Nicholas Ahlhelm's Blog

Welcome to the final post of this blog. I’ve spent the last few weeks considering the best uses for my time and this site. While I’ve lived my life as a man that enjoyed many a blog, I just do not have enough of a return on investment with At The Helm. 

This doesn’t mean I am anywhere close to finished with writing nonfiction pieces as we enter the New Year. I have several project ideas planned in January, all of which will find a new home over at Medium. 

I’ve been a member of Medium for several years and have long considered it an excellent tool for storytelling, both in fiction and nonfiction. As I worked on At The Helm, I let my writing on that site fall by the wayside. Medium allows me the flexibility to write about a lot more than I would on this site, while also bringing some return on the words I’m sending out on the tubes of the interweb. 

This does mean that a large amount of the content you’re currently reading here will be on the other side of a paywall. I would encourage you to sign up for Medium’s incredibly affordable five-dollar-a-month plan. The content on the site is incredibly wide and varied and offers a little bit of something for everyone. But I also know that not everyone wants to sign up for yet another subscription on the internet. I’m looking out for those readers as well.

Subscribers to my Super Powered Newsletter have always received free links to my work over at Medium. That won’t change after the calendar changes and this blog disappears into the ether. If you aren’t already a subscriber, you can easily join here to get my biweekly missives with all the news on my current writing and more. While NicholasAhlhelm.com isn’t going anywhere any time soon, the Super Powered Newsletter will be the place for the most up-to-date news on everything. 

If you’ve been a loyal reader to At The Helm, I want to give you a heartfelt thank you. The page has never quite reached everyone I hoped it would, but it’s always been a joy to share my thoughts and feelings here. I hope you will follow me on Medium and keep up the grand tradition of some great writing. 

Thanks and I hope to see you over there in the New Year! 

October was mostly about the Kickstarter. I spent a lot of time trying to find backing for She’s A Spacegirl! and I’m glad to see it succeed. Now that it’s behind me, I’m right back into the NaNoWriMo grind with a new book I hope to tell you more about soon. In the mean time, here’s what has been on my reading, viewing and playing lists over the last few weeks.

The road to "She's a Spacegirl!" were long and winding. I've had the basic idea of an energy being in human form since I was a kid. It's a play on an idea done numerous times over multiple formats for decades. As a young man, I never developed the idea fully.

Original art by Geoge Cotronis.

The death of David Bowie inspired me to return to the idea. Just hours after his death, I sat at home in the middle of a snowstorm as my wife and kids slept for the night. That old idea connected with my brain at that point. I started to develop a novel called The Spaceman with chapters inspired by Bowie album titles. But I quickly realized the idea was too big in scope. Too wide reaching. With a quarter of the novel done, I shelved it with no plans to return.

In the last year or so, I’ve taken a look back at my own younger years for inspiration. The 90s are a strangely unexplored time in a lot of genre fiction for whatever reason. One way, that history plays out is in the form of a partial project I will return to soon called Bad Girls, inspired by the independent wave of superhero comics of that era. But I also wanted to tell a more personal story, one tinged with life in the Midwest in a time period where a massive technological upheaval was preparing to change the way we interact forevermore.

When I bought the George Cotronis piece for the cover of Smoke & Ash, the image you see to the right was also featured on his site. The slightly haunted woman connected to a strange machine became the final piece in the maze of my brain for the connections to fire. My previous work on The Spaceman, my thoughts on more personal Midwest stories in the 90s, and that image all jelled together as one.

From that wellspring, Nat and Fiona burst forth. As soon as I had a basic plot, I knew I needed to write their meeting and their first adventure, one that swelled to twice its original planned length before I finished. In the process, I created a beautiful novella, a story of love and loss and the will to persevere.

She’s a Spacegirl! is now funding on Kickstarter and needs your support.

