Typical Game Night

Hopefully you can read this comic about my experiences with game nights.

The Master Speaks

Every generation has it's icons. Jack Kirby, John Romita, Sr., ect. The current generation has one defining artist--Alex Ross. I've not only met Alex Ross, he's signed some things of mine and I've continued to follow his work where I find it along the way.

Anyone interested in Alex Ross will probably be interested in the Fanboy Radio interview he did with them. Listen to the podcast on their website posted here.

GO TEAM VENTURE!!!

One of my favorite contemporary cartoons for substance and style, is the Venture Brothers. Beside being everything I'm interested in, it also is very well written. One of the creators Jackson Publick has a great online interview on the Sounds of Young America podcast. Listen to him talk about comics, monster make-up, ripping off Johnny Quest, ect (p.s. the link is an MP3 so right click and download it instead of trying to play it here, it won't work).

He also has a great blog where you can see all kinds of production art, deleted stuff, and all kinds of geeky fun.

Bernie's good...it's Black & White.

Ten years ago if you would have asked me who my favorite artist was, period, I would have said Bernie Wrightson. And that hasn't changed much. If I see something on the rack (as rare as it seems to be) that has the Wrightson name on it, I'll probably be grabbing it to flip through it.

Bernie Wrightson co-created the DC Comics and pop culture icon Swamp Thing with writer Len Wien. He has contributed the illustrations seen in all of Stephen King's illustrated novels (The Stand, Cycle Of The Werewolf, The Gunslinger Series).

Bernie Wrightson not only is a big name in the horror universe, he is also a name amongst names for contributing concept art for the film industry. He has done work for the Spider-Man films, Ghostbusters, and many many b-films.

Bernie Wrightson has a beautiful duality to his work. His black and white work is breathtaking. his claimed "most personal" work was the nearly 50 illustrations he did for a republishing of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Below are some of the inset plates. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this, even most public libraries have a copy sitting around. Stare at each picture and I guarantee after hours of looking you'll find things you hadn't noticed before.





The ambidexterous wonder of Wrightson is that when he adds colors he doesn't go for the inkpress pop candy colors that can be seen on any given Superman or Wonder Woman. He leans towards watercolors, dried up markers, etc. I happen to have entire sets of his two trading card series' which is all original art. One example below, shows not only the detail of the almost Frazetta-like illustration but the earthy realistic colors.



Though his work is scant in recent years, he powerfully prevalent in the later 1970's and into the 1980's. Inspired by the timeless EC Comics titles like The Vault of Horror, Tales From The Crypt and The Haunt of Fear Wrightson brought the worlds of Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe. With a flair for the almost Hammer-esque trait of making the characters of horror dwell in either the brutally modern world or a world of vague Victorianism that doesn't really exist in time.

Though he started in doing explicitly graphic imagery as in the vampire tearing out the throat of a victim, now he claims that he's more interested in showing the moment before or after the act, allowing the viewer to fill in what happened.

Wrightson has a website to see all examples of his work (some good Spider-Man film work stuff, Swamp Thing stuff, originals) at Wrightson Art.

Here's a video interview I found on Youtube.



Keep Reading!!!

MAUS--A great read

As I sit here watching survivor (Yes, I still enjoy the show.), I remembered that it was about that time of year to reread one of my favorite graphic novels, Maus.

Every year I try to read Maus at least once. Not only is a great graphic novel, but it also is a great lesson in history and compassion. Maus was illustrated and written by Art Spiegelman and first appeared in 1973 according to the copyright information listed in the graphic novel. Maus was published in various forms throughout the 80s and early 90s. Eventually Maus was printed as two separate volumes and in 1992 the graphic novel and Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize.

Maus is first and foremost a memoir about Art Spiegelman and his relationship with his father, Vladek Spiegelman. The novel takes place during two different time periods (late 70s-early 80s and Nazi Germany). Although the novel is mainly about Art and his relationship with his father, the actual story is about his father's experience as a Jew during the Holocaust and surviving.

In Maus, the humans are portrayed as animals (Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Americans are dogs, etc). You can probably guess why the animals were chosen as they were. As a history book, this graphic novel excels in telling a harrowing account of a Jewish survivor of 1930s and 1940s Europe. In fact, I have been trying to get my wife to use this graphic novel in German class for years.

