"Welcome to the Party, Pal!"

I am officially numb.

Sorry, all, if I've been out of communication for a while, but it's been a very long stretch since last issue. Work has gotten worse. And remember me mentioning that license exam I had to take for it? What an ordeal that was. As I'd said, my time for it got cut short by a month. So I was trying to memorize, like, 500 pages of stuff in a very short time (oh, and insurance law is SUCH riveting reading...). Very little sleep, as you can imagine. All the work hours, then the rushing home to study. Everything else in my life just got put aside. The weekend before the test (I was set up to take it on a Monday), I spent 16 straight hours studying on Saturday, 14 hours on Sunday. Got to work on, of course, barely any sleep. And I had to work because for some reason my boss wouldn't let me take the day of the test off. But he did oh-so-graciously allow me to leave by 2:00pm. The test was at 5:30. So, okay, figured I'd have time to get to the testing center, grab some food (no time to eat up to that point), and cram in some final studying. So, of course, I get stuck on a last-minute call that turns into a complete nightmare, one that requires me to prepare a whole bunch of forms for a client so they can drop by the office later that day and pick them up (because waiting a whole day for the overnight packet I COULD have sent would have been too long...). It was already 2:30 while I was still trying to finish up that and get out of there. That's when my boss comes over and says "Oh, good, you're still here..." Uh, oh. He says he's got a caller on the phone for me that ended up with him. I reminded him I was trying to get out the door and get to the test. To which he gave his usual glazed "Oh" look, and then said, "Well, you can just take the call and talk to her for a minute, see what she wants..." So he made me take the call. Long story short, didn't get to leave the office until after 3:30. I was 1) going on barely any sleep, 2) now not going to have any time for food, 3) almost violently angry at my clueless boss and the company that was making me go through all of this.

So I rushed over there, twitching with rage, nervous as hell about the test, convinced I was going to fail it. This test, as I may or may not have mentioned, is one that I was told "most people fail the first time around". Huh? I don't know how accurate THAT info is, but I know a number of people in my office that have failed it...some of them more than once. I didn't have that luxury. Thanks to the edict from on high, I had to have my license by 9/1. I was taking the test on 8/28. Which meant if I didn't pass, I'd have to wait for the mandated 24 hours, and then take it AGAIN after non-stop study, and hope to pass the second time to beat the deadline. Not a happy thought. By the time I got there and got set up, I really only had about 45 minutes for final review, going over my notebook-full (literally) of notes, the book, etc. Time came, and I headed in. Interesting (an unnerving) place, this testing center. It's a place where people go to take all kinds of certification tests, from insurance to medical to real estate. Very heavy security measures and lots of monitoring. They take your thumbprint and take your photo, and the photo is actually up in the corner of your terminal while you're taking the test so monitors walking by can be sure it's really you taking it and not someone you paid to be there for you.

So we've all been to college, right? We've all taken big tests. So we all know that if you're taking a major test, you probably want to 1) sleep the night before, 2) eat something since dinner the night before, 3) not work most of a very stressful workday right before it and 4) not show up for it bitterly angry. So a few strikes against me there. There were 150 questions, two and a half hours to take them. And you needed 70% to pass. Your score, really, didn't matter to your company...only that you got that 70% and passed so you could get your license. The trick was actually GETTING that 70%. Apparently, not many people do.

Took me two hours. I skipped right by the allowed break right in the middle, just wanting to get it over with. And I was fighting to stay awake in there as well, so wanted to get done, too, before I passed out. Man, do I ever NOT miss college... The best and worst part about this computer-based testing is that once you're all done, you find out your score right there, and if you passed. And you find out yourself. You have to actually work up the nerve to click that final button that tells you if you're a hero or a goat. And I was pretty sure, by the time it was over, that I was going to be the goat. And at that point, I almost didn't care anymore. So I clicked it.

Needed 70% to pass.

I got an 88.

Now, back in college? An 88 would have been pretty disappointing to me. In this instance? It felt like an absolute miracle. I had near killed myself studying for this thing, gone through the complete emotional ringer, gotten horribly behind at my job by going home on TIME (imagine that) to study instead of working 14 hour shifts. Not only was this a huge relief (one that didn't quite sink in for a while, as I was too numbed by two weeks of sleep deprivation to really feel much), but a vindication for all I'd been through (and a way of me keeping a promise to myself the first time I was told how many people failed this the first time, when I swore I wouldn't be one of them), but, I like to think, on a personal level at least, a big finger to management at my company. Yes, it was all sad and petty stuff in my head, but part of clung to the idea that they'd done everything they could to break me, and I'd won.

And what did I get for all my troubles? Well, a $500 promised paycheck bonus (after taxes, no less) that paid for my trip to Aaron's wedding. That...and (the whole point of my getting the license, and why they wanted me to have it so bad)...MORE WORK! Yes, now I that I was licensed for the state of Wyoming, all the people who had been getting and having to handle their own Wyoming total loss and auto damage claims could now dump them all on ME. Ah, well. Still a hard-fought and earned personal victory. I'll take it.

