Artwork

Comic Books or Graphic Novels
An Independent Endeavor

I am in the process of creating my own comic book studio. The name of my company is AJAX Entertainment Studios, and in it are divisions where the employees would create a comic book series (or graphic novels), movies, music, and video games. These are the four divisions, abbreviated MMVC (M for movies, M for music, V for video games, and C for comic books). A comic book series I would like to get started on is the Silicon Skater series. It is about a superhero named Silicon Skater, whose real name is James Ryder (what a befitting last name!). James attends city college in Chicago, and his chemistry professor is a nut job named Patrick Leary. Professor Leary lives secretly in James’ neighborhood under a contract from the United States Military.

James is fond of skateboarding around the block, which bothers the recluse professor. By happen stance James is experimenting with a form of propulsion to make his skateboard go faster. It propels him into the garage where Professor Leary is experimenting with a form of metal that will bond to the skin and make militia invincible. James runs into Professor Leary and the metallic liquid spills on the professor’s hands. James runs away and Leary shuts the garage and locks it in place. The rest of the plot will have to be seen for itself when it reaches the comic book pages (or graphic novels if I want to make it into a compilation series).

The issue of publishing resources is something to worry about. Ink, tracing paper, comic text formatting software (that way I wouldn’t have to write the text and captions by hand), and a comic printing press are all resources that would take a bite out of the assets. Budgets for these resources will be handled with Microsoft Office accounting software. Or I can just do it the old-fashioned way and use templates that come in a perforated notebook (just fill it out and tear it off!). The artists would be paid on a monthly basis, and the writers (including me) would be paid on a percentage of the sales revenue. The percentage would also go the artists to make sure they are continuing to be satisfied with their financial situation at work. AJAX Entertainment Studios will be a major publishing company one day; that is my hope for the future.

Joe Arax, October 20, 2021

The Beginning of a New Era
Vinyl Discs for Analog Playback and Interactivity

A British company did it before and it wasn’t perfect. The history of video games being inscribed into vinyl records dates back to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Text based adventure games would read digital data from vinyl through a connected record player. The record player used for this purpose was about the size of a small ceramic bowl, but with a square base and a tone arm like the ones used for audio playback. Where my idea would differ, the platter would have a magnetic coating like a hard drive, and the tone arm would seek data in an analog fashion rather than 1’s and 0’s.

Nothing beats the warm analog sound of vinyl when it has been mastered from tape without any use of digital computer equipment. This same philosophy would apply to the quality of audio in a video game. In fact, what if the video signals could be manipulated from a magnetically coated vinyl disc through an interactive video game? Some would say this is impossible given the limitations and latency timing of data seeking. Time will tell whether the AJAX Entertainment Console will be a purely analog video game format. The magnetic vinyl discs would not be exposed to the elements. In fact, they would come out of a drive caddy encasement when inserted into the drive.

Joe Arax, October 20, 2021

A Future Game in the Works
The Dismal Town of Nelsen Trilogy
An Homage to Silent Hill

Formerly known as the Zell Trilogy, with video games Dismal I, II, and III, The Dismal Town of Nelsen has three parts as well. I created the story back in 2015 while I was isolated in an apartment in Fresno, California. I wrote the outline for the video game and what it would entail. It is a detailed plot revolving around two characters, whose names are Luke and Greg. Luke is a paranoid schizophrenic and Greg is an ex-con in the town of Nelsen. Geographically, Nelsen is much like southwest Fresno. The canals and train tracks are prominently featured in the game’s plot sequences. I won’t get into the details of the video game itself, but what I can tell you is that it borrows from motifs in the movie Jacob’s Ladder, which was released in 1990 by Tristar Pictures.

Joe Arax, October 26, 2021

Another Future Game in the Works
Dud the Stud

Imagine you are running a version of SCUMM from 1987, and Ron Gilbert is designing this program encompassing an idea for a game you just wrote. The name of the game? Dud the Stud, a videogame football adventure by Joe Arax. You control the famous high school geek Dudley Dibbs on a mission to transform him from calculus whiz to football genius. This freckled-face newb has a crush on the high school hottie, Sarah Barnes, the pep squad leader for the Bowland Bulls cheerleaders. In a 1980’s scenario, hit the weights, try out for the team, and win the girl. Dud’s dream throughout his two years in high school was to become the Bowland Bulls varsity quarterback. He wears a padded leather helmet around campus, a gift from his father, who was a champion offensive tackle back in the early fifties. All the students mock him for his naivete. He is bullied by the first string inside linebacker David Schmelling, who gangs up with the defensive backs against Dud, so he can’t take the shortcut home. The Bowland Bulls football stadium is right across the street from Dud’s house!

Joe Arax, October 26, 2021



A New Character in the AJAX Comics Universe
Setting: 1950’s Chicago
Protagonists: The Sonic Boom (origin unknown)
The Soaring Silicon Skater (James Ryder)


An ally of Ryder came in a flash as the Sonic Boom, a supersonic cyborg gifted with a human brain, unlike the A.I you see in the future, where their intelligence is crafted by computer science. No, this is the modern Darth Vader, if Darth Vader had a soul. The Sonic Boom was a creation of an unknown origin, but it was a companion of Ryder through his trials and tribulations with the Metallic Madman, also known as Professor Platinum.

Joe Arax, June 15, 2023

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