I don't want to ruin any of the story so I will leave you where you are. I highly recommend The Complete Maus and would suggest that everyone should read it at least once.

asrttyoxo is the new contributer

Hey people,

I'm going to start contributing to this blog. From me you will mainly see rants/comments on novels, comics (generally 80s-90s although you will see some some early 2000s and 70s), movies (maybe some anime if JW and H-DoGG don't kill me first), some games, and maybe even some TV shows (again pending not dying).

Digital Single!!!

Hey one person who reads this (Ed). I've uploaded a split digital single between recording superstars Aaron Ebertowski & The 57's and the ever elusive Cuddles.

First for download is the international smash mega-shit (all filler, no killer) For All The Little Babies by Cuddles.

The "b-side" to this record is the infamous (around Winona, MN that is) ballad The Prison Song by Aaron Ebertowski & The 57's!!!

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS:
Now these high quality mp3's are downloaded through Rapidshare file hosting services. So when you click on a song title it will take you to the download page. There will be two columns on the rapidshare page. Premium or Free. Click FREE button at the bottom of the right hand column. Then it will take you to second page where it will give you a countdown to when the file becomes available (usually no more than 9 seconds or so). It will have you type in an access code and click download. I know it sounds complicated but I haven't figure out how to do the goddam mp3 html link code yet so deal with it.

Lyrics are as follows:

Aaron Ebertowski & The 57's'The Prison Song"
If you've got nothing to do
And you got something to see
And your life is feeling blue
All I want you to do is push it in me
Push it in me

If you got a bowl full of piss
And a bunch of ash
And you want to make a tattoo
With a shaving razor blade and a razor
Push it in me

If you meet me at a bar
And I've had too many shot of Jaeger
And you've had too many shots of
Peppermint Shnaaps
Push it in me

And if you have nothing to do
And that girl dumped you
All I can say is that
I am not gay
But push it in me
Push it in me


Cuddles"For All The Tiny Babies"
For the little tiny babies
With their little tiny ladies
Going on little tiny daties
to the Cinema at dusk

For the baby biker mamas
Driving honchos on their Hondas
With their diapers and chaps on
Doing Jag bombs through a breast-pump

Will all the little tiny babies raise their hands? (Raise them, won't you raise them)
And wave their little baby fingers back and forth
Like a little fan? (Wave them won't you wave them)

For the itty-bitty toddlers
And the baby-boy bar crawlers
And the tiny shiny daughters
With the onsies' made of silk

To all the little bastards
All the drooling master blasters
Using poopie as a plaster
Doing shots of mommy milk


Your welcome

The Wonders of the Bronze Age

The Silver Age of comics brought us so many of the candy-colored pop icons like The Fantastic Four, the Justice League, The Incredible Hulk, the longest enduring and most infamous of the DC and Marvel universes. The modern age has given us a bevy of things to enjoy -The Goon, Madman, The more better X-Men run (as opposed to them being a different version of the Fantastic Four as they were originally) , and other things. There was however a period running from the start of teh 1970's through the early-to-mid eighties titled the Bronze Period.

This period was dominated with weird characters, strange plot lines and at times, exceedingly creative ventures. It also brought about the popularization of licensed trademarks like Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. But the 70's gave us horror, kung-fu and trippy sci-fi like nothing we've seen before. It's personally one of my favorite periods in comics history. I enjoy Power Man and Iron Fist, the original Bernie Wrightson creation of Swamp Thing, Master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi and etc.

Above I've compiled a collage of some of my favorite characters (all Marvel in this instance) from that era. See if you can name them all!

(Answer in the comments).

Marvel Essentials: Fantastic Four Volume 1

One of the best ideas Marvel has had in say, the last ten years, is to realease collections of both their more popular and less known franchises starting with issue one. The Marvel Essentials collection does just that collecting, in varying volumes, the Silver Age classics like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Dr. Strange, and the Fantastic Four (as well as many others).

I've always been a fan of the FF. I've never seen any of the film adaptations, but I did love the 1960's animated cartoon occassionally shown on Cartoon Network in the mid 90's. Though the animation was slight, it basically transcribed stories directly from comic page to tv screen (see below).



Wanting to know more about the origins of the FF I purchased Marvel Essentials: Fantastic Four Volume 1. The trade collects Fantastic Four issues #1-20 as well as the first Fantastic Four Annual.

