Zenith Comics Presents: Supervillains! Vol. 1 - Release Date!

Hey there gang!

The very first official and awesome Zenith Comics product releases on February 21st!

That's right, after a year in the works (and many many lessons learned) I am proud to finally release this bad boy (with astounding art by Anthony Green) for your consumption in 2 flavours; V&V and BASH Ultimate Edition!

Both of these products will sell for the special price of $1.99 and will only be available through our RGPNow and Drivethrurpg stores!

Also hard at work on the ICONS and M&M3E versions, so keep an eye out for those as well and watch this space for future Zenith Comics releases!

Cheers!

New Site... Again

Yeah I know, I know... but do me a favour... look at the url for this site? Does it say facactor.blogspot? Nope it says FACTactor... le sigh...

And of course fatactor is taken...

So.........

http://earth-alpha.blogspot.com/

Sorry for the confusion.

Cheers!

Fast Update

2 days smoke free.

Got plenty of "running up and downstairs at school" exercise today. :)

Good night internet.

Zenith Comics: A question...

So with the release of "Zenith Comics Presents: Supervillains! Vol. 1" edging even nearer (1 more piece of art and we are good to go man!), my partner in crime Walt and I have started kicking around an idea. The idea is to create 1 character folios that have a complete character, with art and stats to use in your games.

There's only one catch... I was sort of opposed to the idea of selling superheroes, since to me the idea is for YOUR characters to be the stars of the setting and if I produce more villains, wouldn't that just be double-sipping on upcoming roster books?

So being completely unsure of which way to go with this, I turn to you all and ask for your thoughts;

• Would hero profiles/folios be something that would interest you?

• Should I maybe do villains instead?

• Is there another idea that I am completely missing that would bite me if it were a snake?

Cheers!

The road to self improvement...

So yesterday my friend Sopher and I made a pact to exercise 30 minutes a day and then update each other.

My grand plan was to hit the gym tonight and get my exercise in without fail, but a last minute call from my Dad let me know he was coming into town tonight to visit... so there goes gym plans.

So what to do? Well in the middle of the day I have this large 1 hour lunch break at school and pretty much fuck-all to do with the time other than sit with some folks and shoot the shit.

So today I decided to go for a 30 minute walk... which given the slow assed snow removal was a rather exhausting thing.

Still the ball she rolls.

Step one taken... step two tomorrow.

Your move Sopher!

Cheers!

Movie Review: Wolfhound

"Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov", or "Wolfhound from the Grey Hound Clan" is a 2006 Russian fantasy film that simply has blown me away. It is based on a novel by Maria Semyonova, that I know wish to read if I can find it in English.

The film is an excellent example of fantasy, though told less with a Western eye and more of the Russian sensibilities. Certainly had this film been made in America it would be about as impressive as "Ator the Fighting Eagle" or similar fare.

The strongest aspect of this film to me was that it is replete with paganism and strong tribal themes. Certainly the ground covered here has been covered before, taking cues from "Conan: The Barbarian" or "The Beastmaster" (the movie not the horrid TV show), but that simply provides this a pedigree to my mind.

The acting is top notch from all the cast (I HIGHLY suggest watching in Russian with English subtitles if you can) and even the minor players provide excellent performances.

This is not a perfect film as no film can be. Certainly I would have preferred more development of certain characters and the ending is a bit "meta" for my tastes, but be certain none of this will hurt your enjoyment of this film.

My last note is for his animal side-kick. Far too often in films animals are used as comedy relief or brutally killed to make us feel loss for the hero to whom they are loyal. Not only is the choice of sidekick in this film is not only interesting, it is not over used in the slightest.

In the end this movie impressed, entertained and touched me in ways I did not except but was happy to experience. I also want to give a shout out to Monte Cook who's review of the film ("Wolfhound is probably one of the best fantasy films you've never heard of.") brought me to it and I must certainly and whole heartedly agree!

Cheers!

