Chris Nigro
Chris is a writer in his own right and has contributed to Metahuman Press anthologies. Check out his work here.
You can rest assured though, Chris, that the history of George and Kevin’s antagonism will come into play in future stories. The first flashback story (which will be a tale exclusive to backers or the collected volume two) will actually detail the origins of George’s immense hatred of Kevin. George is very much a broken character with his own back story as is everyone in our saga.
I very much want to present a world of fully realized characters. Sometimes comics or film give us cardboard cutouts more than full characters. Bringing super powers to prose allows much more character development and you will see a lot of that here.
Federation is a Midwestern city with a two hundred year history. It’s a major part of the story and I’m glad you took interest in it. I tend to like to keep my fictional city’s locations vague, but I do have locations for all of them plotted on my own personal map.
As to my answer about inspirations, much of my basis on teen fiction comes from still reading a boatload of young adult titles. Coupled with my undying love for My So-Called Life and my burgeoning love for The Secret Life of the American Teenager, I’ve never quite gave up my enjoyment of teen drama.
Chris also was nice enough to be one of a couple folks that pointed out an error in the first draft of the story, now corrected in this version.
Dear Lightweight,
What a thrill it was to read the first issue. It took me right back to the first issue of the new Blue Beetle or Nova. Or even the first issue of Invincible.
Sure, the whole concept of a teen superhero is nothing new: Spider-Man has left a long legacy. But the fact is that I LOVE that legacy. So yeah, I like the will they-won't they dynamics of the two teen leads. I like the mysterious enemy lurking in the background.
I like the superpowered fight scene.
Why? Because I love comics, but so few titles exist these days with fresh and new characters. This book finally gives me a new superhero to follow and what seems to be in fact a whole new cool universe.
Many superhero novels try to be so dark or socially relevant. Many others try to be funny or sexy or adult. Too many of them seem to be ashamed to give heroes tights and colorful names. Yeah, too many superhero novels don't scratch my superhero itch because they seem to be afraid to embrace the archetypes that make the genre the greatest of genres.
I loved the fast-paced action and dialogue, making this really a comic book in prose form, even the page count is the same.
So, be sure I will be along for this thrilling ride.
Best
Jochem Vandersteen
https://independentheroes.blogspot.com
https://godling.blogspot.com
Jochem is one of the few guys out there I see trying to do similar things to myself with prose superheroes. His Godling is a continuingly updated blog that delivers chapters of his own ongoing superhero narrative.
First I want to say that the comparison to Invincible may be the greatest compliment you can give me, Jochem. I absolutely love Kirkman’s superhero universe and Invincible is the title closest to what my original vision of Lightweight as a comic would be. I love independent superhero comics, so the continued success of titles like it, Savage Dragon or Critter are the kind of success stories I hope I can duplicate in prose.
I definitely didn’t want to shy away from “four-color” superheroics in these pages. Though I can name a dozen superhero novels without costumes that I love, that isn’t the Quadrant Universe nor do I want it to be. While I plan to mine darker corners of the universe in the near future (such as in the upcoming Out For Vengeance series for next year), I also want to present a straight forward solo superhero tale. That is what Lightweight will be about, even while not shying away from more adult overtones when they present themselves.
Finally, thanks again for backing. If you or anyone else want to continue supporting Lightweight past your current subscription level, please check out our Patreon subscription service.
If you have your own missive to share about this story, please be sure to send it our way. I would love to talk superheroes with anyone that wants to read Lightweight. Send all emails to
[email protected].
This edition of Lightweight offered me a lot more time in development than the later chapters will, but the ongoing adventures will be just as strong as we continue. I’ve developed a year worth of stories for the project, so it will be quite some time before I even have to think about what to do next. Chapter two and three are already done and waiting on second drafts. So we have some good lead time on the project.
My writing process on this chapter differs from some of my previous work. “Dreams” was written completely by hand in its first draft, then edited as I typed it up in the second draft. I expanded it with a few new bits as I did so, all while building up the tale of Lightweight versus Titan.
The characters themselves have been around for over twenty years. I created Lightweight at age fourteen. When I developed him, my main goal was to make a superhero with powers not seen in comics—at least not for a hero. Since then, I’ve developed him more and more. It wasn’t until recent years that I felt I was ready to tell his adventures though.
Titan has always been his first villain though. I decided on Titan from the beginning simply because a giant robot seemed like a good enemy to take on for chapter one. He offers connections to later villains easily while also giving a great foil for Lightweight.
When I first developed him, Titan was actually called Titanius, solely because Dark Horse had a character named Titan at the time. But that Titan became a negligible issue in recent years, so I decided to go back to my original name for the character. Interestingly, Dark Horse’s character recently returned in Joe Casey’s excellent Catalyst Comix, though under his real name of Frank Wells.
