http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:NiaBlack&section=today deviantART RSS for by:NiaBlack en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:52:59 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/24836834/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/24836834/ Tue, 19 May 2009 09:51:54 PDT , but for some reason it feels right to record this here. Maybe because it actually relates to Nia Black.

I'm tired of being indecisive, so I've decided to stop trying to figure out what the "best" choice is and just do something, for the heck of it. What I will do is return focus to my greatest creation, Nia Black, for good or for ill.

I plan to do the following:

1. Edit the novel to perfection...one thing I will do is rewrite the story in parts so, instead of taking place in the fictional "River City", it will take place in my native Philadelphia, PA.

2. Break the novel into two or three parts. The book is entirely too long as is. When I first wrote it, I intended for it to be three graphic novels, and the Word documents were segmented as such. Only when I discovered Lulu and put the book online did it occur to me to make it one big novel. Speaking of Lulu...

3. Take the current book off the site. As long as it's up there, there will be a part of me that believes the production is final and doesn't need any more work. I haven't sold any copies in a few months so now is a good time.

4. Resurrect the plans to add images to the book. I've pondered it many times, and after seeing the many books at ECBACC that did the same basic thing, I know it's a good idea now. The doubt is gone; all that remains is the work.

5. Draw all the story's major characters. I have often told myself that the characters in the book, aside from Nia and Shauntia, would not be that interesting visually; that was one of the biggest barriers in drawing the graphic novel. While I have abandoned plans to draw that graphic novel, I do want to have good images of the characters to put in the back of the book (or in some sort of compendium) along with bios for archival purposes. Despite the fact that I love to write, I will always consider myself an artist first. It will also make it easier to come up with the images as mentioned in #4.

What does this mean for this particular gallery? Not much. If you peruse this gallery you'll find that only the first three chapters of the book are viewable here (the rest are in this gallery's storage). I may update or upload new deviations with the revised chapters if need be, but on the other hand, the changes may not be great enough to justify it. I'll probably upload the character and in-book images to my art gallery for crits and suggestions. Perhaps I'll upload the character images and bios here as well, just to have something here. My goal is to overcome my stigma that the characters are dull by drawing them looking interesting--even heavily uninteresting people like Charlie from the night club or Vincent Marks. Because it's all in the presentation.

Time to get to work.

]]> ~NiaBlack http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/24464263/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/24464263/ Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:15:32 PDT account), I've decided to upload incomplete stories that were sitting on my hard drive for ages, for your perusing (dis)pleasure. Since writing, like sketching during my work day, doesn't get in the way of my home and family life, I may still write here and there. After all, I wrote my entire Nia Black novel, editing and all, on my government workstation during my day job.

]]> ~NiaBlack http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/24111862/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/24111862/ Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:02:23 PDT
WCL is on indefinite hiatus, due to the onslaught of inspiration brought on by the resurrection of my Jet Dancer character. That isn't to say WCL is dead, but I'm restructuring and it may not continue to exist in its current form. I'm tired of having a million different concepts, stories, universes, etc. to keep track of.

This doesn't mean I'm not writing anything. I've come up with a new novel idea, something that's completely unrelated to anything I do artistically. Different theme, different premise, entirely different type of story. I actually feel strongly about the uncommon, yet intriguing premise (if I do say so myself) so I won't be putting up any snippets here nor talking about it much, at least not until the entire story is written.

I'll be updating with more brain farts and snippets from other concepts in time. I have some Jet Dancer writings and pieces of other stories to put up, whenever I remember to do them.

]]> ~NiaBlack http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/20091574/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/20091574/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:48:30 PDT
WEAPON, or Weapon-Equipped Armor for Personal Offense and Navigation, is a military-developed technology designed to make single soldiers more effective in combat. Clad in WEAPONs, soldiers had the firepower of attack vehicles, capable of emitting energy blasts and rockets, and the defenses of tanks, thanks to the high-powered energy shield. The suit enhances man's natural physical abilities and sometimes even provides fantastic powers such as teleportation or flight. WEAPON turned the tide of past wars, but in the present day, the technology has been leaked to the public.

It didn't take long before technological geniuses making a living selling their wares on the black market spread the secrets of WEAPON technology on the streets. WEAPON became the primary tool of the lawful and lawless alike. When it was discovered that WEAPONs could be customized to suit the whims and skills of the wielder, the chaos only expanded. People took on the roles of veritable super heroes--or villains, using the power of their WEAPONs to fulfill their desires, whether it be to make a name for themselves as the world's premiere vandals, or simply learn what it was like to take to the heavens with the birds.

Laws were enacted and enforced. The police and indeed, the military took the fight to those who used custom WEAPONs for their own gain, and the streets ran red with blood on both sides. While the police and military forces were well trained, the difference was made up to some degree by the extent by which WEAPONs could be customized. Both sides suffered many casualties, and innocents were often caught in the crossfire, their properties destroyed in the countless skirmishes.

General Patricia James of the Defense Force realized that things could not continue the way they had been. WEAPONs could be a force for good. The youths that had unlocked the secrets of WEAPON customization represented the future, for good or for ill. General James was determined to do what she could to make that future a bright one.