Last month, I focused largely on the launch preparations for the Kickstarter. It proved a hectic effort to build everything I needed to promote She’s a Spacegirl! while also building toward my next few projects. That being said, I still needed to take time to destress from the grind of everyday life. As always, here are a few examples of the books, games, shows, and music I used to keep myself sane in the previous calendar month, all in convenient link format for your convenience. And if you check them out, be sure to drop a comment on this page to let me know what you thought.

It’s been over a year since the release of my first collection of shorter works, Smoke and Ash. I’m proud to announce that the next volume in the series is prepping for publication on Kickstarter as of today. She’s a Spacegirl! is seeking funding to cover the costs of design and editing.

This new edition will be exclusive to Kickstarter for at least six months, so this will be the only way to get the book before next spring! She’s a Spacegirl! collects at least nine stories from across the history of the MHP Universe, including the debut of a new novella and a new short story!

The name and background of short story will be released as a funding goal over the next few weeks, but the novella is the book’s namesake. “She’s a Spacegirl!” follows a young woman named Nat at the lowest point of her young life. Her life changes when a girl from outer space appears not far from her. Suddenly she’s pulled into an adventure that will pull her around the small towns in which she live and bring her up against a threat that could endanger her new friend and the world!

As a special bonus to people reading this right away and who want to back the book in the first two days, I have offered a special introductory price point for anyone that backs She’s a Spacegirl! early. Advance backers can get a print copy for only $16 while this special offer continues, but it expires at the end of the day on October 3rd!

I encourage you to not delay for a second in heading over to Kickstarter to put your support behind this new project! Let’s make She’s a Spacegirl! one of the biggest crowdfunding projects in MHP history!

Newer Gods is a monthly feature where I take a look back at the history of DC Comics’ New Gods from the era after original creator Jack Kirby. It’s a study of creators as they take a look back at work of the King of Comics and re-create it.

All images copyright DC Comics.

Behind a Marshall Rogers cover, this issue starts with a dramatic statement by Scott Free: "I must kill Darkseid, Oberon! ...And the sooner, the better!"

"Midnight of the Gods" is brought to us once again by the Englehart / Rogers team, together in this book for the final time. Englehart uses his John Harkness alias here, a name he's turned to a few times when he's unhappy with the direction he's forced to take on a book he's leaving. This doesn't appear to be an editorial issue though as often was the case later when he used the Harkness name. Englehart explains on his website: "Because I didn't think it measured up to my previous issues, I put my pseudonym, John Harkness, on it... Here, it meant only that I didn't think I met my own standard."

He also explains that he dashed this issue out in one day as he prepared to leave the country. The rush nature also might be apparent from the presence of two inkers over Rogers: Rick Bryant and John Fuller.

Moving back to our story, Oberon meets Free's declaration with humor. He jokes that he must mean they need some rest, as they're the only two men on all of Apokolips fighting the good fight. But before their conversation can finish, they're attacked by soldiers dressed somewhere between Imperial Stormtroopers and 80s-era Brainiac cosplayers. He slips free of their grasps though and grabs one of their guns. By the time they realize he escaped, he's blasting them with one of their own weapons!

The book also doesn't hide that Scott just committed wholesale murder. As a message starts to play from one of the bodies, Darkseid's hologram states, "Upon the death of Junior Jumbo, this pre-recorded hologram will be activated." Darkseid proceeds to threaten Earth should Mister Miracle not stop his assault.

Yet Mister Miracle rushes headlong into his battle. Oberon tries to contact New Genesis for assistance, but Highfather admonishes him that no other help is available nor does he think it necessary. (This seems a clear reference to the current Return of the New Gods storyline.) Unfortunately, the broadcast attracts the attention of the Apokoliptan guard. He barely escapes before they destroy the location.

Poor Oberon is the "get shot at constantly" kind of friend. He might need to find a new buddy.

Meanwhile Scott Free returns to the Enclave, where he confronts the partially rendered, under-colored proletariat. He's met with a mix of excitement and hostility, examples of the confusion he's put into the people of the twin world. He fights off the soldiers in front of his growing supporters, but when they threaten to kill the lowlies, he surrenders rather than see them shot.