Obviously the first issue is the infamous origin story. In a panic Reed Richards assembles his fiancee Sue Storm, her kid brother Johnny Storm and Richards' irascible friend Ben Grimm at his apartment. It's the mid 1960's and the Cold War is hotter than ever! Reed makes a snap decision to fly to space to beat the Russians. Not to land on the moon, not to orbit the Earth. Simply to fly into space. Been Grimm brings up the preposterousness of this and Sue replies "Ben we've got to...Unless we want the Commies to beat us to it!"

So they launch themselves into space, get bombarded with "cosmic rays" and crash back to Earth only to find they've gained superhuman abilities from being exposed to the radiation.

Reed Richards "And I'll call myself...MISTER FANTASTIC!!" gets the ability to stretch his form to any shape or size.
Sue Storm "Same goes for me...THE INVISIBLE GIRL!" has the ability to become transparent.
Johnny Storm "I'm calling myself THE HUMAN TORCH--" can become living flame and control fire and heat.
Ben Grimm "I ain't Ben anymore--I'm what Sue called me--THE THING!!" has had his flesh turned to a sort of organic rock and has exponentially increased his strength and durability.

The FF's first adventure shows that maybe Stan Lee gets much more credit due to him than deserved. But hell, he's Stan "The Man" Lee. So it's all good. The FF square off agains the dreaded Mole Man. The Mole Man was once a normal human who was socially shunned for his squat "mole-like" appearance. He set off on his own to find a new civilazation to join. He eventually washed up on Moster Isle (not joking) and fell through a cavern to the center of the Earth where he learned to see in the dark and command an army of subterannean monsters.

Anyways the Mole Man's big plot to destory the Earth and subsequently rule it involves having his giant tunneling creatures dig a tunnel to every major city on the globe. They will then destory power plants and the such, leaving the Earth defenseless. The FF go to attack the Mole Man and, after battling a cadre of monsters, trap the Mole Man in the ground by imploding the opening they escaped from thus leaving him trapped. Well, basically this solves nothing as the Mole Man LIVES UNDERGROUND and the millions of other tunnels connected to major cities still exist as do the Mole Man and his monsters. So basically the FF plugged one hole. And not an important one. The Mole Man's plans haven't been hindered at all (but Reed Richards will tell you otherwise).

The rest of the book (I won't go through issue by issue) is more or less spent fighting two nemesis'. Dr. Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner. There are also battles with the who's who of FF bad guys: The Puppet Master, Skrulls, The Super Skrull, The Miracle Man, The Pharaoh, and the Red Ghost.

Issue three is the presentation of the FF's infamous blue garb and their Fantasticar. It also has some interesting schematics of the FF's apartment headquarters. Issue eight starts Ben Grimm's love affair with Alicia, daughter of the Puppet Master.

There is a love triangle played through the entire series with Sue Storm finding feelings for Namor, and Reed being jealous (I mean she is his fiancee and she refuses to marry him until she 'sorts her feelings out').

Most of the outright silliness of the series can be overlooked with such amazing artwork by legendary Jack Kirby. And this is what irks me. Stan Lee created the FF, the X-Men, the Hulk, ect ect ect. But in name only. He came up with the idea but no imagery. And people don't look at The Thing and say 'hey that's Ben Grimm who was iradiated in space and became the Thing.' They say 'the THING!"

Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, The Hulk..none of these characters wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it wasn't for the visual representations of the characters made by Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby and Gene Colan and John Romita Sr. So as much as Stan Lee 'created' the FF. Jack Kirby has just as much if not more or a role in their success. Because even though the stories left much to be desired, the art kept bringing readers back.

Is this worth the $14.95? Definitely. Whether you are a fan of the FF or just want some classic Silver Age reading.

Looking to Expand the Games Closet? Consider Runebound

I had heard of Runebound, but never played it for myself. So when a friend of mine called me from Games By James at the Mall of America wanting some input on a potential purchase, I was at a loss. He ended up buying it and I knew I was in for an introduction.

Runebound is a relative newcomer to the board game scene having been published in 2004 by Fantasy Flight Games. Seeing as I just did a write-up on Talisman, Runebound presents a nice comparison since both games fall in the same catagory of fantasy/adventure/RPG.

The first thing I noticed as we were setting things up was that Runebound is a bit more complex in structure, taking a drastically different freeform approach. Where Talisman follows a fairly simple, linear design for its three-tier board comprised of realms, Runebound's board is presented as a sizable, hex-filled map, consisting mostly of wilderness (forests, mountains, plains, hills, swamps, etc.) along with a handful of cities (think MiddleEarth-esque). The players (characters) are free to go wherever they wish throughout the game giving it a more "true" RPG feel.

