TableTop Day!

It’s TableTop Day!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, ->CLICK THIS LINK HERE<- to be transported to the official webpage.

For those of you who are clickingly challenged, TTD was conceived by the wonderful people over at Geek & Sundry and is all about gathering together with your friends, family, local gaming group and/or other geeks to have a fun day playing any, and all, types of Tabletop games. It doesn’t matter if they’re games that have been featured on the program, or classics that have been stored in that dusty cupboard under your stairs. The emphasis is on having  FUN with similarly minded (i.e. AWESOME) people.

Have a Great Day!

Of Dark Heresies & Comics

After a very productive beginning to last week, documented here, time rather ran away from me. As well as work I’ve been GMing a Dark Heresy campaign for the past few weeks. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Dark Heresy is an RPG set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Your group play the part of acolytes of the Inquisition and much mayhem ensues as you charge around the galaxy (more specifically, the Calixis Sector) purging Heretics, Xenos and Daemons. It’s just a little bit awesome. I love playing my Battle Sister in my friend’s campaign because she kicks a lot of heretical butt.

However, we are currently transitioning from that campaign, which is on hiatus for a few months, back to another campaign with different characters. But before we start back down that road of blood and fire I’ve been filling in with a series of short, sharp, one-off campaigns whilst one of our number has been on holiday. It’s been a blast, although rushing to put everything together week by week (I’m one of those GMs that does handouts) hasn’t left a lot of time for much in between. Still, this week was the last of my campaign so I should be back to updating at least a couple of times a week.

On the subject of Comics:

I strongly suggest you catch up on X-Men Legacy. The first arc concluded with two endings(!), which included an unexpected twist and a lot of foreshadowing, whilst somehow staying very open ended. I will be going back to look through it issue by issue with as few spoilers as humanly possible. If you haven’t taken a look at this series yet, you definitely should.

Similarly, I will be going back to look through The Massive & Mara, which are two very different stories written by Brian Wood. I will also be taking a look at Saga, which is heartwrenching & brilliant. Seriously, it’s not often I find myself turning to the final page of a comic and swearing profoundly whilst choking back tears. But Brian K Vaughan seems to have perfected the ability to elicit this sort of reaction from his readers. The fact that everything is arted (real word, honest) so beautifully by Fiona Staples seems to double the emotional impact. Reading Saga is rather like reading George R.R. Martin. And if you don’t get the implication behind that after my previous sentence… well, just read Saga. You’ll catch on quickly.

And finally, on another tangent…

Happy Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm Release Week!

Prepare to be Zerged!

Quick Update & A Book Recommendation

Hello amazing internet denizens!

I haven’t disappeared completely, honest.

The last month and a half has flown by for a whole array of conflicting reasons, and I realise I haven’t been updating even semi-regularly. But that will change soon as there are a lot of things that I,

a) Want to write about, and,

b) Have already committed to an obscene amount of notepad entries currently littering my desktop.

These will all start to materialise soon.

In the meantime I have been using my twitter feed to stay in contact with the wider world whilst I’ve been getting myself organised.

Now, before I disappear again, I would just like to recommend that you go and take a gander at *this story right here* by Lee ‘Budgie’ Barnett. Here’s the synopsis for You’ll Never Believe A Man Can Fly, ripped right off the man’s very own blog:

“What’s the story about?

The world outside your window has never known super-powered beings until now. The first is a man named Ian Davies, an ordinary man who’s about to face some extra-ordinary events in his life. But what if, instead of giving an interview to The Daily Planet, he gives an interview to The Guardian, a newspaper with a reputation for typos?

He wanted to be known as The Public Defender. But someone at the Grauniad forgot the word Public has an ‘L’ in it…“

Mr Barnett posted the whole thing up over the course of four or five weeks so you can read it all, gratis. However, I strongly suggest that if you like it, you buy it. This can be achieved by clicking on the pay link at the bottom of any of the chapter entries. The story is consistently funny and brilliantly written; it certainly helped to brighten up my lunch breaks at work. (Yes, I bought the e-pub and then still read it as it was posted).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a whole lot of writing to organise and catch up on whilst you get acquainted with Mr Davies and his new found headache/gift.

