Love is in the air at Fanbase Press! In this magical month of romance and enchantment, the Fanbase Press Staff and Contributors decided to stop and smell the roses. Throughout the week of Valentine’s Day, a few members of the Fanbase Press crew will be sharing their personal love letters to the areas of geekdom they adore the most.

Love is in the air at Fanbase Press! In this magical month of romance and enchantment, the Fanbase Press Staff and Contributors decided to stop and smell the roses. Throughout the week of Valentine’s Day, a few members of the Fanbase Press crew will be sharing their personal love letters to the areas of geekdom they adore the most.

“Love Town is a city built upon a foundation of corruption, violence, and greed, where millionaire celebrities rub shoulders with ruthless gangsters and scheming politicians, where the figurative magic of the silver screen competes with the literal magic of the streets.

Magic is the siren’s song that lures so many in Love Town to their doom…”

Today marks the release of issue four of the sci-fi space adventure comic book series, Errand Boys (Image Comics).  The five-issue series follows half-brothers Jace and Tawnk who are thrust together when Tawnk is orphaned and has no other family.  Elder brother Jace has gained street smarts and makes a modest living as an errand boy.  Since Jace’s home also serves as his spaceship (called a bego), Tawnk gets a crash course on life when Jace accepts an easy snatch-and-grab job.

“Love Town is a city built upon a foundation of corruption, violence, and greed, where millionaire celebrities rub shoulders with ruthless gangsters and scheming politicians, where the figurative magic of the silver screen competes with the literal magic of the streets.

Magic is the siren’s song that lures so many in Love Town to their doom…”

Britannia: Lost Eagles of Rome is the third story arc which features the return of Rome’s first detective (referred to as “detector” in the story) Antonius Axia, an ex-military soldier who serves Emperor Nero.  The Valiant title has been described as “a combination of Batman meets Constantine set in the world of the Roman empire,” according to Bounding Into Comics’ John F. Trent (See “Valiant Comics Announces Britannia: Lost Eagles to Rome!” dated April 6, 2018.) but could also be termed a historical mystery.

The Resurrected is a dark, sci-fi thriller from Carnouche Productions that “delves into dark social-political issues, most significantly those dealing with the colonisation of Australia and the treatment of the local indigenous population” (Kickstarter campaign).  With this near-future story, writer/creator Christian Carnouche seeks to give the Indigenous-Australians voice, because their representation in all forms of media is often suppressed, or when inserted in media, it is to their detriment, such as through minimizing stereotype characterization.  In this successfully crowdfunded comic book series, Carnouche explores themes of mortality, redemption, and personal culpability for one’s actions.  

In October, the Bram Stoker Award-winning small press, Omnium Gatherum, specializing in “dark fantasy, weird fiction, and horror,” released The Fat Lady Sings, a novella written by native Los Angeles writer Sean Patrick Traver.  This is the first of eight novellas to be collected in Bruja Chica: The Education of a Witch and is part of the Temple, Tree & Tower series.  Traver introduced this series, which focuses on the underground occult scene in Los Angeles, with Graves’ End: A Magical Thriller (2012), followed up with Red Witch: The Tales of Ingrid Redstone (2017), and expands this world with The Fat Lady Sings.

Jace and Tawnk’s bad day just went from bad to worse.  The errand Jace thought would be a quick snatch-and-grab turned into a life-and-death encounter with a group of hungry aliens.  Thus begins the third issue of Errand Boys (Image Comics), this season’s entertaining, intergalactic science fiction comedy written by D. J. Kirkbride (Amelia Cole, The Once and Future Queen).

If the Stranger Things series turned your world upside down, then you will be happy to know that there is a new book out titled How to Survive in a Stranger Things World (published by Random House).  Compiled by Matthew J. Gilbert, the selected images and statements of and by Dustin, Steve, Eleven, and many other characters represent highlights from the first two season of the popular Netflix show.