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Saturday, 30 September 2017
Projectile Vomiting More Exorcist Clips Into Your Face...
The new season of The Exorcist possesses UK televisions from Wednesday, October 11, when the disturbingly addictive show debuts on the SyFy channel at 9pm.
DC Comics' Justice League Variant Covers...
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| Trinity #15 |
To promote the upcoming release of the long-awaited Justice League movie, DC Comics is putting its stars on variant covers of key titles during November.
See the full set at Join The League.
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| Detective Comics #968 |
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| Aquaman #30 |
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| Justice League #32 |
Dysco...
Dysco by Simon Russell, a 3D experimental short is about synesthetic drones, neon dubstep and the surveillance state.
Friday, 29 September 2017
The Vikings Are Coming! The Vikings Are Coming! The Vikings Are Coming!
This week I binge-watched season four of Vikings to get me up to speed for the imminent arrival of season five.
Not entirely sure why it had slipped off my viewing radar in the first place, but it's a wonderful, immersive, visceral world to return to and I'm now primed for the show's return next month (in the States, at least; I'm hoping Amazon will be showing as soon as possible after that).
Vikings returns on Wednesday, November 29 at 9 PM ET/PT with a two-hour season five premiere. Season five begins with Ivar the Boneless asserting his leadership over the Great Heathen Army, while Lagertha reigns as Queen of Kattegat. Ivar’s murder of his brother Sigurd sets the stage for vicious battles to come as Ragnar’s sons plot their next moves after avenging their father’s death. Bjorn follows his destiny into the Mediterranean Sea and Floki who is suffering from the loss of his wife Helga, takes to the seas submitting himself to the will of the Gods. This season is full of startling alliances and unbelievable betrayals as the Vikings fight to rule the world.
Fleamarket Friday: Barnowlbears, Bugs, And Barbarians From Bournemouth...
Bards & Beasts is a short Kickstarter for a small collection of three gorgeous looking monsters and three scruffy looking humans.
The fundraising campaign, by Bournemouth's Westfalia Publishing, has already smashed through its initial target and is running until October 10.
With monsters sculpted by Fancagne Didier and adventurers by Paul Hicks, the figures on offer - and check the different backer reward levels for different combos if you don't want to snag the whole lot - include:
- Rha - the Barbarian
- Old Brix - the dirty peasant
- Skyl - Captain of the watch
- Barney - the Barnowlbear
- Skylla - the wall crusher
- Cory - the corrosion bug
Can You Believe Gary Con Is 10 Next Year?
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| Tenth anniversary Gary Con digital painting by Jeff Butler |
Not that I would ever be able to attend, but I remember being so excited when the first Gary Con was announced; the idea of a convention devoted to "old school" gaming (ie the sort of thing I cut my teeth on back in the day, and still love immensely).
How quickly the little 'uns grow up!
Check out the fantastic 15-minute documentary above, but there's also a shorter one below, just a couple of minutes, summarising the history of the convention.
Here's hoping the con continues to go from strength to strength and while I'll never be there in person I am in spirit and always love to hear of games that went down, news that was announced etc
And who knows? With Tonbridge now getting its second Comic-Con (come April) perhaps this ascent of geekdom will mean we'll eventually be getting a roleplaying convention to buddy-up with our long-running wargames show?
Thursday, 28 September 2017
We've Reached Peak Weekly World News!
Although absent Bat Boy and monsters, this week's selection of gameable Weekly World News stories is pretty much the epitome of the items the paper is infamous for covering in its unwavering fashion.
We've got apocalyptic omens, Nazis resurfacing (literally), witchcraft, aliens, medical alerts, and ridiculous Photoshopping... anyone of these stories can throw up an adventure hook or unique non-player character for the gamesmaster willing to take his campaign in unexpected directions.
Make Way For Night Volcano!
Time for another wonderfully random name generator - this time returning to world of comic book superheroes.
As shown in the headline, my name - according to this table - would be Night Volcano, while Rachel's (as ever using her maiden name for this purpose) would Space Tornado.
As to the other members of the Tuesday Knights: Pete's superhero name is Astro Octopus, while Clare is Fire Dagger, Erica is Dynamic Blizzard, Kevin is Bad-Ass Thunder, and Simon is Orange Storm.
What's your superhero name?
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Bringing Art And Style To Ragnarok...
Marvel is definitely making full use of the bright colour palette that's been chosen for the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, as evidenced by this latest selection of art posters released to promote the highly-anticipated movie.
Tuesday, 26 September 2017
Reviews And New Releases For Mighty Protectors aka Villains & Vigilantes 3.0...
As the rewards for backing the Villains & Villains 3.0: Mighty Protectors Kickstarter continue to drop at at steady rate, Runeslinger has produced an eight-minute video review of the iteration of the game.
There's also a review by Patric Rogers over on his blog, Confessions Of A Part-Time Itinerant Wanderer.
Meanwhile, a pair of the backer rewards - the Foe File for Doctor Killjoy and Excel Record Sheet Pack - are now available to the general public, via the usual PDF outlets.
The Doctor Killjoy Foe File is a stats booklet for the villain using both the new mechanics and those of the previous edition of the superhero RPG, while the record sheets (which include a sample villain character, the insect-posessed Rój) are designed to make character creation smoother by handling all the maths for you.
You enter your character's basic information and the sheets calculate the rest (Microsoft Excel or a compatible program are required).
New Story Arc In X-O Manowar Tomorrow...
