Special STGCC Greetings From TV Lala Land

Many fans wish that our local conventions were more like what they see in the USA, with more celebrities and well-known guests. They crave to get close to the Hollywood stardust, but most of the time, acquiring such guests to events held on Red Dot Island simply hard to come by.

So, since many local fans miss the chance of meeting their favourite celebrities in person, Red Dot Diva endeavoured to digitally bring geeky STGCC-goers some greetings from a few popular personalities:

Michael McMillian Talks Mages, Vampires and Panda? - Part 2

Diva's just so Team Eric

Campy, blatantly outrageous and bloody sexy. That's HBO's TV series "True Blood" for ya.

And yet, the series has managed to amass a growing and dedicated fan base called Trubies.

Lately, there have been many pics of SDCC "True Blood" panel and autograph signing sessions floating around the interwebs. This year, hot fan favourite, Alex Skarsgard (Eric Northman) turned up to join his cast mates and Red Dot Diva noticed that he looked surprisingly relaxed while hamming it up with the Trubies at the convention.

Then, there's Rev. Steve Newlin, who was last seen in Season 3 but no one seems to know what has become of him these days! Newlin's real life alter-ego, actor Michael McMillian was last seen at SDCC though, busy doing panels and signings of his own.

Michael, who created the "Lucid" series published by Archaia, also knows how to vamp up a sexy story. Together with co-writer Mark Andreyko, the duo has crafted an interesting side story in "True Blood: Tainted Love", a 6-book series about spiked Tru Blood and its effect on the vamps at Bon Temps. The spin-off graphic novel is published by IDW.

In order to extract some more juicy info, Red Dot Diva attempted to glamour Michael McMillian about his work in the "True Blood" spin-off graphic novel and other upcoming projects in Part 2 of the interview:

Michael McMillian Talks Mages, Vampires and Panda? - Part 1

Gaining lots of comic creator cred in the last past year or so is actor Michael McMillian.

Not only has his comic series "Lucid" been published via the indie company Archaia, he has also co-written the "True Blood: Tainted Love" graphic novel series together with Marc Andreyko. And as one knows, the HBO TV series version of "True Blood" has a huge dedicated cult following!

It is crazy-geeky SDCC weekend right now. And last year, Red Dot Diva was delighted that she had the opportunity to chat with the very likeable, un-Steve Newlin-like Michael at Archaia's booth.

Ahh.. Good Memories. Fun times!

So to mark the one-year anniversary of "Lucid"'s book launch, Red Dot Diva thought this would be the best time to give Michael an extra signal boost for his current and upcoming comic creations!

Here's Part 1 of the interview:

Partying the "Lucid" Hardcover Release - LA Style!

Michael McMillian

When Archaia said there was going to be free drinks at the "Lucid" Vol. 1 Hardcover release party at Golden Apple comics store in LA, they sure weren't kidding!

"Lucid" is a graphic novel created by Michael McMillian (that vamp-hating Rev Steve Newlin in "True Blood"), who is a long-time friend of Before The Door (BTD) Productions.

The graphic novel series is a collaboration between BTD and publishing company Archaia, and tells the action-packed story of Matthew Dee - a powerful covert spy-mage with a perpetual sexy bedhead (of course, Red Dot Diva notices!) - who strives to protect the humankind from very evil conspiracies of a magickal nature.

Adventures at WonderCon - Part I: Archaia Panel

Wondercon exhibit hall , pic by Doug Lowder

Not being a major superheroes-genre graphic novel reader, Red Dot Diva particularly enjoys the original offerings that Archaia publishes. The stories are creative and not too mainstream, and the art usually bold or unusually beautiful.

Of course, it also helps that they have an equally beautiful bunch of people working for the company. ;)

So, it was not surprising at all to see Archaia garnering 9 nominations for this year's Eisner Awards!! (Check out the announcement here!) They have become an indie publishing company to really look out for.

Truly Bloody, Magically Lucid Interview With Michael McMillian

@calowder and Michael McMillian at Wondercon

Since Red Dot Diva lacks the supervillain ability to simultaneously own rich financial bounties and astral project to be at two places at one time, she has to rely on fantastic, equally geeky friends to stalk cool folks at various conventions.

SF-based friends @calowder and @douglowder were at Wondercon last weekend and enjoyed themselves tremendously. They also took up the Red Dot Diva Perv Challenge, and managed to get some very cute and interesting interview footage with actor/ comic writer and creator Michael McMillian!

Meeting Michael McMillian at Planet Comicon

Michael McMillian, pic by Sheree Miller

So...  there was this cozy comic con called Planet Comicon held at the Overland Park International Trade Center, Kansas last weekend, where a bunch of celebs and comic creators were there to meet their KS fans.

Some of the guests included Star Wars folks like Daniel Logan, Ray Park, Tom Kane, comic writer fan-fave Gail Simone, the "Bionic Woman" Lindsay Wagner.

By listing some of these guests on this blog post, Red Dot Diva knows that she's making her Twitter friend @JWalkIV consider some more regretful self-flagellation. He has been living in KS and didn't know about last weekend's convention!!

Guess @JWalkIV might have to work harder at next year's Planet Comicon so that he can bring in the convention news "live" from Kansas!

One other well-known guest who attended Planet Comicon is KS homeboy, Michael McMillian - actor from the wildly popular HBO TV show "True Blood" , and now, a comic book writer for "Lucid" and the latest "True Blood" graphic novel series.

Get Lucid For A Combat Mage!

Combat mage? What's a Combat Mage??

Well Red Dot Diva says that to find out, you'd have to try to get hold of the fantasy/spy/scifi comic "Lucid" which was released in the USA on 9th September. This might not be an easy task if you are a local.

Quite a few comic stores find it difficult to really make it financially viable on our island. Kinokuniya has a large range of comics but these are mainly manga (well they are a Japanese chain of book stores after all!) and anime-related products. Comic Mart at Serene Centre, a popular hangout for many comic fans, was closed down suddenly earlier this year.

On the other hand, Comics World at Parklane - one of the oldest comic stores in Singapore - is still going strong with a pretty good range of familiar super-heroes related American titles, like Captain America, X-Men and the like. It doesn't really stock the more indie comic titles like those by Archaia Comics. Perhaps Red Dot Diva might email to the "uncle" who owns the shop and ask him about this.

After much online surfing, Red Dot Diva has found another comic store called G & B Comics that seems to stock some indie titles. And "Lucid" #1 seems to be listed in its 11th September shipment lot! So you can head to their store at Rochor Centre #02-500 to check it out!

One other alternative is to check out the TFAW website and order a copy online. Another is to get a friend in the USA to ship you a copy!