Kanto meets the captured Mister Miracle as he's led away. He asks if he's been thoroughly searched. Despite the soldier's affirmative, Kanto quickly disarms Miracle of some of the tricks he already knows Scott holds. He's then hauled off towards another dungeon and another cell, because the villains of Apokolips never quite learn he's the greatest escape artist in the universe. This time, he doesn't even get to his cell before he ignites the bomb still secreted on his person and makes his escape into the facility.

Finally, he finds his way to Darkseid's inner sanctum, but before he can find the evil god, Darkseid finds him. He arrives in perhaps the most oddball modern picture of Darkseid I've ever seen.

Scott blasts him with the same rifle he stole earlier in the issue. Bu despite the weapon's devastating power, it doesn't even faze Darkseid.

In answer, Darkseid offers a hard truth: New Genesis and Apokolips are locked in a constant battle for eternity. "Can you build a brave new world without balance?" he opines. "Light and shadows! Day and night! Waking and dreaming! And when the dreams grow most vivid, it is Darkseid that you see!"

Scott darkly realized Darkseid tells the truth. He's pulled deep into a spiral of Darkseid's dark laughter as Englehart and Rogers' final Mister Miracle tale comes to an end.

This is the kind of existential dread Englehart grew to use so much in his later work. I will also guess this is where the second inker finds his way into the story as the shift in blacks when Darkseid appears is dramatic. He's presented as almost a force of nature, craggy and cloaked in darkness. If it wasn't nearly a half decade before his debut, I would have guessed Rogers saw some Bill Sienkiewicz before this issue. Instead, he offered a stylized art that won't be seen much for another ten or fifteen years of comic history.

Unlike Conway on Return of the New Gods, this tale seemed dead set on making everyone know there was no escape from this battle. No one will win in the end. The only thing left is the battle. It's a dark message, especially for a mid-70s DC title — but perhaps not so out of place as the Cold War edged towards the 80s.

No mention of a next issue comes at the end of this and one might have assumed this was the end for Mister Miracle’s second run, but a new creative team would debut on the book quite soon before even another issue of Return of the New Gods could reach publication. But next time, we get a special issue stuck smack dab in the middle of that aforementioned New Gods series! See you then.

Welcome to Influential, a recurring column where I look at some of the books, comics, games, movies and other media that have influenced aspects of my work.

One thing I like about tales of super-powered beings is their flexibility. While most of them are written as action-adventure fiction, stories of super-powered beings really can fit into any genre. I believe it was writer Steven Grant that explained that superheroes aren’t really a genre, but a “setting”, a window dress that fits over other forms of fiction.

And one of the most influential of those over me is soap opera. I grew up on Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men (which could be several Influential columns on its own) but I feel the superheroes-meet-soap story that most contributes to my own writing is Noble Causes by Jay Faerber and company.

The Image series followed the lives and tribulations of the Noble family, an extended family of superheroes and their interpersonal relationships. Faerber created a fascinating team out of whole cloth from super-scientist dad Doc to robotic strongman Rusty to normal human Liz Donnelly-Noble, our entry point character.

The book does nothing to hide its soapy influences with death, cheating and scandal front and center. Noble matriarch Gaia has a bastard son in Frost while Rusty has an ex-wife in Celeste (who of course keeps the Noble name) and almost everyone has a secret (or three) to keep.

The layered histories of the characters and their interpersonal relationships proved a major inspiration for several projects — both current and upcoming — but proved key in the development of Epsilon. I wanted to make sure the characters of Epsilon were people in their own right, with lives and back stories that influenced them outside of the makeshift family they have formed at the Eastman Academy.

That kind of interpersonal dynamic — and the developing branches of narrative that rise out of it — will come to play an important part in several upcoming works from yours truly, including one that will take an interesting turn in at least one upcoming adventure, where the choices will be far more dynamic than in anything I’ve ever written before.

