In case you don’t follow me on the socials, I’ve been writing regularly for Screen Rant recently. And, while not every list is a winner — I’m looking at you “15 Things You Didn’t Know About Zords” — I can’t really complain about getting paid to write about comic books and movies.
If you’re interested in that kind of thing, standouts include my exhaustively researched “20 Things You Didn’t Know About Mystery Science Theater 3000,” and the two Iron Fist lists — both of which got me called racist against white people!
Anyway, in other news, American Gods and Thor: Ragnarok are coming out soon, and, I’ll be honest, I’ve got some weird feelings about that. On the one hand, I’m stoked because they both look awesome and, obviously, I’m all about Norse mythology and comic books and faded neon. On the other hand, though, there’s a part of me that feels like this might be the death knell for the Exponential Apocalypse books ever taking off.
American Gods, both the book and the upcoming series, are about old gods dealing with not being gods anymore. And Ragnarok is supposed to be a goofier, funnier Thor, going on a road trip through space. You might see the problem here.
Really, the EA series has been in the shadow of American Gods since the first book was released — even though I didn’t read Gods until after Dead Presidents. Add this new, less-serious version of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I’m genuinely concerned my books will forever be seen as derivative, despite the obvious differences.
I mean, check out the side-by-side between Starz’s American Gods poster (released March 2017) and the cover for Store-crossed (January 2017).
On the other other hand, though, everyone’s still looking for “the next Hunger Games” or trying to kick-start new connected movie universes, so maybe being a little “derivative” isn’t the worst. I guess what I’m saying is, if anyone wants to start calling me “the next Neil Gaiman,” I won’t object.