About a year ago at Gem City Comic Con I met local artist and author, Victor Dandridge, Jr. I remember walking up to his booth with a great sense of curiosity about his 8-bit heroes; they were a mixture of genius and simplicity rolled into one. Who would have thought our favorite comic book characters in 8-bit form could be so fascinating; it took me back to the NES days. The reason I bring this up is that if it wasn't for his game the "8-Bit Challenge," I would have never been introduced to Victor's great sense of humor and artistic skill. The game was that if you could name 8 of his 8-bit characters correctly then you would win a goodie bag from his table. "Peace of cake," or so I thought; he didn't let me off easily, if there were five versions of Angel from the X-Men, I had to know from which era each one was from. I recall myself going through a massive sheet of characters and getting to the end wondering what had happened to the X-Men characters I grew up with as a child, and when did things get so complicated. Anyways, I eventually got my 8 and claimed my prize; along with some random 8-bit lithographs I was given a choice of one of his mini comics. I chose "The Villain," which I immediately fell in love with. It was a great, quick read with a satirical twist. That was my first encounter with Victor.
Fast forward about 8 months and again I ran into Victor at the Champion City Comic Con in Springfield Ohio. This time I was actually able to have a discussion with Victor about how he started his business; and overall it was a very eye opening experience for me. Before leaving I checked out his table and picked up one of his novellas entitled "8 Mins: An Anthology of the Last Eight Minutes of Earth." I was immediately blown away by this book; first, because I was fascinated by the idea of what could happen in the time it would take for a shock wave from the Sun to hit Earth and secondly, because of how emotionally driven this book was. Each chapter was a story of the last 8 minutes of someones life; the beauty lies in the fact that we, the readers, know that these people are about to be killed by an unstoppable catastrophe but they never see it coming. I loved how it only takes 8 minutes of their lives to connect with each character. Some of the stories are sad and make you wish there was more time to see how things play out, but others leave you with a sense of fulfillment and joy that even in these final moments that mankind's time on Earth was not spent foolishly; each chapter resides on the biblical. Regardless whether or not you enjoy science fiction, this novella will give you goosebumps, bring a tear to your eye and encourage you to live a better life with the knowledge that we never know when the end will come.
Victor Dandridge Jr. is one of the featured guests at this years Gem City Comic Con. I highly suggest you swing by and check out his work. I recall that he mentioned he was working on another 8 minutes book; which I look forward to checking out. If you are from out of town or cannot make the Con this year, you can check out his website here Vantage: Inhouse Productions.
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