Noble Causes sadly ended a few years back, but the series is still easily available in two massive Archive editions from Image Comics. Both books, over 50 issues total, are now sadly out of print, but used copies are easily picked up for as low as 10 bucks.

The creative team went on to become bigger creators overall though. Original artist Patrick Gleason rose to superstardom at DC and more recently drew Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel. The book’s final artist, Yildiray Cinar, has had an eventful career at both publishers, though has never quite risen to the level of success as Gleason. Jay Faerber still dabbles in comics now and then, but he’s moved on to television writing for the most part in the last few years, working on short-lived shows like Ringer and Zoo, before finishing out the last few years of Supergirl at the CW.

One last note on how influential Noble Causes is on me? The entire Influential column series is inspired by Faerber’s “Under the Influence” pieces that would run in the back of later issues. If you can get your hands on single issues, they were always fun reads.

I am a pessimist at heart. I tend to focus on the negative in both my personal and professional life. But I always strive to be the opposite. I want to look out in the world and see the inherent good in things.  I used to be better at it, but the last three years emboldened the worst in so many. It becomes a challenge.

Even at my worst — my most desperate — I've never given up on the fight. Life is about the long game. While I'll never be able to enact any widespread change, I do know I can do small things to make the lives around me just a little better.

I started that move months ago on social media. I've stopped myself from posting negative takes on comics, movies, and shows numerous times. I strive to point out the great things I read or watch. It's easy to let the things that don't fall by the wayside.

Case in point: James Patterson by James Patterson, the new memoir by the ever-present writer. I've read Patterson before with little to praise, but his autobiography has proven immensely readable. I'm about halfway through as I write this, but the anecdotes from his early life are enough to get me to recommend the book.

In the last few weeks, I've strived to move that positivity to more personal interactions. I've grown into a person that doesn't suffer fools easily. I'm often fast to judge and distrust. But even in interacting with people with little or no respect for others, I strive to be kind. And I don't mean in the local way sometimes called Iowa Nice. I'm not going to stand aside and let people be outright awful. But I'm still going to strive to follow the ancient golden rule no matter how others treat me. We cannot fix anything by just saying "fuck 'em" to even the worst people. It's amazing how even an awful,  tense situation can be cooled by simply being kind.

I'm far from perfect. I've never pretended to be. I'll still fail. I'll still put my foot in my mouth. But just as the founding documents of this country didn't pretend to be infallible but instead strived for a "more perfect union," I plan to keep working on myself and my communities one day at a time. Maybe I'll never change anyone's mind. I don't know. But I want to put in the work to make things better rather than divide us even more. 

It’s the only way I know to let my own heroism shine.

Photo by Andrew Thornebrooke via Unsplash.

I spent plenty of time brainstorming this month while also working on prep for a couple of upcoming projects. I also moved closer to starting another new project I’m hoping to announce very soon. But in between all that work, I’ve also had plenty of time for reading, viewing, and game-playing, so here’s what I was up to in the last month, all in convenient link form.

Newer Gods is a monthly feature where I take a look back at the history of DC Comics’ New Gods from the era after original creator Jack Kirby. It’s a study of creators as they take a look back at work of the King of Comics and re-create it.

Cover art by Rich Buckler, who finds his ways into the interior this time as well!
All images copyright DC Comics.

After a month-long digression into the world of Mister Miracle we finally continue the Return of the New Gods with issue 15. Gerry Conway is back on writing duties, while Don Newton takes a break to allow regular cover artist Rich Buckler to take the interiors with the always impressive Bob McLeod on inks.

Buckler doesn't have quite the same chops as Newton, but his work features an interesting mix of Kirby and Neal Adams that works quite well for the gods of New Genesis. His art shines as we open the story with a New God we rarely saw in Kirby's own work: Lonar.

If you remember from way back in issue 12, Lonar was the chosen protector for Nomak, the Eskimo that held a part of the Anti-Life Equation locked in his mind.

Lonar and Thunder are majestic in a Conan sort of way!