Andrew vs. Alan or WTF?

So some of you know me as Andrew Collas.

Other's know me as Alan LeGros.

What's this all about?

Well it is time I was more open about this "double life I lead" with those who don't know me personally.

I am adopted. That's the first thing you need to know.

In 1970 when at the tender age of 6 months old I was brought home by my parents, Lawrence and Anne LeGros, my mother wanted to name me Andrew, but alas the adoption agency had already named me Alan Robert Keeping (a name I changed to Keiping and used as a stage name very very early on in my career). No problems right? Just change it and away you go. Well no, the local clergy would not let here (it was the beginning of the 70s in Quebec, nuff said), so she changed my middle name from Robert to Andrew and away we went.

On February 11th 2009 my mother left this world. Something inside me went snap and I decided then and there that I would no longer go by my first name of Alan but instead by my middle name of Andrew. It was what she wanted me to be named (and her real name was Dorthy Anne, the Dorthy part she hated) and damnit I always hated the name Alan.

As for the Collas vs. LeGros part. Well for those who don't speak French let me translate;

LeGros = The Big

I am 6'3" and 450lbs... not a really happy name for me.

So Collas, being my mother's maiden name, seemed like a nice fit... especially with Andrew.

Hell my Aunt Enid (a LeGros no less) said she liked Andrew Collas a lot since she felt it sounded like a writer's name. Who am I to argue?

I have every intention (once working) to get my name legally changed to Andrew Collas and live out the rest of my days as such, but for now I simply use Alan LeGros for all my legal business (banking, taxes, etc...) until that goes through.

For my friends who know me as Alan, you get a grandfather on calling me that (though I would really love you making the effort to change to Andrew if you can) and for those just meeting me, well know you know.

Cheers!

P.S. I will also accept being called Drew but never Andy! You have been warned! ;)

Reflections on acting and image

So part of this blog is not only to talk about my hobby publishing company (Zenith Comics), or to just rant about the world around me and things that happen, but to also talk about acting and such.

First off I am fat.

No two ways to say it, at 450lbs (6'3") I am what they term morbidly obese. Now that aside, I have lost around 60lbs in the past year and am continuing to work towards my goal of about 250lbs.

What does this have to do with acting? Sadly everything.

It is are that a fat man is allowed to play a character that is just a lawyer, or a doctor or a anything that isn't identified by the term "fat" or some other size premarker. It does happen, but again it is rare.

This comes from a body obsessed culture that has pretty much done everything in its power to remove real people from our eyes on screen and replace them with waifs and sterotypes.

Guess which one I am?

Hmmm... this may turn into a rant.

Either way the reality is that I am a good actor, of that I have no doubt, but until my weight is considerably lower, unless the part calls for a fat lawyer, doctor (etc...) there will be very little chance I will have a shot at it.

Sure it has happened before (playing on Eureka was one of those moments for me) but they are few and far between.

So really it is up to me, no one else, I can't expect Hollywood to change their ways just cause I wanna be taken seriously as an actor. That would be a bit Pollyanna of me and I prefer to be a little more of a bitter curmudgeon than that.

How will this manifest? That remains to be seen. A video blog maybe? Monthly weigh ins here for your scrutiny? A meal log? Something I haven't thought of yet?

I don't know yet, but if you have an idea please share.

Cheers!

Welcome to the merging of my mind...

So one of the things I think didn't work for me was having two separate blogs to try and keep going.

It just wasn't working in the slightest, so a thought hit me... instead of ignoring two blogs, why not just fuse them into one (and then ignore it!) ;)

So here it is.

While I was able to save all the Zenith entries, all my wordpress ones for Fat Actor are long gone, so that will have to start over.

So for those who are following the gaming, this is the place.

For those who are following my rants, this too is the place.

Feel free to ignore the subjects you don't like, or alternately taste something a bit different than you would normally.

Um... maybe taste was the wrong word... oh well, there it is.

Cheers!