Quick Links: Three things to amuse you

Three things you may have missed whilst playing at being responsible adults:

Bravest Warriors

From the mind of Pendleton Ward comes the other series he was trying to get commissioned before Adventure Time got picked up. It’s a surreal, sci-fi adventure series focused on the exploits of the self-styled, Bravest Warriors. Though if we’re being honest, they’re probably more lucky than brave when it comes to dealing with a crisis.
If you’re a fan of Adventure Time you probably already know about this. If not, the humour is cruder than A.T. (The Cartoon Hangover channel is aimed at teens/adults) but it’s a lot of fun. I defy anyone not to laugh at Butter Lettuce. Seriously, you’d have to be completely mirthless to not laugh at that.

Space Janitors 

The first season is almost over, but that’s OK. It means that you have more to watch all in one go! Whilst the pilot episode is rather blunt in establishing the basic premise of the show, it works. The second episode then introduces the proper, far more streamlined, format of this wonderful little show and it just keeps on getting better from there. The humour is infectious and, really, it’s hard to imagine that any sci-fi geek wouldn’t want to be part of this show if given the chance. Very funny – go and watch it!

My Gimpy Life: My Gimpy Christmas

As previously mentioned on several occasions, I love this web-series. Once you’ve taken a peek at the festive animation, be sure to check out the full first series if you haven’t already. It’s hilarious and IT’S COMING BACK NEXT YEAR! They’ve also been nominated for four International Academy of Web-television Awards. Well done guys, it’s thoroughly deserved.

Kickstart the Week, Preview: Peter Pan Comic

Renae De Liz is the illustrator of many gorgeous books, including The Last Unicorn and Anne Rice’s Servant of the Bones. She was also the driving force behind the gloriously ambitious Womanthology. So you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across her new gem of a project thanks to a random follower (@PeterPanComic) suddenly appearing on my twitter feed. (This is why I love twitter).

Renae has already begun the preliminary groundwork (and more) required to adapt the stories of J.M. Barrie’s enduring character, Peter Pan, into a full graphic novel. She has enlisted her husband, the similarly, fantastically talented Ray Dillon, on colouring/inking/lettering and design duties; and together they plan to rule the world! Or at least make a damn fine graphic novel worthy of your support.

You can find their official project blog, replete with sketches and character tags, HERE. And if you like what you see (why wouldn’t you?) you will want to bookmark it and keep a very close eye out for their impending Kickstarter project.

Naturally, I will be hyping this to the high heavens, but not just due to the talent involved. The initial character sketches and full colour images look wonderful. As a father, I would love to have a graphic novel of this quality to share with my kids. Still, even if I didn’t have my son and daughter to read this with, it promises to be a visually sumptuous adaptation of a timeless classic, and good art made with passion is always worth supporting.

Please, go and take a look for yourself. This won’t be the last time you’ll hear me mention it.

Mid-Week, No Worry

It’s Wednesday and I have a (digital) stack of comics to burn through before I pass out tonight, so I’ll keep this simple.

The preview issue of my stealth-zine debuted at work today. I was originally intending on posting them over on my tumblr on the same day I drop the physical version. But since a lot of the content has been appropriated & re-purposed, in typical zine fashion, the idea of editing it to avoid potential copyright issues killed that idea swiftly. You can get away with it in the real world because a zine’s distribution is limited, and blatantly non-profit, but online is a whole different beast.

Anyway, I didn’t really get to hear any reaction to this one as I had to run for the train (which was then typically late), but I’ll see how it went down tomorrow.

This week I have mostly spent my breaks reading Cory Doctorow‘s excellent Pirate Cinema, which I picked up as part of the Humble Bundle a couple of weeks back. I don’t know if it’s the same throughout the UK, but I just can’t find the man’s books in an actual bookshop! I have to go online to get hold of them. Yes, it’s more convenient in some ways. But when everywhere’s trying to sell you Little Brother at ridiculous prices, there’s something to be said for an ordinary bookstore with an R.R.P.

I have also been resurrecting a couple of comic projects and, in the next few weeks, will start getting down to the serious matter of finding a potential publisher. These are, initially, two separate stories that will merge to create a single on-going series. That is the theory at least. There’s still a long way (at least six months) to go before anything might come of these/this. But it’s exciting for me.

Time to go. Suggested reading for today lies, here and, here.