Each player gets to select a character card from a fairly large selection. These cards reminded me of Magic cards in their presentation- the nicely illustrated character picture accompanied by a bit of character lore and flavor text, a list of special traits, the health and stamina stats and finally the base statistics for the three major types of combat: ranged, melee and magical.

The object of the game is somewhat similar to Talisman, but the idea of direct competition is taken away, replaced with a feel of cooperation as all characters seek the same goal of saving the land from evil Dragon Overlords. Growth of the characters along with completion of the goal are accomplished through "encounters" or quests, which take place only on certain, fixed hexes located across the map. The fixed nature of these encounters may seem counter-intuitive and boring, but let me assure you that the game's developers planned ahead.

Movement is dictated using x4 special six-sided dice that are marked with terrain symbols instead of numbers. A player rolls the dice and then uses one die for each space moved, but they can only move to a space that matches one of the dice. This adds an element of unpredictability and decision-making to the movement phase, because you cannot simply choose to take a straight path. To simulate injury, if a player has been injured in combat, until they heal in a city (or with an item) they roll only x3 movement dice.

Onto the quests. There are four levels of quests in the game with level one being the easiest and level four (also known as "game winning" quests) being the most difficult. No enounter space is ever guaranteed to be the same as there is a deck of cards for each level of quest. These are shuffled at the start of the game and the top card drawn when a quest hex is landed on. Additionally, the card drawn may not be an enemy of creature, but rather it could be an effect (personal or global) or even treasure of some type. When this happens, the card is played, the effect or item assessed and then another card is drawn. This continues until a creature card is drawn and combat commences. I found this aspect of the game to be well thought-out because it means that a turn is never routine, but more open-ended much like an RPG.

Combat is very simple. When an encounter takes place, the card drawn is read (it also includes lore and flavor text) and it may require that the player make an attempt at a "test" before battle begins. Let me back up...

To make another comparison, the characters in Runebound take the templates from Talisman one step further adding skills to the basic traits. An example might by that your character has "sneak" and for every sneak test you are required to roll for, you get a +2 bonus. Rolling is done with two 10-sided dice where the player simply totals the numbers rolled (0 = 10). The encounter may require your character to make a sneak test > 12 or take an attack penalty of -1. Once actual combat starts, it is simply a matter of you range, melee and magic attack rolls being higher than the value stated for each on the enemy card. For each round of combat, the player chooses one to be their offensive attack while the others are defensive rolls, and if successful they deal x amount of damage for their attack. (Example: Melee might be valued at 3/2.... 3 being the base attack value (+ 2D10) and 2 is the amount of damage dealt for a successful attack).

For each successful encounter, the player then receives x number of experience points (level 1 = 1, level 2 = 2, etc.) For every 5 experience, a player can level up, adding bonus to one attack of their choosing or adding to their health. Players also gain gold from defeated enemies and may by spells, weapons and armor in the cities as well as allies that travel with them. All these are used to augment the various attacks.

While I found the game to well developed and more complex than Talisman, it was very easy to learn, even intuitive having had computer RPG experience. It also sports a great sense of balance throughout. Higher level quests are significantly tougher, but in a scaled way that allows for characters with less experience to pull off rare dramatic feats of victory while still keeping the chance for failure for a higher level character well within the realm of possibility. For a board game, this is probably the most dynamic I've played in that regard. It kept me on my toes.

I really appreciated the combined use of dice and cards that the developers used to drive this game's mechanics. It keeps the game randomized and manageable at the same time which results in a very high replay value! It will be interesting to see what Games Workshop does with the 4th Edition of Talisman with Runebound now on the market for 3 years.

The bottom line on Runebound is that it is extremely fun and relatively easy to learn. It also has a boatload of expansions currently available online, so player really don't need to worry about this one wearing out any time soon. I would rate this game as a bit higher difficulty than Talisman due its being more elaborate. Talisman can take a while to play out and my guess is that Runebound might take a bit longer on average. If you're looking for a new game to feed your hunger for adventure, Runebound should be on your list.