The lone warrior, rider of Thunder, isn't one for socializing, which makes him fit in among the sparsely populated Inuits. But his meditation on his own existence is interrupted by Nomak's cries of "DRUMAK! DRUMAK!" The word means stranger and as Lonar turns he sees a burning boy come across the snow.

The boy cries, "Help me! For the love of sanity, help me..." The title piece on the same page makes the focus on him quite clear. He is "THE APOCALYPSE CHILD." Lonar knows he should act, but he has no idea what to do!

We check in on Orion who as Anthony Masters again has a foul run-in with General Torch. Lightray, still smitten by Debbi Drake, doesn't like anything about his charge, Richard Roe. Richard gets attacked by the dealers he sold for, now wanting their money. He rescues Richard from the attack and sends him to the hospital. Just then his Mother Box pings as Lonar calls the most social of all the gods of New Genesis for his assistance.

Lightray flies to Lonar's aid. Lonar introduces him to Lucifar, the so-called Apocalypse Child. Conway has never been a bad writer, but do not ask me to excuse his use of three characters with names all starting with L. That's asking for reader confusion. Anyway, Lightray tells Lonar his next move is obviously a return to New Genesis with the boy. Nomak and his wife insist they accompany the boy as well.

Unfortunately, the young gods didn't warn the simple Eskimos about the nature of New Genesis. They immediately scream in fright as Highfather appears. He introduces himself to Lucifar. The boy reveals he was sent to the gods of New Genesis in exchange for Esak, a new pact like the one that transferred Orion and Scott Free between worlds.

Apokoliptan demons - actual demons here, not Parademons, a mistake on Buckler's part I expect - attack the gods and humans. The Eskimos run for cover as Lightray and Lonar due battle, although helplessly outnumbered. Highfather screams out to the heavens, his call to the other warriors of New Genesis to return. The other New Gods return to join the battle.

But even as the battle rages, Nomak runs for cover. Unfortunately, he's run directly into Darkseid's trap. The supreme lord of Apokolips towers over the Eskimo, ready to extract the knowledge he seeks.

Lonar gets few action shots in his career, so let's show off this one, even if he's fighting the oddest Apokoliptans possible.

Lonar realizes the Eskimos are gone. He pursues them inside, only to run headlong into Darkseid himself. The gray-skinned monster hurls Nomak's motionless form back at Lonar, saying, "You've came too late, godling! I've drained this creature's mind of the information I need... and you may have him, for all the good he'll do you now!"

Lonar lets Nomak fall at his feet. He has his own declaration of intent towards Darkseid: "I may have failed to protect this Earthman, but I can still fulfill my duty, BY DESTROYING YOU!" Lonar hurls his full might at Darkseid, only to be blasted out of the air by the gray-skinned brute.

"No one harms me!" he declares. "NO ONE!"

He leaves Lonar's unmoving form as he disappears.

The other heroes combine their might to send the demons hightailing back to Apokolips. Only in the aftermath of the great battle does Highfather reappear. He carries the lifeless form of Lonar, who has given his life to protect Nomak. Orion wishes to take his fury out on Lucifar, but Highfather stays his hand. Again we end the tale with Orion silently declaring his quest for vengeance against his own father as we're promised next time, "The Titan and the Hunter!"

Despite his adept style, Buckler seems to miss at least two visual cues from the Kirby run. First, the strange demons look like nothing from Apokolips, but actual demons, which is a strange choice from a world with an army of parademons. Later, Lonar is struck down by Darkseid's power. But Darkseid kills him with just a blast of energy from around his body, with no sign of the Omega Beams he uses to kill at all other times.

Yet it does deepen Conway's revival of the property as he leads the book to its inevitable conclusion, one of course Kirby never finished.

The focus on Lightray and Lonar proved satisfying as well. Neither received much in depth characterization from Kirby, but they get much more personality at Conway's hand, even if they are part of a rather large cast. We will learn more about him in just a few short weeks, but first, we return to Mister Miracle as the final issue of the Englehart / Rogers run looms close!