And since then, it's all been about work. More 14 and 15 hours days, more working 6 days a week. Must...get...new...job! Trying to. Got a couple of things on the hook. We'll see what happens. Because all this work crap is cutting into my geeking time! Can't have that!

Speaking of geeking...

This Time Around

Well, we COULD have had that final Forge chapter this time around, damnit. I actually started working on it, bits and pieces at a time, and got quite a ways into it. But too many other things started getting in the way, and it became clear that if I kept going on it (with no guarantee it would be done in time), I wouldn't be able to get to mailing comments from the past TWO issues, and I did NOT want to get three issues behind. So instead of the big epic, cranked out a couple of other quickies and hit the boards for MCs! Which meant spreading it over several evenings of very fun reading, so can't really call it a chore. So we'll see if I might be able to get some more Forge to you in time for Christmas.

What I did instead, story-wise, was do a couple of follow-up tales to epilogue the "Forte Chronicles #1: Into the Realm" tale you might remember from a little while back. That was that Forte game in space I ran for Aaron (Dyna Girl), Randy (Anvil), Adam (Lightsedge) and Jim (Tomarssuk) when Aaron was in town visiting over the spring. The heroes were stuck out there in that galaxy for a while, and I, myself, kinda wondered what happened to them during that time. Decided to find out.

So, in the Forte Expanded Universe section, there's a tale called "A Hangover Far, Far Away" that takes place after the end of the big adventure and before the heroes returned. There was a lot of stuff going on with them, and you get to find out about some of it here, in a tale with a rather unusual theme (not something you see in a lot of space stories...). Ah, heroes in space. Those were the best X-Men, JLA and Avengers issues, in my opinion, and I've always wanted to see some more Forte space action. So I had some fun with it...

In Forte 2000...

The tale (kind of) continues in a tale called "R.C.D.G.", which takes place back at the Forte base after it's all over, when Dyna Girl decides to torture Rainier a bit with all her space experiences. If you've read some Forte 2000, you know that Rainier is an archeologist, and is really big into discovering and learning about new cultures. So of course it wasn't HIM that got to go out into space and meet all those advanced civilizations...it was Dyna Girl. An insult not lost on her, as you'll see. Just a fun little moment...

And speaking of Forte 2000 stories...I know this one's Aaron's story, but as he doesn't have a zine this time around (he didn't even know he had a submission...), thought I'd talk about it here. You'll find a tale in there called "Welcome to the Working Week: Holly's Story". This is something Aaron actually wrote quite a while back and emailed to me. We had talked about this idea of a series of stories titled "Welcome to the Working Week", ones that peeked in on the day jobs of the Forte heroes. You know, when they're not smacking bad guys around or sitting around the base talking about their problems. They all do have JOBS, after all (unlike some of the original Forte heroes. Poor K.C., trying to come up with between-fights stuff for those of us who gave him so little to work with...). We thought it'd be fun to see what they each do at their jobs. So Aaron started things off with a little tale of Holly "Dyna Girl" Wood going car shopping, with her business partner Kelsey, for their company ("Daisies of Our Lives"). And I was supposed to write some, too. Oops. Never got around to mine, and was waiting on posting Aaron's story so we could post a few at once. But I can wait no longer! Had to put up his story, if for no other reason than to motivate myself to get to mine. We've some fun ideas for these tales. Hope to have more for you soon.

In the Character Art Gallery, there's not as MUCH new stuff as you've gotten used to seeing from me the past two months (you know, having to buy a van and all), but there's still some swell new stuff to check out and drool over.

First off, I decided to get some more existing Eryck Webb art colored by the man himself. You might recall the "Dyna Blitz" piece he did last time with Nightsable and Dyna Girl, which was then in pencil and ink. The piece just SCREAMED "color me!!!", so I had Webb make the piece happy. You can now see it in full color, so check it out.

And I just HAD to go back to David Enciso...mainly because he was just so CLOSE to having done every single woman of Forte! But also because 1) he's so damned amazing, and 2) he finishes pieces, typically, in less than 24 hours. Yes, THOSE pieces in less than 24 hours...in full color. Sometimes I'll get them back the same night I put the order in! He's amazingly fast, and that has definitely spoiled me. I have a couple of art pieces I'm still waiting on from almost six months ago from people. And they aren't HALF as good as he is. I think the most insulting thing is when they're making you wait that long and yet you still see them putting up new auctions. Um, how 'bout you finish MINE first...you know, the one I PAID for? Giving one of these guys in particular another week or so, then asking for a refund. It's trial and error, this dealing with eBay artists. Some are great, some...not so much. But that's the only way to sift through and find the good ones, the ones you can keep going back to and trust. And David Enciso has definitely become one of those.

