Blood Hunt covers are pretty dope because we get to see heroes molly whopping vampires!

Review: Blood Hunt Issue 2

May 27, 2024

Ok I know I said I was only going to collect Deadpool and Wolverine WWIII and also the Poison Ivy run that started last year. However, this new Blood Hunt run is only 5 issues (if you don’t include the separate titles) and since I got started with the Free Comic Book Day version it was a no brainer. I’m not sure what it is with vampires but I love them! It might be growing up watching Blade 1-3, Underworld, Twilight, Van Helsing and more.

I stopped at my local comic book shop on Thursday intending to pick up issue 3 of X-Men ‘97 but I saw Blood Hunt issue 2 sitting right next to it. I think what has been drawing me to it besides the story is the art. The covers featuring Avengers and other superheroes slicing up Vampires is fucking dope. I do wish though that I got a wrap-around cover again like the first issue I picked up. It’s a shame we don’t get wrap-arounds as much anymore but I totally understand the need to market the next books and such. Reminder of how these blog posts go:

Cover Art
Story
Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

Once again, another cool cover featuring our superheroes going toe-to-toe against some vicious looking vampires. The background looks to be set in the city with our heroes at the top of a building with vampires climbing up the walls. Captain America, Captain Marvel, Vision and Iron Man are all fighting vampires off and it looks super awesome. My favorite part of the cover is Captain Marvel because it looks like she punched the living shit out of a vampire!

Brielle, daughter of Blade, decapitating suckers

Story

So we left off on the last issue (SPOILER WARNING) if you haven’t read the first issue of Blood Hunt, save this blog post and come back after reading. But at the very end of issue 1, we discover Blade being the mastermind behind the vampire invasion and he stabs Dr. Strange right through the chest. It was absolutely EPIC.

We get quick looks at Thor being strung up by chains and the stake still through his head(another epic illustration). Scarlet Witch seems to be incapacitated and T’Challa has been converted into a vampire! Blade, having control over his vampire minions, orders Black Panther to fetch his prize, as well as sends his bloodcoven to find the girl; both of these we don’t know what they are, yet I think.

Now I have no prior knowledge of Blade comics or lore, but he has a daughter(Brielle) according to the first issue. This time she has linked up with Dracula in New York City, and he is talking down to her for risking her life to fight off vampires for humans. There is a sweet action shot of Brielle slicing a vampire’s head off.

We now encounter some heroes who are trying to link up in Uptown. Tigra and Hunter’s Moon, two heroes I’m unfamiliar with, are looking for Dr. Strange when they happen upon Spider-Man, though he says he’s the other Spider-Man. Not sure what that means.

They discover Clea and a vampire Dr. Strange after being led by Dr. Strange’s astral self.

The issue finishes off with some dope fighting scenes and the Avengers coming thru and whooping butt. Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Vision all show up to help Dracula against Blade’s bloodcoven. Megrim is taken down by Vision, Captain Marvel smashes the shit out of Bloodstorm 1 with a flying punch. The fight continues with the Avengers overtaking them to the point that the bloodcoven teleports to escape.

Our heroes are able to take a breather, but right as they let down their guard, one of them turns…! We’ll talk about this reveal in the next post. Can’t wait for the next issue!

Overall 4 / 5

Artwork was dope, so that’s good to know the quality didn’t dip after the first issue. I will say though the story kind of felt a little empty in a way. It was a bit of a different take on the first issue in which we get a grouping of a heroes against vampires but we didn’t really find out anything important to the story. We’ll see how this next issue goes.

Why Free Downloads?

May 20, 2024

A couple months ago I started sharing my work on Threads. Surprisingly it’s been getting a lot of engagement compared to its forefather, Instagram. At the moment there are countless creators voicing their concerns about engagement being really low. Not to mention Instagram saying that they’re going to support their smaller content creators has really irked some of those who have spent time building their large followings.

Though honestly for me, my accounts have sucked for the past year since I was posting heavily about cannabis, whether it would be educational or not. It was always to talk about our app Chronicle in some way. However a lot of my posts were against their policy. I kept getting notifications from Instagram to take down content or risk being in violation and having my account no longer be shown to non-followers. Countless times I would be wondering why my engagement falls off only to see there are recommendations from Instagram on taking down content that has cannabis in it.

If you want to view the full branding profile check it out **here**

So with all of that happening and getting burnt out from trying new ways to create canna and Chronicle content and failing. I made the conscious decision of removing cannabis from my content strategy. With that came Coffee and Comics. Coffee and comics is an evolution of the original logo I created over a year ago; coffee, cannabis, and comics. Funny thing is, as I worked on this I realized I liked it so much more. A lot of things were fixed that I didn’t like in the original; for instance like the negative spacing in between the words. Then I was able to keep it to two “brand” marks within the whole logo, which is the coffee cup in the C and then the superhero in the O.

