The Delve

                THE DELVE

                by Chris Calderon

        The Captain steered the submarine deep into the furthest depths of the ocean with his pet monkey on his shoulder. They were searching for a goblet of legend. It was said to be guarded by a small aquatic gnome who protected an ancient gate to a subterranean cave that held it. All the signs of rock statues covered in coral pointed the way. Each one corresponded with the crude drawings on the map. The landmark of this mysterious goblet was guarded by a legendary giant fish-like beast. Through all his travels he’d seen things not explainable by man but never a fanged-fish as large one drawn on the parchment. If he had to guess it was 30 feet high.

The Captain’s dark vessel approached a cave guarded by a small-long-haired man. The front of the cave resembled a gate. He lowered the submarine in front of the small armed man who held a trident. The Captain thought of the only thing he could and showed the gnome the map he’d discovered through the glassed portal. The small long-haired man looked at The Captain through and then the map. He then stood straight and nodded allowing him passage. The Captain immediately steered the ship forward into the cave.

He hit the high powered beams as the submarine delved further into the darkness. Eyes peered in front of the ship followed by two rows of fanged teeth. The white grin terrified The Captain but he reacted on instinct and pressed the button on the dashboard to release the star pointed missiles underneath. The gigantic green and blue scaled monster twisted its body forward as it bit down on the top of the gold plated roof. The Captain held the ship steady by grabbing the wheel tight. On his shoulders, the monkey yelled in fear holding on tight to its master.

The giant fish creature bit down upon the metal once more scraping the shell. Inside some of the instrument panels flashed various colors. The Captain pounded his fist on the dash. He pushed the steering wheel forward and jerked it to the right simultaneously.

The ship was free and it turned fast searching for sights on the big scaly beast. He caught the oval black pupils reflecting the lights of the submarine’s headlights. Knowing it would be his only chance he fired the torpedoes into the blackness between its two eyes. Its body wiggled and shook. The shell bursted and a flack of light tore through some of the rock and dirty filled the cavern. The Captain knew this could be a problem so he activated the debri vacuums from the push of a gold button. The beast laid on its belly in the murky floor of the cave.

The monstrous scaly body swirled and spun into a fine mist, then dissipated into the floating dirt and sand. A green glow radiated in the cave coming from a small metal grail on the cave floor. The Captain drove his ship forward, a treasure hard won.

A bit more about educational games...

    Educational games, should be a foundational thing when learning. Case in point I’ve been teaching a young student in 2nd grade reading and using various games such as Quiddler for short word vocab and Rory’s story dice for comprehension and inferences. I also have a game with a spinner that focuses on prefixes, root words and suffixes. It’s all good and keeps learning fun, not just for the student but for me as well.

    You’ve got to keep things fun, hence the games. It helps you and the student loosen up and make things more interactive. It also keep things fun and easy to digest when you’re studying. That’s one of the reasons I’ve made some solo education games for myself. All I have to do is write on the flashcards which work as game cards to pic as well as trying to remember a certain part of my reading.

    Take a look at this video I made on my YouTube Soloquester channel. It shows how easy it is to make a game board on grid paper.

The making of my Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition learning game:

https://youtu.be/Uiwsmmnhc8Q

    Now the game is for learning the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, but there's no reason it can't be used to learn another game system or possibly the rules of stoicism. As long as one is willing to make flashcards based off the source material one can make a simple game and learn while making it too.

Making Games

Alright, I’ve been developing games. Personal games at first but the more I think of it they are great for learning almost anything. Games are an incredible learning tool whether you’re learning about investing, grammar or math. Heck, I use to play educational games on the good ole’ Commodore 128/64.

When making a game I use just a simple piece of paper to draw the game board, some index 3x5 cards and  one 6 sided die. The player token can be just about anything while building the mechanics, a penny, a plastic miniature of some type or a cork. You can always upgrade the game later, the important thing is to get the mechanics down and keep it simple.

Building a game based on the 3% Man book by Corey Wayne, it’s still in the development stage but so far so good. I just have to work out a few game holes with it and I’ll be able to make it playable. I’ll keep you all updated!