BlackIndustries Set To Revive Classic "Talisman"

A bit of exciting news was shared with me last week concerning the classic adventure board game Talisman. After a long hiatus from store shelves, BlackIndustries, a division of Games Workshop, is planning on resurrecting the two decade old title with an upcoming 4th Edition! Official Announcement

For those unfamiliar (which is understandable with it being out of print and extremely scarce!), Talisman is a "cult classic" 2-6 player adventure game that was originally published by Games Workshop in the early 80s. It is perhaps best described as a toned-down, easily-accessible version of a role playing game. It employs a fully illustrated game board that follows a "tier" style format with different realms that players must carefully navigate their way through to victory, achieved by possessing the Crown of Command.

Fans of the fantasy adventure genre (Lord of the Rings, D&D, etc.) are bound to enjoy this game. The role playing aspects of the game are evident through the character system. Each player chooses (or randomly draws) a character card to start the game and each has its own unique set of characteristics and abilities allowing for different strategies.

The premise of the game is simply that the players are all characters living in a land inhabited with many magical creatures and artifacts. Through encounters and epic battles, each character grows stronger, either physically or mentally for purposes of spell casting. Once strong enough, players then advance into the next tier (towards the center of the board) which offers tougher challenges and stronger monsters. There are a total of three tiers that comprise the board. Players can even choose to battle each other if they happen to meet. However, all movement is governed by die roll.

The strongest feature of the game is arguably its driving mechanic of random configuration. The board, like most game boards, is comprised of spaces. Each space is unique and contains permanent game text that specifies what occurs when landed on. But the content of the game is played out through a deck of event, creature, artifact and item cards which are shuffled at the start of the game. Because of this feature, no two games of Talisman are ever the same which gives it a very high level of re-playability. Talisman appears a bit overwhelming the first time you sit down to play, but it is very easy to learn. It does, however, require a few hours (minimum) to play through.

The most recent edition of the game (3rd Edition) was released in 1994 and was a bit of evolution and expansion of the core game presented in 1st and 2nd Editions. I have only been playing Talisman for a little of a year now and almost immediately began looking for a copy of it for myself after I was introduced to it. The very determined gamer can find occasional copies on eBay for upwards of $100 but beyond that the game is literally impossible to find. That is until October 2007.

This is a great small group game and it comes highly recommended. It has gained a respectable fan base over the past twenty years and it is no surprise as to why. It is well designed, extremely entertaining and doesn't require serious devotion to enjoy. If you like adventure, Talisman is definitely worth checking out!

Betrayal At House On The Hill-A Fun Though Sometimes Confusing Venture

First off I need to say that I'm a moderate gamer. I dabbled in Magic: The Gathering in junior high and never really cared for it. Aside from a couple half-handed games of Dungeon and Dragons I pretty much gave up on the entire thing and never really delved into the world of gaming (especially when Pokemon bombarded it).
Now I'm more into gaming-card games, board games, rpg's. One game I got for Christmas, Betrayal at House On The Hill, is one I've found myself trying to master, but to ill effect.
The premise is that you and your co-players are a group of people on a trip into the "spooky" house which lies on a hill on the outskirts of town. You start by exploring the house. As you move you add new rooms to all three stories (basement, ground floor, and attic). Each room brings new challenges, rewards or surprises. Eventually, through a chance turn of events it turns out that one of your party, maybe even you, is a traitor who's led these people here under false and malign pretenses. No one knows who the traitor is, not even the traitor, until the 'Haunt' is revealed.
The Haunt is the chance roll that starts the supernatural event in the game. For example you can all be haplessly walking around the house and then when the haunt is revealed, it turns out that the House itself is alive and you've dragged the others here to let the House feed on their energy and they have to perform a special function to get ot alive. Or it turns out after the Haunt is revealed that a player is a cult leader who has stranded the others in the House to sacrifice them and bring his other-dimensional God to this plane.
This game is definitely fun. It takes some intuitive guessing and some strategizing as far as room placement, card usage and companionship. The game is always different, scenarios change with the smallest detail (what room the Haunt was revealed in, what item revealed the Haunt).
The main problem I have with this game is that for the three times I've played it I've always been the traitor! And it's difficult to tell who's won after the game is over. Many of the scenarios don't really allow you to distinguish, when a game is finished, who the victor is. So alot of the time you're left guessing. Although it's vague in some spots and takes a couple of games to really get the rules and mannerisms down, I recommend Betrayal at House on the Hill. It's solid fun with a quirky supernatural twist that Stephen King, Robert Bloch or even H.P. Lovecraft would enjoy.