Which leads me to the free downloads on my website. While on Threads I started to engage with the comic community while at the same time X-Men ‘97 was premiering on Disney+. Over the course of a couple weeks I noticed that a lot of people were getting upset because other accounts were posting spoilers and they hadn’t watched the episode yet. So I thought I could jump in on this and help out with providing a variety of spoiler images that people could use in their posts as alerts to their audience.

The community responded positively by engaging with it, thus making it the post with the highest engagement on my account. People were thankful, others were joining in on the discussion if you should be posting spoilers in the first place. I wanted to point out though that there are accounts that are monetizing and trying to be the first one out there; so I get it and you’re not gonna be able to stop those people but maybe we can educate them with some best practices so those who don’t want to be spoiled can scroll right past.

You can download this Cable inspired wallpaper **here**

Analyzing all the engagement on my Threads posts, I started to think OK how can I start converting all of these engagements into leads on my website. What I decided on was wallpapers for mobile phones customized with an X-Men theme. The response to this was the same as the spoiler images: people loved them, shared them over and over. Once again, it became one of my highest engaged posts.

What I would do is post an image of a mock up of one of the wallpapers. Let that kind of make its way around with people liking it and sharing it, then I would follow up by posting a link to my website. The other point of this was from and SEO perspective. Now I’m not an expert in SEO, I’m just a designer, but I wanted to see how I can start getting more leads to my website. So by making things free, anyone that is searching for free X-Men related items will hopefully see my posts and I can begging to capture that audience.

Now you might say, “OK so what’s the point? Why? What are you doing with all this traffic?”

Well there’s a couple reasons for that one. I eventually want to start a coffee & comic shop here in my town outside of Denver. So by tackling and taking over all the coffee and comic content in my area, I can start gathering traffic to the website for when we do open.

Hopefully coming to fruition in the next year or so.

By directing people to the free downloads, I’m hoping to encourage them to make purchase. I want to provide just a few items that people can purchase like stickers, a tote bag, maybe even some coffee mugs. These are all things that I’m experimenting with as I am creating them by hand to save on costs.

Then the third reason is just to try to get subscribers to my blog. The blog is going to be another way to capture an audience and try to bring them along on the journey for starting up this coffee and comic shop. Sharing my experience of what’s going on, how I’m doing it all and honestly just being a sort of journal in which I can hold myself accountable on certain things. Plus serve as a place to air out some ideas or frustrations that I’m having and try to brainstorm with my community solutions.

**Storm** is my current background, which one is your favorite?

At the moment, my free downloads is the highest viewed page on my website and traffic has grown over 3000% in the past month alone. So now you’re probably thinking, “How can you keep this going?” Well it’s pretty simple, make more wallpapers, share more free downloads and just keep the momentum going, it’s not about getting burnt out. It’s about fun and not some immediate deadline. A part of that has to be the comic community I have encountered on Threads, being engaged with such a passionate group really helps keep me going.

X-Men '97 | Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 3

May 15, 2024

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Wow. Wow. Wow.

I honestly didn’t think we’d get something this awesome for a season finale. It was so damn good. I figured I would write a blog post and get my thoughts out without spoiling it for people on Threads that are just checking their feed in the morning. So if you’re here and haven’t watched the final episode of Tolerance is Extinction, turn around now! If you have, let’s discuss.

I really liked how in the last post I did a “burst” of first thoughts that came to mind of the episode, so let’s do that!

Seeing Professor X and Magneto as their younger selves?!
Portrayal of Magneto’s mind was creative
Prof X Mind Hijack was sickkkk
Love the cameos, done very tastefully and not just thrown in
“How’s your mommy Sebastion?” LOL!
Phoenix! Hell yeah!
Bastion character design and evolution looked badass
Cyclops & Jean farewell, so heartfelt
Cyclops tearing up after saying bye
The X-Men are dead?!
Bishop! Where you been man?!

Phew lots to take in and quite frankly I’m sure I’ll be rewatching this episode over and over.

Loved seeing them discover being mutants

I felt like all of the cameos we saw were in great taste and nothing like, “oh that was stupid” type of cameos we are so used to getting in some MCU movies. The creative ways they go about portraying mind, emotions and conflict have been so cool to see and experience. For instance the way they make Magneto’s mind an enclosed area taking on water. That was dope.

I was not sure what was going to happen here.

