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My brief association with Mat Nastos

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A few years ago, a new face appeared on the New Pulp scene, a guy by the name Mat Mastos. He offered a lot of praise for my Myth Hunter series and he had ideas about expanding New Pulp beyond the niche audience it had mostly appealed to which intrigued me, as that was something I wanted to do as well.

When Mat came out with his first novel, The Cestus Concern, he was kind enough to send me an email with a free copy and asked if I’d review it. I did and I genuinely enjoyed it. We kept in touch and he hired me to edit his WW2 fantasy novel, The Man With The Iron Heart.

Back in late 2013 or thereabouts, Mat and I were talking. I’d had him as a guest on my now-aborted podcast, The Exploding Typewriter, and he suggested we start working together. Mat had a label he’d set up for his books, called Nifty Entertainment, and he said he wanted to turn it into an author collective. Given the connections he seemed to have and the success of The Cestus Concern, I thought it was a good move so I agreed.

No contracts were ever signed, no rights were transferred, and no money was ever exchanged. He said we’d simply be helping each other out, providing services for each other, promoting each other’s work, etc. I thought it seemed like a good idea, so I said yes. I updated all my books to include the Nifty Entertainment logo, put them on his site, etc. I also added previews of some of his books to the back of some of my books and he said he would do the same (no clue if he ever actually did). He even did the original cover for Vanguard: Season One:

But shortly after that, Mat just stopped responding to emails and messages. I’d often ask him about how we can work together on some promotions and I wouldn’t get any response. When I asked him if he’d be willing to work on the cover for Vanguard: Season Two, he finally responded and said he would send me a concept and then I never heard anything else.

Around the same time, I’d joined up with an author group. In a month of being in that group, they provided me with more support and advice than Mat had after several months of being part of Nifty. So I decided it wasn’t worth it to keep my work associated with him. I changed the cover for Vanguard: Season One, removed the Nifty label from all my books, and took them off the Nifty site.

I never really heard anything else from Mat after that. He didn’t even say anything when I decided to pull my stuff, so I just left it at that and moved on with my life. I just didn’t feel like the association was doing anything for my work so there was no need to continue it.

Turns out I had made the right decision, and I just found out how right the decision was given the news of the past week.

Mat often talked about the work he’d done in comics and film/TV. He frequently touted his friendships with various creators and celebrities to the point that some of it seemed exaggerating. But there was one thing he would claim frequently—that he was one of co-creators of Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. It was so frequent and he often touted it on his resume to such an extent that even his banners when he went to comic conventions featured those characters. So it seemed unlikely that was something he would exaggerate about, as it went far beyond idle chatter.

But according to Bleeding Cool, exaggeration was putting it lightly—he straight-up lied. Swampy Marsh, one of the actual creators of Phineas and Ferb, posted the following on his Facebook page:

Okay…wow.

Like I said, I knew he exaggerated, but I never expected something this fraudulent. Mat has since scrubbed the mentions of himself from the Internet that he has control over—his Facebook page, Twitter account, and his websites. Disney’s lawyers do not screw around, so I’m guessing he’s gotten himself in some very hot water.

The thing I don’t understand is why? The Cestus Concern and The Man With The Iron Heart were both great books and very well-written and as you can see from the Vanguard cover I posted above, he’s also a talented artist. This is a guy who could have written his own ticket on the basis of his talent alone.

Just goes to show you—be careful who you associate with and be careful about the boasts you make online. You never know when it might come back to bite you in the ass. I didn’t properly vet a potential business partner and if our arrangement had gone beyond just a handshake deal, I may have suffered a lot worse than the embarrassment I’m feeling at the moment.

That’s a mistake I won’t make again.

The Cestus Concern (Weir Codex Book 1)

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cestusconcernLooking at Mat Nastos’ biography is enough to give you feelings of inadequacy. If you want to talk about making the most of your creative career, he’s definitely one guy who has done that, as an artist for comics/film/TV, director, writer, and now, he can add novelist to that long list of accomplishments. He’s a self-proclaimed Super Genius, and after reading some of his excellent articles on marketing over at his website, I can say that’s a title he’s definitely earned.

The Cestus Concern is Nastos’ first novel, as well as the first book in the Weir Codex series (Book 2 is due out this year). The story centers on Malcolm Weir, a soldier who awakens in an operating room to find cybernetic arms have been grafted to his body and a computer installed in his mind. Fighting his way out, Weir discovers that he has no memory of the past eleven months and seeks to discover what what done to him. With the help of his old college buddy (and conspiracy theorist) David “Zuz” Zuzelo, Weir tries to discover what transpired in the lost year of his life, all while fighting off super-powered mercenaries and assassins dispatched by the government’s mysterious Project: Hardwired, which is also responsible for Weir’s present condition.

The Cestus Concern is some of the best New Pulp out there. Like any good action movie, it’s a roller-coaster ride that grabs hold of you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the last.

I know from my own personal experience that one of the most difficult things to write in a novel is an action scene, because the reader has only your words to visualize it, and sometimes what you see in your head can be difficult to put into words. Nastos has experience with crafting scenes through his work as an artist and director, but being able to translate that into prose is very different. Fortunately, Nastos is able to transition seamlessly into this new medium he finds himself working in, and his action scenes are so vibrant and perfectly and succinctly described that he gives you just enough to let you know what’s happening, but avoids dragging down the narrative with too much description. These scenes move with such speed, that you feel as if you are watching an action movie play out in your head.

Of course, action can only get you so far. You can craft the best action scenes in human history, but it won’t mean a thing unless you’ve got characters for the reader to care about. Fortunately, we’ve got that. Malcolm Weir is a battle-hardened soldier, but when the bullets aren’t flying, he’s a relatable, down-to-earth and funny guy, the kind of guy you could see yourself tossing back a few beers with as you watch a movie or play a video game. We care about Mal as he goes through his predicament, and we feel for him as things go from bad to worse. Also added into the mix is Zuz, who serves a role both as light-hearted comedy relief, but also provides some much-needed narrative explanation. Although there are times when his conspiracy theorist lifestyle borders on providing a bit too much convenience for the story, for the most part he’s an entertaining supporting character that gives our hero someone to play off, rather than being an irritating nuisance like his type of character usually becomes in some of the poorer action fare out there.

Nastos makes no secret of his influences on this book—in fact, he states them in the book’s description: “Fans of films like Bourne Identity or Smoking Aces, or the comics of Deadpool and Wolverine, will love the over-the-top science fiction action of The Cestus Concern.” There are elements of all those in here, and more—it’s an unapologetic hodgepodge of everything you love about over-the-top action movies and comics, and it’s a whole lot of fun to get lost in.

You can pick up The Cestus Concern from Amazon in either print or digital formats. Check out Mat Nastos’ website for more information on not only this book, but his other work.