September, 2017

TAEM Takes a Ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

Sunday, September 17th, 2017

For sake of a change in scenery our magazine decided to go to nearby Maryland and notably the mountains surrounding beautiful Cumberland City. Our choice was to take an excursion trip on the scenic Western Maryland Railroad.

The trip would take us fromĀ  the Western Maryland Train Station, located at 13 Canal Street in downtown Cumberland to the mountaintop town of Frostburg. Both of these cities border southern Pennsylvania to the north, and Cumberland also is host to part of the canal system that used to link Ohio with the Chesapeake Bay. This was one of the ‘water highways’ of early America, known as The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It’s purpose was to create a route to transfer goods and supplies between the East Coast ports and the American frontier. A museum for the Canal system is on the lower level of the Cumberland Train Station. (more…)

TAEM Interview with Comic Writer John Reilly

Friday, September 1st, 2017

At the end of July, 2017, we attended Northern Virginia’s Nova Con, the first such event in the area. It was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in McLean, Virginia.

The event was small in comparison to the larger Comic Con shows in Baltimore, New York and San Diego, but it was well organized and ample parking was available. The show was spread over three floors of the hotel and contained a food court, show room for artists and vendors, and meeting rooms for games and conversations with artists.

One such artist that caught our attention was John Reilly, whose work is titled ‘HERALD : Lovecraft &Tesla’.

TAEM- How did you get involved in writing graphic novels and what is your background for this?

JR-I was a writing professor for a decade before trying my hand at this kind of storytelling. My background is in English and literature and I have a PhD in Composition & TESOL, which sounds far removed from graphic novels but writing is writing. The short answer is, I wrote something I loved and got extremely lucky. (more…)

TAEM Interview with Astropunk writers Kenneth Centers and Rob Farinholt

Friday, September 1st, 2017

This past month we attended the first Nova Con event in Northern Virginia. It was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in McLean, Virginia. The show, although small in comparison to any of the Comic Cons held across the country, was well organized and featured a number of events and artists.

In visiting one of the outlets there we met Kenneth Centers and Rob Farinholt, co-authors of the graphic novel Astropunk. We decided to interview them as their work is relatively new and get some insight into how they developed this entry into the popular world of artistic story telling. (more…)