The entire evolution and the reasoning for Sebastion was very well done. The actual character design when he evolves after taking on Cable’s arm was clean and not some ridiculous looking design.

Great variety of awesome cameos like this one of Pyslocke.

Here are my favorite parts of the show. Feel free to use these screenshots for your posts just be sure to also include spoilers if you are posting early. You can get those here and here.

Iron Man and Captain America show up briefly!

Doctor Stranger, why aren’t you fighting??

All really great cameos that I was extremely pumped about seeing. I want more hahaha.

The goodbye from Scott to Cable was another good emotional scene that offered closure and really spoke to me.

Cyclops fighting after saying goodbye to his son, feelings

Once we cut to the board showing the missing X-Men I had no clue what was going to happen.

Hell yeah! Bishop is back, but what is going on? The X-Men are lost in time??

One cameo I did not expect at all. Apocalypse is coming.

Can’t wait for the next season.

Overall 5 / 5

Review: Blood Hunt + FCBD Blood Hunt

May 14, 2024

The covers on these two comics alone are enough to warrant a pick up from me and after listening to a podcast talk about how great it was, I was determined to pick it up. Now I actually picked these up at two different shops on Free Comic Book Day(FCBD). I got the FCBD version at my usual shop, I Want More Comics; then the first issue I picked up at Hero Headquarters. Why did I get them at different shops? Well the FCBD version was available at my usual shop but not the first issue. When I went out a second time to get some issues for a friend of mine I found this variant edition. I also didn’t notice until I got home that the variant edition I picked up was in fact a wrap- around cover. This was the only issue left that I managed to get, so finding out that it was also a wrap-around cover was an added plus.

Now I said going forward I was only going to be collecting Poison Ivy, Deadpool and Wolverine WWIII because I also got two mystery boxes of comics that I want to go through. However this Blood Hunt storyline is making me really think about adding it to my comic list.

A little different with this review since it’s two books. I’ll be reviewing the cover art, but I’ll just briefly mention the FCBD version instead of a full review:

Cover Art
Story
Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Thought this was a cool and clean spread for a title open.

Cover & Story - Free Comic Book Day Blood Hunt 1*

As mentioned before the covers on these two books are freakin’ sweet. I’ve always been a big fan of vampire stories and movies like Blade, Twilight and Underworld. So seeing superheroes up against vampires is like a match made in heaven for me. On the FCBD cover the superheroes featured are Spider-Man, Daredevil and two members from the Fantastic Four, Sue Storm and Reed Richards. There is another character wielding a sword that we later find out is Blade’s daughter, Brielle Brooks. It’s a really neat cover that does a good job showcasing a horde of vampires.

The story for this one is pretty short; we are shown four different areas that are dealing with something called “darkforce.” In Manhattan we have Spider-Man fighting off some being that ends up exploding into what I can only describe as a tornado of darkforce matter. Next Reed Richards and Sue Storm are alerted of multiple dimensional breaches and are worried that it might be the darkforce dimension. Daredevil is then seen fighting off a slew of vampire in Hell’s Kitchen; and Blade’s daughter Brielle Brooks is also fighting some vampires when she stumbles upon none other than….

Cover - Blood Hunt 1 Variant Edition

So this cover was quite a surprise when I got home. I didn’t realize it was a wrap-around and since it was already a cover I really liked, I was pretty stoked to check out what’s on the back. Similar to the FCBD version, this cover features a variety of superheroes on the cover fighting a butt ton of vampires. Thor, Captain America and Scarlet Witch are on the front; on the back we’ve got Doctor Strange, Spider-Man but in a different color suit than the FCBD version, Blade and I want to say Iron Man. Also on the front of the cover we have a vampire ripping the face off some skull, not sure if it’s supposed to be a known superhero but it looks pretty badass.

To start off, I was a bit lost with what the panels were talking about in regards to each one having a “Sundeath” along with a time. It looked like the numbers were all counting down but I couldn’t be sure because on the following page we jump back to a higher number than before. It begins with Scarlet Witch and Iron Man trying to get a sense of what is going on. They determine that there are reports of other superhumans exploding into darkforce portals. Next we got Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, two characters I am unfamiliar with, but they get jumped by another horde of vampires.

What I really liked was an inclusion of a key players sheet that named off all the characters we need to know starting with Avengers; Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Vision and Captain America. The Midnight Mission consists of Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, while the last group is unnamed but is made up of Spider-Man, Blade, Doctor Strange, Clea and Doctor Doom. After that we get some more pages consisting of panels showing an apocalyptic world ruled by vampires with the “Sundeath” time. Then Spider-Man shows up and is fighting vampires and asks the question, “What would Blade do?” Well Blade shows up, says he has a plan and needs Spider-Man. All the Avengers are fighting their own separate battles but Blade is able to contact them and says he has information and that they all need to meet up.