Suggested listening(s), here: Words /Music

Have fun!

Kickstart The Week [Fast Sell Edition]: Project Eternity

As it says, this week is a quick one (again) thanks to my computer deciding it’s still do-everything-at-1000th-normal-speed day.

However, the project we shall be glancing at sells itself very nicely without call for lots of text. So much so in fact that…

IS ALREADY FULLY FUNDED!

With 29 Days to go!

So the only real questions to ask are:

1. Do you like RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Fallout(s) 1 & 2 and Icewind Dale?
2. Are you excited at the prospect of owning a brand new RPG developed by creators and designers involved in creating the games listed above?

If your answer is a resounding YES then this is the project for you.

THE project.

Obsidian Entertainment‘s Project Eternity is an absolute must for fans of the distinctive RPG visual style created by the, BioWare developed, infinity engine. Though it will be running on a newer engine this will look, and play, like the RPGs you first honed your adventuring skills on. In non-gamer terms, this is a brand new RPG being made in the classic western RPG style. Not just by fans of the style, but by people who created and worked on several of the classics this game (visually) harks back to.

Thematically, this is going to be a fantasy RPG based in a world where magic is prevalent. So it’s not going to be another post-apocalyptic wasteland scenario. Fallout’s been done already. These guys did it. You will gather your companions as you travel around the world and they will grow with you. You won’t be alone for too long and figuring out how best to configure and utilise your party members will be vital to your progress. Whilst a lot of the specifics are being kept under lock and key, a quick viewing of the project trailer will offer you more of an idea as to whether this will suit your RPG-ing needs.

If this short (it took me half-an-hour to write these two minutes of text! *grumblegrumble*) description has whetted your appetite, you should definitely – GO TO THE PROJECT PAGE – and watch the video mentioned above. Also, read the text, look at the designs and click on all the links.

This is going to be something special for fans of this style of RPG and you will not want to miss out. Especially when you can get digital downloads (via Steam) of the full game, its soundtrack and the collectors book – which features concept art, the main handbook, monster manual and more – at the $35 pledge mark alone.

Go and check out Obsidian’s main page, as well as the project page, for even more updates.

Honestly, I’m so hyped for this project that I’m even considering throwing out this termite-infested hunk of junk and getting a new…

Late Night Review – Dr Who 7.3 A Town Called Mercy

After last week’s thoroughly disappointing filler episode, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, this week saw a wonderful return to form for the Doctor (and Ponds) on par with season opener, Asylum of the Daleks.

Western episodes can be tricky things to handle, though Science-fiction series have a much better track record than most other TV formats when it comes to homaging the Leone style. [Firefly being the obvious choice, though Red Dwarf‘s sixth season episode, Gunmen of The Apocalypse did win an Emmy.] However, the key to this episode lay, not in the action sequences, nor in Andrew Brooke‘s touching performance as ‘The Gunslinger’; but rather, in the emotional turmoil created in the Doctor by the presence of another stranger in Mercy, who is running from a murky past intent on killing him.

For those fans worried that this was going to be another gimmicky filler – like Dinosaurs… or The Curse of the Black Spot – you have nothing to fear. This episode delivers on all levels. The western tropes are there, but not overdone. The Doctor runs the full gamut of emotions and veers dangerously towards very un-Doctorly behavior. Amy gets to put the Doctor back on course – ‘See, this is what happens when you travel alone for too long. Well listen to me…’. And Rory gets to run around as only Rory can.

Needless to say, everything is resolved in typical, unconventional style. But the episode contributes towards the series’ arc nicely with the, aforementioned, exchange between Amy and the Doctor further emphasising the importance of the Doctor’s companions. The fact that we, the audience, know that the Pond’s are leaving soon (and not necessarily in a happy way) lends certain moments a further weight that reaches beyond the confines of this episode.

In Summary:

This is an excellent episode that fully lives up to the promise shown for this season by, Asylum of the Daleks.

K.T.W. – The List of Three

Ladies and gentlemen, this week’s K.T.W. is – A list of three small projects I rather fancy.

