"Make way for the bad guy."
-Tony Montana, Scarface.
As anyone who is a fan of my blog will know, I am a huge fan of superheroes. Not just comic books but cartoons, movies, literature, and more. With such an endless devotion to superheroes, it was inevitable I take a hand at creating my own. Or, more precisely, creating my own supervillain.
Written in the style of Soon I Will Be Invincible and published by Amber Cover Publishing (Confessions of a D-List Supervillain, Dead Eye, Prime Suspects), The Rules of Supervillainy
follows Gary Karkofsky a.k.a. Merciless as he discovers a magical cloak
and decides to put it to good use. Specifically, the good use of making
himself rich by robbing the overly corrupt and unpleasant of
Falconcrest City.
Being a supervillain in a world with a history of costumed criminals and heroes is tougher than it looks, however. Gary quickly finds himself surrounded by bad guys much worse than himself and a city badly out of its depth thanks to the recent death of its costumed protector. Worse, his magical cloak comes with a built-in conscience thanks to it being haunted by the ghost of a previous wearer. Oh and then there's the fact his wife HATES the fact he's become a supervillain.
The Rules of Supervillainy is the first novel in the Merciless series, chronicling the adventures of the titular supervillain as he works his way through an alternate Earth's various cities and tries to figure out where he fits in a planet full of superhumans.
I've attempted to replicate the kind of kooky, continuity-heavy, melodramatic atmosphere of comic books for my setting while trying to give its protagonist a sense of grounding. He's an ordinary person in an extraordinary world, confronted with all the fantastic things being a part of the superhuman world brings.
How does a person react to the kind of madmen who want to take over the world? How do they deal with the better-than-reality moral paragons who stand above regular humanity? What do they think of a planet where supervillains are simply too dangerous to stay down? How would the world change with almost a century of amazing wonders in capes and cowls? What tragedies would be averted and what would replace them?
I try to answer some of these questions with Gary's sardonic wit. As much as I love superheroes, I also recognize it's probably better to handle them with as much humor as horror. I've attempted to go for a similar vibe to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files as well as the Confessions of a D-List Supervillain world. The protagonists may be wiseasses but you have to take the worlds seriously, even as you're aware the surroundings are ridiculous as an author.
It's what makes things fun.
Some people may question why I decided to do the book from the perspective of the villain rather than the hero and my take on the subject is we've had eighty years of comics to show us the perspective of heroes.
Gary isn't much of a villain either. He may talk the talk but I'm not sure he is able to walk the walk. He's also got that wonderful element of tragedy in his background which produces people like Batman, Spiderman, and (sadly) the Joker. Which way he'll fall is something the reader will be forced to buy the book to find out.
When Jim Bernheimer, author of EJB Networking's books, contacted me, I was surprised to find him so interested in my manuscript. Superhero literature is still a pretty new thing in publishing, even on the indie scene. Still, he loved the work and I was very grateful when he said he wanted to share it with his fans.
I hope you will all pick up a copy come June 10th.
-Tony Montana, Scarface.
As anyone who is a fan of my blog will know, I am a huge fan of superheroes. Not just comic books but cartoons, movies, literature, and more. With such an endless devotion to superheroes, it was inevitable I take a hand at creating my own. Or, more precisely, creating my own supervillain.
Being a supervillain in a world with a history of costumed criminals and heroes is tougher than it looks, however. Gary quickly finds himself surrounded by bad guys much worse than himself and a city badly out of its depth thanks to the recent death of its costumed protector. Worse, his magical cloak comes with a built-in conscience thanks to it being haunted by the ghost of a previous wearer. Oh and then there's the fact his wife HATES the fact he's become a supervillain.
 |
| Merciless is not the most imaginative supervillain for logos. |
The Rules of Supervillainy is the first novel in the Merciless series, chronicling the adventures of the titular supervillain as he works his way through an alternate Earth's various cities and tries to figure out where he fits in a planet full of superhumans.
I've attempted to replicate the kind of kooky, continuity-heavy, melodramatic atmosphere of comic books for my setting while trying to give its protagonist a sense of grounding. He's an ordinary person in an extraordinary world, confronted with all the fantastic things being a part of the superhuman world brings.
How does a person react to the kind of madmen who want to take over the world? How do they deal with the better-than-reality moral paragons who stand above regular humanity? What do they think of a planet where supervillains are simply too dangerous to stay down? How would the world change with almost a century of amazing wonders in capes and cowls? What tragedies would be averted and what would replace them?
I try to answer some of these questions with Gary's sardonic wit. As much as I love superheroes, I also recognize it's probably better to handle them with as much humor as horror. I've attempted to go for a similar vibe to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files as well as the Confessions of a D-List Supervillain world. The protagonists may be wiseasses but you have to take the worlds seriously, even as you're aware the surroundings are ridiculous as an author.
It's what makes things fun.
Some people may question why I decided to do the book from the perspective of the villain rather than the hero and my take on the subject is we've had eighty years of comics to show us the perspective of heroes.
Gary isn't much of a villain either. He may talk the talk but I'm not sure he is able to walk the walk. He's also got that wonderful element of tragedy in his background which produces people like Batman, Spiderman, and (sadly) the Joker. Which way he'll fall is something the reader will be forced to buy the book to find out.
When Jim Bernheimer, author of EJB Networking's books, contacted me, I was surprised to find him so interested in my manuscript. Superhero literature is still a pretty new thing in publishing, even on the indie scene. Still, he loved the work and I was very grateful when he said he wanted to share it with his fans.
I hope you will all pick up a copy come June 10th.
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