It's not over yet, but 2018 was a year of multiple professional anniversaries for me. Most fall into the decade category, but one is a decade-and-a-half, so I'll mention it first.

Fifteen years ago this fall, The Legion Companion was published, the first of four books that I did for TwoMorrows Publishing. It's long since out of print, and copies in the second hand market get upwards of $100. So if you don't have one, you might want to start saving your money now!

As far as the ten year anniversaries go, first up is the cover story that I did about Dave Cockrum for Alter Ego magazine. I had numerous interactions with Dave due to my Legion books, so I more or less volunteered to be the one to write about him after he died. Luckily, editor Roy Thomas took me up on it and my article, "The Man Who Loved Comics," came out in Alter Ego # 78.

Next up was The Titans Companion 2, the last of my projects for TwoMorrows Publishing. There are actually still copies available, but they won't be around for long, and you can order one at a substantial discount (70% off) here.

2008 was also the 50th anniversary of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I wrote an article about its publishing history for that year's Comic-Con International Souvenir Book. And since the Legion was on the cover, I guess you could say that makes it a cover story, too.

The fall saw two stories of mine published in back-to-back issues of Cthulhu Tales. I told the story of how that happened here, and if you've been paying attention to anything I've written over the last year, the first of those, "One of Those Days," was adapted into the short film Eldritch Code. It was released online in May after a very successful (*cough*cough* award-winning) film festival tour throughout 2017 that included over thirty dates in fourteen countries on four continents.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's only a click away!

Summer is now unofficially over, but before the twenty-second rolls around and it's officially fall, there's still news to discuss!

Back in winter I was asked to write an article for Word, the official periodical of WANL, the Writer's Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador, about the process of going from writing about comic books to writing comic books to having a comic book story be adapted into film. I was a new member, and those weren't the usual credentials, so it caught their eye.

Thus was born, "Whatever Gets You There In The End," the story of how "One Of Those Days" was turned into Eldritch Code. In fact, I was told that it inspired an entire theme issue of writing off the page (screenplays, adaptations, sketch comedy), so I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. It'll eventually show up here on this site, but for now it's for WANL eyes only!

Before and after: a page of Interact-O-Rama both with and without words.

Speaking of this site, it was recently updated to include another installment of Hits & Misses. This time around it's about a contest I once entered in which participants were invited to script an already illustrated comic book story. The catch was that the pages could be arranged in any order, and you had to use all of them.

Rich Hedden drew it, Tom McWeeney inked it, and the words that you see here on this page are mine. But did I win? You'll have to read the article to find out!

April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but this year it was a short film based upon a comic book that debuted in May.

Eldritch Code saw its general release on May 2, and within a few weeks, thousands of viewers were added to the list of those that already saw it as part of its film festival tour. Not only that, but Eldritch Code has been mentioned in the press by Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, Bleeding Cool, Ain't It Cool News, Diamond's Scoop newsletter, Toy Lab, Creepy Factor, and Horror Society. It's also been showcased at FilmShortage.com and FirstShowing.net, and it's not done yet! Expect more news and highlights as the word continues to spread.

Now that 2017 is in the books, here are some stats on the festival tour of Eldritch Code (so far):

Director Ivan Radovic being interviewed at the World Premiere of Eldritch Code in Stockholm Sweden, on May 17, 2017. Photo by Sonja Josipovic.

4 continents (Europe, North America, Asia, Australia)

14 countries (Sweden, India, Spain, America, Serbia, Canada, UK, Romania, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Iceland, Australia, Germany)

28 festivals (too many to list!)

4 nominations (Best VFX (Happenstance Horror Fest), Best Sci-Fi Short Film (FilmQuest), Best Editing (Terror In The Bay Festival), Best Actor (Killer Valley Horror Film Festival))

3 awards (Best VFX (Happenstance Horror Fest), Best Actor (Killer Valley Horror Film Festival), plus a Gold Award Winner at the Spotlight Film Awards)

Still a couple to go, then it'll be released online for everyone else to see! Not bad for a short film based upon a short story made for little (or no) money. Hats off to director Ivan Radovic for making it all happen!