New STEEL CITY NOIR is up at TRIP CITY

by Vito Delsante on May 17, 2012 at 6:21 am
Posted In: Projects

This month’s installment of STEEL CITY NOIR is up. It’s called “Lucky Eddie” and I hope you can take the time to read it. Every time I do one of these, I figure I should “sell” the story and give a little insight as to why I wrote what I wrote. It’s a story about gambling, something which I’m not very fond of, but I do pretty often. It’s also a story about luck and fate, and how much stock we tend to put in those two things, especially in a casino.

I straddle the line pretty much the entire story with the luck that Eddie possess. Are they super powers? Is someone really that lucky? It’s a fine line to straddle because, if they are super powers, it sets a precedent for the series. So the answer is, “Not yet.”

My in-laws love scratch off lottery tickets. LOVE them. Whenever Michelle and I go back to PA, there are two scratch off tickets already waiting for us. I’m always the last to do mine because, it’s never anything I care about. Luck is whatever it is, and I’m just not a lucky guy. That’s not to say I’ve never won money gambling or playing the lotto or whatever. In fact, up until I went to The Rivers, I had a pretty good streak of always winning money playing Black Jack. That losing streak carried over to a trip to Mohegan Sun last year. I just tend to not put any faith in any of it. Sure, I hate losing money, but I don’t see myself as unlucky when I lose or lucky when I win. Funny anecdote; upon hearing of my first trip to Vegas, and how much money I won, my mother, shocked, said, “I’m surprised! You hate to lose money!” Boy, is that ever true.

The art this month is done by Julián López, who, if you’ve followed my career, did the art for Superman #676. Julián and I never spoke to each other during the making of the Superman comic; we exchanged one or two emails after it was out. It wasn’t until we found each other on Facebook that we really started talking, and I have to tell you that it’s a real treat to talk to him. He’s not only an incredible artist (and “incredible,” as a superlative,  just doesn’t do him justice), he’s an amazing listener, a true friend, and a real pro. If the stars line up, we may have something to announce soon…a new collaboration (with Caleb Monroe) called DOUBLE. And since we talk just about every day, there may be more from the Delsante/Lopez team! Keep your eyes glued!

That’s pretty much it. Go read “Lucky Eddie” now and tell me what you thought!

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Free Comic Book Day 2012

by Vito Delsante on May 5, 2012 at 8:32 am
Posted In: Projects

I had every intention of actually having a free comic out today…self published, of course. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any “new” material (in quotes because new is a relative term…it’d be new to readers). So, apologies to Jim Hanley’s Universe and Brooklyn Comics & More (where I had intended to sign for the day).

However, I do have some free comics you can read digitally (or via download), if you’re so inclined.

FCHS – aka, FCHS FCBD 2009…The First 24 Pages (if you’d like to download the whole book for 4.99, visit Graphicly; to own a copy, visit Comixpress)

The Golden Mantis of Chinatown – 8 Page Story (Appears in Popgun Vol 4, available at comic shops everywhere; download here)

The Mercury Chronicles #0 -16 Page Preview to the aborted mini-series

The Mercury Chronicles Annual #1 – 18 Page comic for the aborted mini-series

I also have some free prose on Trip City:

Steel City Noir – Tonight, Down By The River

Steel City Noir – MTO

 

*I have other books available in my Store.

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The Perils of Rock and Roll Decadence

by Vito Delsante on April 21, 2012 at 6:28 am
Posted In: Random

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It’s rare that I talk (blog) about real life on here, but a story is a story, and I do talk about stories. So, here it goes…

Working from home is great, but sometimes you need to get away. Luckily, Michelle just scheduled herself for a 9 day vacation (which isn’t what happened at all…her boss, the doctor, went on vacation, so…). After circling around doing a few things, we settled on going to her parents house in PA. I love going there, and my work is mobile, so, I’m cool with being anywhere.

Packed up the car, the dogs, and got a house sitter. On the road by 3:10 pm. I wanted to leave earlier, but things happen. Better to leave with all that you need than forget something. Now, for the first time in…a while, I got really proactive about the car. Checked all the fluids and the tires. The one tire looked a little low, but it was doable. We set off after topping the gas.

Traffic was horrendous once we got into Jersey, but towards the Delaware Water Gap, things opened up. Due to the long stretches, though, we all had to make a stop. Few minutes later, and we were back on the road. It’s now around 6:30 pm.

And the there was an explosion.

