2023 Final Update!

Guys,

Well, we are almost at new stories! Just a few weeks and with the holidays for many of us, it'll fly by. Certainly it feels like time has zoomed to this point (for me, at least) since my October update.

This post is mostly a prep for 2023. In the comments on my November post, Mangler said he had some reading to do to refresh his memory. I get that. I thought the same thing.

Cave Time is a magical thing, inspired by comic books with their sliding time scale. Beau was forced to take a four-week vacation in a post from January 1st, 2019, for example. Buck arrived for winter vacation in a story published on December 1st, 2016! Both of their extended stays are finally coming to decision time in 2023. Maybe one day we'll even reach early June for Cody's 30th birthday.

Of course you can read any stories you want, but I selected a few that I think are most relevant to the upcoming tales. One easier way to go even deeper is that a few 2023 featured Cave characters have tags at the bottom of the page.

PREVIOUSLY IN THE CAVE ...

The Road to El Paso 1-2 and 4-5

• How Beau's story started ... Route 69 S105: El Paso TX (Beau meets Ben)
• Buck's first story ... Encounters: Thanksgiving 2015
• Buck arrives in LA for the winter ... The Cave Undercard 14: City vs. Country
• 10 weeks ago ... The Cave Unleashed 7: Beau vs. Toby (Beau takes on his brother and boss)
• 4-8 weeks ago ... The Cave Unleashed 8: Beau vs. Keith (Beau takes on his boss 3 times)
• 4 weeks ago ... The Cave Unleashed 10: Beau vs. 'Lethal' Lee Evans (Beau's drive to LA)
• 3 weeks ago ... The Cave Unleashed 11: Beau vs. Buck (Beau makes a new friend in LA)

The Road to El Paso 3

• Jeff's first time narrating ... Route 69 S106: Forth Worth TX (you can get his voice)
• 4 weeks ago ... The Cave Unleashed 10: Beau vs. 'Lethal' Lee Evans (Lee's first story)
• How Lee met Jeff ... CLAW 10: Jeff vs. 'Lethal' Lee Evans (battle for the AWE belt)

The Cave Undercard 34: Xaq vs. Valet

• Bird Boy faces Moneymaker with Valet ... The Cave Undercard 13: Bird Boy vs. Moneymaker
• Valet challenges Bird Boy ... The Cave Undercard 25 (near the end after stakes)
• Xaq learns of the challenge ... The Cave Undercard 26 (in the epilogue)

The Cave Shorts: Bull meets Ash and Mark

• You can meet Ash and Mark here ... The Cave Undercard 28: Tarantula vs. Web

In addition to what I previously shared, there are three more stories uploaded, meaning that February - June will all have two stories!

April 17 & June 20: The Cave Unleashed: Asgard Adventures 1 & 2

A new hand gets a great introduction to his life at Asgard Ranch as young Zeb ends his first week on the job having dinner with his boss, Doug, and then he meets Doug's "friend" from LA, Josh.

• Check out Josh's first visit to Asgard Ranch ... The Cave Unleashed 3: Josh vs. Doug

Josh / Doug / Zeb

May 15: Alex Miller's Vault: Kick Kid Gets Tickled

I've created a new story category ... Alex Miller's Vault. These are "inspired by" stories that build off personal experiences I've had. They're all fictionalized, some more than others, but if you're the guy(s) who was(were) part of the experience, you'll definitely recognize the stories and your role in it.

The first of these was actually Flag vs. Flag, which I've already re-branded as The Vault instead of Encounters. I have two done, one of which will appear in mid-May in the short story slot. In the new stories, I'm using Impact wrestler Joe Hendry for the lead character, Alex.

Joe Hendry.

And one last thing ... I've been doodling on my iPad! I'm a little embarrassed to share these, but I just felt like why the heck not. Up to now, when I've used drawings, I've been using work by professional comic artists and just re-coloring them. I've decided to try to make more original images. They'll never be professional-level, but this is a free blog with amateur stories, so I don't need them to be perfect.

My goal is to get to detailed images that are 100% original. I started playing with the pens and layers using Dan Mora's work as my base, but now that I've done a couple, I am starting to create original figure sketches from scratch that will eventually turn into original images that are not traced from someone else's original art. These would be the base for fully developed superheroes.

However, that's a 2023 goal. For now, I'm just trying to learn. For this Sentinel image, I used a Dan Mora Superman here as the base to get the proportions right, but every line and color in the hero are mine. It's my first completed image. Lines are too thick and colors are clumsy, but it was fun to do as a learning exercise. I used a background from The Orville TV show. I doubt I will ever draw complex backgrounds on my iPad. 

This is another original character, Parkour, the urban jungle warrior, using another Dan Mora image (he's my new favorite artist in the world if you can't tell) as the base. It's my second play-image. I think the pen work is already better than in the Sentinel above, however I think fingers will be a struggle for me for quite a while. Again, I used real images for the background. Parkour is the primary hero in a story I've started that might appear in late 2023 or more likely 2024.

Enjoy! See you on January 1, 2023 for Sentinel - Chapter 1: Introduction.

Alex