First off, Dyna Girl became the first Forte heroine I've gotten two shots of from him. I had been on MySpace one night and came across this ad with a picture of this girl in it. Something about it, and the pose, just totally made me think of Dyna Girl, and I thought how great a shot of her in that pose would look. So I emailed the shot to David, and he came back with a pretty stunning shot, as you'll see. Another "repeat performance" is a new Knightsabre shot. See, he'd already done one, technically, but the best-known feature of that character was always her purple hair. And in the shot he did for me over the summer, he made her blonde. Aside from the fact that this shot was just SO gorgeous, I REALLY didn't want to complain, because, well...it was free. This was the freebie he did for me just for being such a good customer. But if I was going to be getting shots of all the Forte ladies, I wanted to get them right. I was just going to see if he could fix the color on the original, but Aaron had pointed out that the shot he did would make a great "Professor Night" shot. For those of you not hip to Forte history, Knightsabre (after the loss of her powers) had a bit of time where she got the good part of her soul removed and became a master criminal named Professor Night. She didn't look anything like THAT at the time, however, there just MAY be a new Professor Night appearance coming up in the Forte future (foreshadowing is fun, isn't it?), and that's what Aaron was referring to. So I just went ahead and had him do a new Knightsabre with the purple hair, so now both versions are in his section of the gallery.

And yes, with a couple more additions, Enciso has now drawn all twelve Forte heroines. This happened when he completed the Telesis and Eclipse shots for me. And I love that fact that he, like several artists who've worked stuff for the site, is just totally into Forte and loves the characters and loves drawing them. That makes me feel good...for all us Forte creators. But of course, the Forte universe is made up of more than just Forte members... So couldn't resist looking into adding some NPC heroine action, too. Check out the jaw-dropping Heatspell he did for me (as in Heatspell from Forge). Wow. Only problem is that he left off the mystical tattoos on her arms that show up when she uses her powers, but if YOU got that shot from someone, would YOU really complain? Whew! Also on the NPC front, I had him crank out a Thresher--as in the little sister of dead Forte hero Thresher who's become a recurring Forte 2000 character. And finally, I went ahead and made up a second "Forte Faces" compilation with facial close-ups of the ladies (since he does such great face-work). Now all heroines of Forte, past and present, are getting some "face time".

And, of course, if you saw the cover of this 'Times issue, you already know he's gone Omniverse with Dream Girl. Yes, I think I've HAD that dream... And just for fun, thought I'd let you check out the birthday gift for Tim that I got from Enciso. As you Con regulars know, Tim (Iron Man freak for life) has a BADASS Iron Man sketchbook going that he's been taking around to cons for about a decade. He's got some works in there from some huge names, including several well-known Iron Man artists from over the years. Thought he'd appreciate finally getting a color Iron Man, so had David do one for him. Sure, it won't actually be IN his sketchbook, but maybe he can keep the print shoved in there for the heck of it...

And got another newcomer to the gallery this time that's destined to be a regular, based on what he's given me so far. I found TG Sangalang eBay, and decided to try him out for a Nightsable shot. And the results...damn! He definitely studied at the alter of Jim Lee and Michael Turner. He really blew me away with this one. So I just had to try him out on Dyna Girl, too. I did with him what I almost always do with artists...I just give the references and tell them to do theirs any way they want. It's more fun for artists, I think, to have some freedom and do it their own way. Sure, I will have certain things in mind sometimes (like the story-telling shots Webb does for me that he's so good at), but for the posed stuff I like to see what they can come up with. On his own he decided to do a flying action shot with Dyna, and we SO needed one of those! Awesome! I'll be getting back to him soon to see what he can do with Tinker. Good guy. And another one who's not only talented, but really quick (I think they only took a couple of days each).

And finally, got one more newcomer, and another female artist. I hesitate to use the word "new" because this was one of those shots I ordered months before, and had to send reminders. She finally got it done, so no harm. And so I finally got my Erica Batton Nightsable. Very interesting. Looks kind of like something you'd see in an art gallery...kind of "local Seattle artists pay tribute to Forte". I like it.

 

Next Time...On "The 'F' Word"...

Still hoping to announce that I have a new job and therefore lots more free time to work on Forte stuff! I'll keep hope alive. Hopefully I'll have that final Forge chapter done (will they EVER form a team?) and try (before Aaron smacks me) to get back to Forte 2000 #149. Who lives?! Who dies?! Who cares?! Who knows! Also trying to follow K.C.'s lead, as I did this time, and work in some SMALLER Forte stories (which are easier on everyone), which can give some great little moments to get to know the characters better. Plus, of course, I have a bitchin' Dream Girl shot to get me all Omniversally inspired... :P So stay tuned until then, and see ya after the turkey hangover!

Michael O’Connell
Forte Stalker...Restraining Order Pending...