When I write, I love listening to music—often it’s the only thing that allows me to concentrate on it in a busy break room at the day job. So I have a tendency to develop playlists. Usually the list will be a mixture of songs I love at the time, songs that fit the themes of the chapter or just songs that make me want to write. Here’s the list for this first chapter:
“Box of Crayons” - Jillette Johnson
“Broken Dreams” - Shaman's Harvest
“Dead Man’s Shoes” - The Virginmarys
“Get Your Shine On” - Florida Georgia Line
“Oh Darling” - Plug In Stereo feat. Cady Groves
“Pagan Poetry” - Bjork
“Ready Aim Fire” - Imagine Dragons
“Roll With the Flow” - Mike Nesmith
“Splinter” - Bubba Sparxxx feat. Crucifix
“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” - Emily Browning
“Teenage Dirtbag” - Wheatus
Finally, I just wanted to point out a couple great books people should be on the lookout for in the future.
Everyone should check out Metahuman Press’ recent anthology Supernatural West. I edited this one and it is one of the best books start to finish I’ve ever put together. Terry Alexander, Shane Cashman, Teel James Glenn, Hunter Lambright, Viktor Kowalski and Lance Stahlberg put in six different stories that stretch the boundaries of the supernatural and the wild west. This is great fiction and I am proud to have put it together.
Also of note is the second book in a spectacular series by one of the backers of this project. Mat Nastos is the man behind the Weir Codex series. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series, The Cestus Concern, so I’m very excited to see he recently launched the second book in the series. Entitled The Cestus Contract, it continues the adventures of Malcolm Weir, a man implanted with bionic implants by a corrupt government division. He’s gone rogue and became a hunted man. I like to call it The Six Million Dollar Man meets The Fugitive, but this series features some of the best action you can find in pro
se fiction. Both books are worth every penny, so go give them a read!
NEXT ISSUE
Things go from bad to deadly as Lightweight’s hidden enemies send an even greater threat after him. Carolyn Bates knows Kevin Mathis is Lightweight and that puts his friends in the crossfire! Plus George makes his own plans—plans that could change the lives of Kevin and Millie forever...
CHARACTER PROFILE: LIGHTWEIGHT
Real Name: Kevin Mathis
Occupation: High school Student
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Mary (mother), David (father), unnamed maternal aunt, unnamed cousins
Group Affiliation: none
Base of Operations: Federation
First Appearance: Lightweight 1: “Dreams”
History:
Kevin Mathis isn’t exactly superhero material.
Born and raised in southern Minnesota, he moved after his father’s business brought him down to the massive Midwest city of Federation. He joined his class in the ninth grade and immediately became friends with two people, Andy Case and Millie Bryant. They formed a strange group in the ever bustling world of Reagan High.
Each had their own diverse interests. Andy loved cars and weed. Millie focused on computers. Kevin loved video games and wanted nothing more than to play them. An average student, he certainly could score much higher with just a little bit of applying himself.
Then came the dreams. Every night, he received another vision of floating high above the city. And those dreams set him on a path that could make him the world’s greatest hero.
Or maybe the world’s greatest villain.
Height: 6’ 1”
Weight: 183 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Dark Brown
Strength level:
Lightweight possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height and build that engages in moderate exercise.
Known superhuman abilities:
Kevin Mathis possesses the ability to manipulate the personal gravitometric field of any non-living object. He can use this ability to make things lighter or heavier. He can also use it to move objects through the air by manipulating their relationship to both other objects and the planet.
When Kevin exerts his powers, his body begins to expel light. At greater levels, this light actually becomes almost blinding.
With power over an essential force in the universe, Kevin’s abilities seem to have only brushed the most infinitesimal of their potential as he first dons the costume of Lightweight.
Other abilities:
Kevin also has basic hand to hand combat training as well as a vast knowledge of video games with special expertise in obscure independent games.
BACKERS
This project would not have been possible without our backers:
Robin Reed
Jochem Van Der Steen
HB Comics
Wes Richardson
The Masked Marauder Matinee
Aaron Stephens
Chester Ellison
Norbert Franz
Lance Stahlberg
Patrick Russel
Mark Beaulieu
Patrick Hanrahan
Adam Brooke
Lisa Knight
Lucas Richards
Josh Weltha
Wayne Twitchell
Bryan Beyer
Christofer Nigro
JVGray
Eric Damon Walters
Dj Grandpa
Tommy Brownell
Joe Martino
LaTisha Clemen
Mat Nastos
Nathan Seabolt
Russell Ahlhelm
T. Mike McCurley
Gloria Ahlhelm
Clarissa Winger
Corey Smith
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Ahlhelm is the author of several books in his Quadrant Universe. Lightweight joins the web series Walking Shadows and the previously published Living Legends: Old Soldiers and A Dangerous Place to Live. He also has work in several anthologies current or upcoming from Metahuman Press (where he also serves as the editor-in-chief), Pro Se Press and Airship 27.
He lives in Eastern Iowa with his wife and two daughters. He offers commentary on superheroes, wrestling and pop culture at superpoweredfiction.com.
Nicholas recently announced his 52/14 project, a plan to publish fifty-two stories, novels or anthologies in the year 2014. He has yet to be called crazy for this, but expects it any day now.
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