My first thought was, “That damn tire that I said was ok.” I had planned to check it again at our first planned stop, which was around an hour away, but then it bit me in the ass. But as I quickly pulled over (in a cloud of white smoke I couldn’t see through), I realized the tire was fine. What’s more, the windshield was getting wet. Tires don’t usually retain water.

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Can you see that? That is a hose that runs from the radiator to the engine. I’m no gear head (Michelle is) so I don’t quite know what this is called, but I know we couldn’t drive like this any further.

Thank goodness for Roadside Assistance. Long story short, tow truck driver was incredibly nice, as were the mechanics. The car is just about ready, and we’re due to check out of our hotel in about an hour. And the dogs were extremely well behaved.

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Michelle, once again, proved that in a zombie apocalypse, she’s the one that’s going to keep us alive.

Me? I’m content with being the getaway driver.

UPDATE: Everything is lookin’ good! We’ll be on our way shortly!

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New STEEL CITY NOIR is up at TRIP CITY

by Vito Delsante on April 19, 2012 at 5:52 am
Posted In: Projects

Over at TRIP CITY, my newest installment of STEEL CITY NOIR is up. You should read it. Nowish (and leave a comment, please). And if you know someone that’ll enjoy it, you should tell them. I mean, I don’t want to think I’m writing these for myself.

I never like to tell folks what the story is about in these blog posts, so instead, I’ll (maybe) enrich the story a bit. The title “Made to Order” comes from one of my favorite places in the world; a convenience store franchise called Sheetz.

I absolutely love Sheetz. I love Sheetz like people in Jersey love WaWa. When I was growing up in PA, it was a gas station that had slurpies. When I went back after 10 years, it became something else. It became…I guess a destination stop. They started making made to order sandwiches and carrying all kinds of coffee flavors. Whenever we drive back to my in-laws, I have to make a stop just to get a chocolate banana frozen coffee with skim milk. Always.

“Made to Order” is…well, it’s no love letter to Sheetz, but it is pretty evident that I enjoy my time there. I mean, why else would Bobby steal from the place?
(I should note that I would never encourage anyone to steal from Sheetz. It’s worth the money!) If you bear with me, and keep up with SCN, you’re going to see more places like Sheetz pop up, and what I mean is…you’ll see more Pittsburgh area “landmarks.” I think the next one tentatively takes place at the Rivers Casino. And I know for a fact that a future one will take place at the University of Pittsburgh, my “alma mater.” (That’s in quotes since I didn’t graduate.)

Can’t wait for tomorrow. Why? Because we’re driving back to PA! And that means a stop at Sheetz!

I hate to sound like a broken record, but please read the story, leave a comment, and tell a friend.

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Before/After Genius – The New Isht at Trip City

by Vito Delsante on March 15, 2012 at 6:28 am
Posted In: Projects

Today marks the debut of my new bimonthly column at Trip City; Before/After Genius. Steel City Noir (fiction) will alternate with B/A Genius (non fiction), and hopefully, folks will see that I’m capable of writing a few things that aren’t comic books (not that it’s a bad thing, but diversifying is always good).

A little bit of history: Before/After Genius wasn’t created for Trip City. Not originally. Many moons ago, my good friend, Ron Richards, started a new site called Murmur. It was a pretty ambitious idea; basically an interactive community with user generated content, it was as close to the old zines we’d get at hardcore shows as you could get. Ron grew up in that atmosphere, and when he asked me if I’d be interested in submitting, I came up with B/A Genius. So why wasn’t I on the site? Well, I didn’t know it was user generated; I thought it was by invite and when Ron never followed up, I thought it was because he had all the content creators he needed. So, I shelved it and when Dean and Seth asked me if I was interested in “working” at Trip City, I brought this out as one of bullets in my creative pistol.

So, the next question…why Prince? I get into it a little in the article, and I won’t spoil that, but it’s a fairly simple reason. A couple of friends asked me to rank the top ten most influential musicians, and when I thought about it, I had to rank them in order of importance to me and the way that I make/made music. Prince was number one (followed by John Coltrane and the Police). There was a point, about 10 years ago, where I could not stop listening to Sign O’ The Times because it was, and still is, everything I could ever ask of music. It was fun, it was touching, it was sexy and it was incredibly real to me. Still is. Prince is undeniably a musical genius, even if we can’t hear that anymore. And that’s where the idea of before and after came in. I wanted to focus on the one moment of genius and look at what came immediately before, and what came immediately after. I could spend time on multiple albums, but the focus was important to me. Sometimes, genius never goes away and sometimes, that lightning strikes once. I wanted to spark discussion, not only about Prince, but about genius in general. Go to Trip City, read the article, and let me know how I did.

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