She approached the high council with an idea... a way to appease both sides of the argument. Her plan: to create an officially-sanctioned competition between WEAPON-wielders, using their customized armor in legalized, regulated battles. The fights would officially end when a WEAPON's shield were depleted of its strength, to prevent the combatants from seriously injuring one another. General James believed her plan would end the bloodshed while simultaneously allowing those that insisted upon using WEAPONs to do so in a way that entertained themselves and the public, and earned them fame and fortune in the process.

The eight council members voted, and her measure was approved 7-1.

General James and her staff traveled around the citizenry, seeking out the very best of the WEAPON wielders, seeing their combat prowess and judging the quality and uniqueness of their WEAPONs. Before long, the General had assembled 24 combatants, dividing them into eight teams consisting of three members each. Thus, the WEAPON Combat League was born.

The eight teams would compete in designated combat areas away from public and private property, earning wins until all teams face one another. The four teams with the top rank compete in a final bracket tournament, the winning team crowned champion.

Each combatant has his or her own reasons for entering the league. Some seek revenge, others seek fortune. Some want to show off what they can do to pursue a greater cause, some just want to fight as much as they can for the thrill of it. But all of them gather for one common pursuit--the coveted WCL Championship and all of the fortune that goes along with it.

Vivid, energy-filled battle, intrigue, romance, action and adventure await in the new sci-fi action comic WCL: WEAPON Combat League!

--
This is the premise of WCL, the comic idea that often overwhelms me when my mind goes idle, when I'm trying to do something other than Nia Black. What do you think of it? Is it great? Does it suck? Keep it real.

]]> ~NiaBlack http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/15518701/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/15518701/ Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:22:52 PDT $19.95 $14.95 or via download for $7.95, here: [link]

More details can be found in my account. Check it out and support a fellow artist/writer!

--
Question for those who have read any part of WEAPON, do you believe that her story would really make a good graphic novel/comic series? I've always been of the mind that the expanses between drama/talk scenes and action sequences were too wide for me to conceivably draw a comic based on the book in a reasonable time frame (like within a year or so). But I'm just one mind. I'm interested in what you think.

]]> ~NiaBlack http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/14572107/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/14572107/ Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:48:42 PDT
For those who know me as =Dualmask, you might remember me mentioning something about a conflict between my Nia Black and WCL concepts. Well, that battle is over and WCL is on the back burner for now. My imagination isn't leading me in that direction at this time. People far and wide are praising the value and potential of my Nia character, and my wife too is pushing me to put her story out there, so that's what I'm going to do.

But WCL isn't dead. I'll be leaving all WCL story elements here for now. I still have all the development records of the story. WCL will be back, but I'm only one guy and I can only do one thing at a time. It's NIA's time now.

]]> ~NiaBlack http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/13161097/ http://NiaBlack.deviantart.com/journal/13161097/ Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:27:39 PDT for the purpose of expressing the Nia Black story in its prose form.


One day back in 2000, sitting at work during my mindless typist job at Social Security, I realized that I was bored, unsupervised, well up to date on my workload and brimming with creative drive. So I started writing about a dormant character I'd developed years ago but never used. Over the course of the next couple of years, a small paragraph evolved into over 120 pages of text typed in Word revolving around a character named Nia Black.

Inspired by the story, I started drawing Nia...a lot. She became my number one character and the defining image of my artistic nature. Over the years that followed, I struggled to improve every aspect of my creative abilities, basing almost everything I developed around Nia and the story I wrote, to varying degrees of success. I definitely improved my drawing and coloring skills, but ever since I wrote that story I have been unable to move past it, unable to create anything truly new since its inception.

I still focus primarily on Nia Black, but for the first time I think I'm on the verge of simplifying, clarifying and redefining Nia Black as a character and as a comic premise, and as an expression of my desire to abandon the past, I'm doing what I told myself I would never do until the book was published, which is upload the story in its entirety online.

I have come to terms with the fact that this story, written by a younger me far less interested in quality than I am now, is riddled with far too many problems to be worth trying to publish in its present form. Plus, coming to terms with the fact that I'm never going to fulfill this story's original purpose--to draw it chapter by chapter in the form of a graphic novel--means it has limited value to me now.

When taking the time to read this story, I want you to keep in mind a couple of things. One, I wrote it with intent to turn it into a comic book (series), not a novel on a bookshelf. The nature of the story reflects this in dialogue and events. Two, it's very old, well over four years since I made any major edits to this story, so critiques are of limited worth. Say what you want, but I'm not going to change anything in the book now. I just want to express what it was I wanted to express with this story some kind of way.

One way or another, I hope some of the cringe-worthy dialogue and plot holes don't discourage you from enjoying the parts of the story that did turn out well, of which, I believe, are numerous.

--
And now that I have finished uploading the entire Nia story, I have decided to add some of my other writing efforts to this gallery, including what exists of my attempt at a Nia sequel, HEADHUNT (it was never finished) and a more recent story endeavor, WCL, which has nothing to do with the Nia mythos. Hope you enjoy.

]]> ~NiaBlack