This panel of Thor with a wooden stake through his head is wild!

Well that ends up being a huge ambush by Blade and the Avengers are all beat to shit by a bunch of villains called the Blood Coven. Thor gets whooped, Vision gets stabbed, Iron Man gets his suit taken apart, Captain Marvel endures excruciating pain, Captain America gets tossed across the room through a wall, Wanda is being overpowered. It’s all hands on deck and the Avengers are losing badly. Thor gets what I can only assume is a wooden stake, right thru his head. Black Panther gets struck down and the Blood Coven says they have to keep the world symbol alive, meaning Captain America I think?...

I sensed something was going on with Blade, but a part of me wonders if someone is controlling him…

We cut to Bleeker Street and come upon Doctor Strange and Clea frantically trying to assemble a formula that would fix everything. But they are visited by Blade, who tells them there is someone who is uniting the vampires to compete against the Avengers. Doctor Strange thinks it’s Dracula but Blade tells him no, it’s someone else (considering the ending of the FCBD Blood Hunt, we see Dracula meeting Blade’s daughter Brielle and fighting alongside her). We land on the last page and BAM! Blad stabs Doctor Strange from behind and says, “It’s me.” WOW! What an ending and awesome artwork to tell this story. I’m really tempted to get the next issues.

Overall 5 / 5

Tous Les Jours - A Denver Coffee Adventure

May 13, 2024

Coffee Date and Research?…

You might be wondering why coffee and comics? Other than enjoying a nice cup of coffee in the morning with a comic book, opening a coffee and comic shop is something I’d like to do in the near future. It’s always a great time going to a comic shop and browsing all the comics, figurines and more; but a lot of the time after I make my purchase I want to sit down and read them. However all comic shops are cramped spaces that are packed to the ceilings with products. Even the Mile High Comics in Denver that is an entire warehouse is packed to the brim and doesn’t offer any seating. With three comic shops being 15-25 minutes away from me, I end up going home to read them instead of going to another establishment to sit and read. Now a coffee and comic shop takes care of that problem by not only providing a space to sit and relax but also providing food and beverages to pair with your comic purchase.

Starbucks plus many other national and global brands have some cities and towns in the palm of their hand by having so many locations and beating out local competition. For instance I live about 20 mins outside of Denver and there are maybe one or two “mom and pop” coffee shops as opposed to multiple Starbucks, Dutch Bros, Caribou Coffee and Ziggy’s Coffee, all national chains. In the 5 years I’ve been living in Colorado I’ve been to Dutch Bros once and Starbucks a few times. I’ve never been to Caribou Coffee or Ziggy’s, but anytime I’ve gone to Starbucks, or driven by the other coffee shops, they’re either empty or just have a drive-thru going.

My wife and I’s order today at Tous Les Jours.

That brings me to the next part of this which is going on coffee adventures with my wife. Before getting into the coffee shop business, we want to do our due diligence and research what makes coffee shops successful in the Denver area and surrounding suburbs. Last week we went to a coffee shop called Sweet Bloom that was really nice but we felt out of place. It seemed like everyone sitting there was on a laptop and there were only a few tables that offered seating for more than two people.

I had to try this, it was so light and fluffy and the cream was rich and tasted super fresh with bits of blueberry in it.

What we did like was the pastries so today I wanted to see what was near us that offered breakfast pastries and I came across Tous Les Jours. This bakery and cafe is located less than 10 mins from our house, in fact once we got there we were thinking it’d be a nice bike ride someday. It is however part of a national chain but we wanted to give it a chance.

A very aesthetically pleasing bakery with a wide variety of pastry options. Savory and sweet, I hit the jackpot. There were so many different items to choose from I had to walk around and look at everything twice before choosing. Everything looked exceptional, freshly baked, fresh and vibrant fruit, it just looked perfect. My wife opted for a latte and almond croissant, I got a hot mocha, a blueberry cream cheese pastry and later went and got an apple filled pastry too.

This apple filled pastry was delicious, I could of eaten at least 4 more.

The hot mocha was delicious and didn’t seem as heavy or thick as opposed to Starbucks. I devoured my first pastry, the bread was so soft and fluffy, the cream filling had bits of blueberry, I finished it in under two minutes. Still hungry, I got an apple filled pastry that was also baked to perfection with a flaky crust and rich apple filling. They had quite a few food options and certainly a place we will be visiting again, especially to try out one of their smoothies. Highly recommend checking this place out if you’re ever in the Denver suburb area.

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