Hitting comic book stores tomorrow, Valiant's X-O Manowar #7 marks the start of the latest story arc, Emperor, in Matt Kindt's on-going tale of Aric the 5th Century Dacian warrior and his suit of sentient alien armour.
Currently residing on an alien world, for reasons as yet unknown, Aric still can't escape the battlefield and has found himself embroiled in a major conflict on his new home.
"A war has been won, a victory has been decided… and, now, an entire alien world kneels before the throne of their new leader: the unstoppable X-O Manowar! He has traded his armor for a crown and a new age now begins…even as an extraterrestrial invader readies an interplanetary attack that could pull Aric of Dacia from the newfound safety of his imperial palace and back into the blood-sodden battlefields where his conquest began."
Seeking Your Holy Grail? Then Don't Forget Knightfall's In December!
"Knightfall begins after the fall of the city of Acre, the Templar’s last stronghold in the Holy Land, where the Holy Grail is lost.
Years later, a clue emerges suggesting the whereabouts of the Grail and sends the Templars, led by the noble, courageous and headstrong Templar Knight Landry (Tom Cullen), on a life or death mission to find the lost Cup of Christ.
From their battles in the Holy Land, to their clash with the King of France, to the dark events leading to the demise of the Templar Order on Friday the 13th, 1307 — a date which became synonymous with bad luck — and focusing on themes such as belief, sacrifice, politics, love, power and revenge, Knightfall goes deep into the clandestine world of this legendary brotherhood of warrior monks to find out who these knights were, how they lived, and what they died believing."
Return Of The Con...
Clearly the first Tonbridge Comic-Con was a success as it's already scheduled to return to the Angel Centre on April 7, under the name of Heroes & Foes!
More news as it's announced!
Monday, 25 September 2017
Top Of The Pile: Wonder Woman/Conan #1
Wonder Woman may get top billing in this new title, but issue one was a Conan story through-and through.
Set in Conan's native Hyborian Age, Wonder Woman/Conan #1 opens with our Cimmerian hero rescuing a snivelling crook from some murderous thugs and then being led to an arena in a nearby city to see a tournament between a mysterious slave woman and a trio of gladiators.
Much to everyone's surprise, the "Warrior Witch" wins her battle, but is bundled away when she demands her freedom.
A smitten Conan believes she may be an old childhood acquaintance of his and steals into the slave quarters under the arena, only to discover that the amnesiac Amazon doesn't hold with her "Warrior Witch" nom de guerre and instead prefers the moniker "Wonder Woman".
However, before their bonding can go any further, they are interrupted by the slave master and his goons who orders the couple be chained together before facing each other in the arena, to fight to the death.
Penned by Gail Simone, with stunning art by Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan (coloured by Wendy Broome), the first issue of this six-part mini-series is glorious blend of character, graphic violence, and mystery.
Keeping the focus on Conan makes the circumstances of the Diana's bizarre situation all the more enigmatic.
Is this really Wonder Woman? How did Diana Prince end up in prehistoric Hyboria? How did she lose her memory? Who - or what - are the shapechanging 'Corvidae' who have been shadowing Conan? Could Conan's childhood friend Yanna also be Wonder Woman?Beyond the presence of the supernatural crow creatures, issue one is light on clues and heavy on set-up, which works very well in the hands of a master storyteller like Simone.
And, perhaps even more importantly, does this mean Conan is now a canonical part of the DCU (given that he has crossed over with Marvel characters in his time with that publisher) and will we be seeing him crop up in future crossover events?
Desert Island Comics...
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| A forthcoming Christmas special featuring one of my favourite Valiant characters, Faith |
Since truly latching on to the output of Valiant Comics earlier this year, I have increasingly become of the opinion that if some perverse situation came about that I was only allowed to read comics from one publisher it would be Valiant.
Sure I'd miss a lot of DC's output and the random selection of smaller press titles I dip in and out of, but Valiant pretty much does superheroes how I like to read them.
They're the Goldilocks publisher. Not so small and insular as to only be able to tell limited, self-contained, superhero stories but also not so sprawling and nebulous as to create constant continuity and canonicity issues.
With a bit of effort it's (currently) possible to catch up on about 99 per cent of the Valiant Universe's storylines (it's only been going since 2012), something nigh on impossible with the DC and Marvel (although they are both frequently rebooting their universes knowledge of older storylines is often handy).
If I had ever been able to get my dream of a long-running, open-ended, superheroes RPG off the ground then I'd like to think it would share stylistic similarities with Valiant's Universe.
Whilst it's highly unlikely that the government will be imposing any comic book rationing in the near future, I can see a time when my pull-list is cut back (primarily for financial reasons, but also creating time to actually read everything I have to read) to Valiant's output and a handful of other titles.
ICYMI: The DCTV Heroes Will Be Facing A Crisis On Earth-X...
This season's big crossover among the DCTV shows (Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Legends Of Tomorrow) will see our heroes teaming up with The Ray (Being Human's Russell Tovey) to fight the super-Nazis of Earth-X in late November.
For more information hop on over to the DC Comics website.
Let's hope this year's crossover event lives up to its hype better than last year's rather underwhelming Invasion storyline, which sadly fizzled out almost as quickly as it arrived when it became clear that its ambition far exceeded its TV budget (for example, wasting the entire Arrow episode with a 'what if/Matrix' dream world distraction; sidelining Supergirl; reducing a massive global invasion force to a couple of ships attacking a single city; naff generic designs for The Dominators etc)
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