Movin Slow!

Been a while, but now I’m back!

My comic Rage #4 is right around the corner. Just putting the finishing touches on it. Should be out hopefully by the end of the year.

Ideas for Rage#5 are being considered. It might be a celtic story like the short story I did.

So maybe Ireland in the next or maybe not, actually I might have it take place after the short story. I think that’s it. 

Limited Series Comics - The Adventures of Mr. L

 Been working on my secret limited-series comic.
The working title is, The Adventures of Mr. L. It serves as a
prequel to 4th Hour. It's been fun and a short comic. I'm trying to get a page drawn in one hour.

I’ve also been posting my drawing lessons over at mustangs7 on YouTube. I’m going to shoot for about 2 videos per week. I haven’t posted to Griffin Tutoring’s YouTube page in a while as well. I might trying doing 1-2 videos a week on that one but it’s tricky managing two YouTube accounts. Maybe I’ll discontinue it to and just do that one YouTube account. Not sure yet but I’ll keep you posted!

The Possum's Last Stand

WARNING: if you have a light stomach please consider not reading this story.

The Possum’s Last Stand

by Chris Calderon

While I was walking to 7-eleven more then a few weeks ago, I came upon a possum in the road. Something was wrong though, it stood a few feet from the railroad tracks hissing. A stream of blood ran from its mouth and a small red pool of blood underneath it. To save you the detail, it might’ve not been only blood but something else from within it.

I could tell the poor fella was on its last legs. It stayed in place not knowing what to do or where to go. Although, I meant to keep walking I couldn’t help but sympathize with it while being a safe distance away. Cars slowly stopped and drove around it.

“Poor guy, I’m so sorry.” I said.

I walked away but I felt that there might be something I could do, but what?

Eventually some young girls came up and asked if I called animal control. I did, and I told them the location of where the possum was but my phone died because due to the low battery.

A line of cars were stopped because of the possum holding up traffic. The possum still looked confused as to what to do and how to die right.

A bearded man in blue truck asked why everyone was stopped. “You gotta be kidding me, it’s not a fuckin’ dog!” He said.

Then, a train could be heard from half-a-mile away. Almost instinctively the possum slowly walked towards the train tracks.

The lady in the second car got her phone out, “Gonna post this on YouTube and get me a million views!”

The train roared louder. The possum walked towards the train tracks as if to shrug its shoulders and say ‘awe well, it’s been a good life’.

The train roared louder. Without hesitation it walked towards the over-sized metal bullet. I turned my head, I couldn’t watch what was about to happen and didn’t want to watch the blood splatter against the train walls. I turned away, then I turned back.

It was still alive! The possum had somehow timed itself just right to go under the tracks and make it to the other side.

I’m sure the lady recording for YouTube was disappointed.

The two girls ran over to him in an attempt to get it off the street. A women from one of the cars ran over with a towel, “oh for peetz sakes!” She said. She nudged with her foot behind the blanket as the possum slowly made its way to the side of the road.

Not sure if the possum died soon after, but at least it was in a safer place, maybe on the grass? Maybe ifit kept going after that, somehow living and remembering the human attention finally given to it. Caring beings willing to see it through. I like to think that anyway.

Not sure if pest control ever showed. It was a little mortality reminder that no matter where you are and how safe you may think you are, death can find you on a beautiful, sunny, day in your own neighborhood.

Commentary: In take-away I ask the human race to not purposely record deaths of living beings for monetization, please have more class then that.

Also, every being has a right to go about its final hours any way it chooses. If it holds you up from getting to your crappy rinky-dink job a few minutes late, too damn bad!

Drawing in an Anime/Magna Drawing Style

Lately, over at Micheals I've been teaching how to draw in the Anime/Magna style. While I've never gotten much into drawing in that style I've grown to appreciate the talent in drawing figures using that style. I have actually borrowed drawing speed lines in the background of some of my panels. So there's been some influence.

Some of the basic skeletal foundations still apply, long cross for the chest and back, oval for the head (more or less) and  cylinders for the arms and legs. Maybe I'll post a pic or two in the coming days.