember last seeing drawing a Robin Annual a few years ago.

The Australian comic industry is different from America's. In America, you can afford to pay a comic artist a decent page rate...in Australia, it's cheaper to import US comics, or reprint US comics, than it is to pay both a writer and artist.

SO most of us who worked for Aussie comics did it for the love of the craft...and occasionally, some even made it to the American industry.

I haven't done much comic work in the past fifteen years, but I HAVE started doing some e-book serials.