As always, links to the project pages are provided along with a short synopsis of each. But, since I still have a lot to catch up on, I’ve kept the comment to a minimum. There are no favorites here (apart from all of them) so please disregard the numbering, it is for convenience only:

#1 – Batbean: Stories About Superhero Vegetables

Synopsis: A book for young children designed to get them interested in vegetables and healthy eating. The adventures of Batbean follows a winged bean (they actually exist!) in its fight against Mega Corp., which is headed by the evil mastermind Mr Free Radical!

You can read the first book, for free, at www.batbean.com. This kickstarter is to fund the printing of a physical collection of the first three books in the series as well as the e-pub of the third book.

Blog link: Here.

Project Link: Batbean

#2 – PLUME: Help K. Lynn Smith print a 5 issue mini-series

Synopsis: What it says in the title. K. Lynn Smith, creator of the web-comic, Plume [official site, here] has come back to kickstarter, after her previous success to fund a new Plume project. This time she is looking for funding for a new five-part mini-series. Plume is a Western/fantasy comic set in the early 1900’s… but not our early 1900’s. Just go to the official site and take a look for yourself. Rewards vary quite a bit and, if you’re outside the US, remember to read the $10 pledge for details on what you need to add for shipping costs at all levels. Though a digital option is also available at the $15 mark.

Fall in love with the web-comic: Here.

Back the new project: Here.

#3 – Detective Honeybear: An all ages mystery comic.

Synopsis: It’s a noir with a honey-obsessed bear detective. Seriously. Look at the picture if you don’t believe me. Oh, it’s also written by the guy that wrote, Thor and the Warriors Four. He also does a lot of other stuff, but we won’t go into that here. You can find out about him, and the rest of the project, in the video on the project page (link below). As with Plume, Detective Honeybear can already be found online in the eleven page comic: Detective Honeybear and the Case of the Curious Cap. Go and read it!

Detective Honeybear and the Case of the Curious Cap: Is HERE.

The Project Page: Is HERE.

Finally, here are some images from these projects that I couldn’t fit in above:

K.T.W. – Updates Week

This week’s K.T.W. is going to be slightly different. As mentioned previously I have been working two jobs this past week, which has left me with little time to look through the latest projects vying for your hard earned cash. Therefore, I’m going to use this space for quick updates on projects I have mentioned previously.

#1 – MOLLY DANGER by Jamal Igle

Molly Danger was the first project I wrote about for Kickstart The Week and I am very happy to announce that it finally reached it’s funding goal with just two days to go. Jamal Igle’s tireless campaign to raise awareness of his creation via any and every medium available, ranging from standard print interviews to his comprehensive tour of the podcast-iverse (it’s a word now, I’m sorry), has been equally inspiring and exhausting to watch. But the best part about watching this campaign has been seeing it pay off.

Congratulations to Jamal and I look forward to seeing Molly in action next year.

You can find my original piece about this excellent comic, here.

#2 – Leaving Megalopolis

Whilst not officially the subject of a K.T.W. article I have previously written about Gail Simone and Jim Calalfiore’s new project, Leaving Megalopolis.

Unsurprisingly, due to the creative team involved being comprised of the main forces behind the excellent Secret Six series, this project was funded within days of going live. It is still open for funding and a whole array of new stretch rewards have been added so, if you haven’t got around to checking it out yet, there’s no time like the present.

My original piece, with links to the project, as well as to the creator’ own sites, can be found, here.

#3 – The Cartoon Art of Mike Deodato, Jr – Volume 1

Next up is the wonderful news that Mike Deodato’s project, The Cartoon Art of Mike Deodato, Jr – Volume 1, has also been successful.

In my original article I compared the cartoon style and content of this project to that of the fantastic Calvin & Hobbes. The comparison remains apt as, since the project closed fully funded, I have found myself filled with child-like enthusiasm in anticipation of receiving my copy of this humorous collection.

My original K.T.W. article can be found, here.

#4 – Bittersweet Candy Bowl

With nineteen days to go, the fundraising for the second print volume of Bittersweet Candy Bowl has already been successful.

If you still haven’t taken a look at this, I recommend you start at the web-comic’s main site. A quick browse through the archives, combined with a look at the artwork of more recent strips, should give you all the information you require to make a decision as to whether this is to your tastes.

On a personal note, the official project update announcing the success of the project was made twice as sweet for me when I realised that the article mentioned, and linked to, at the bottom of the announcement:

is, my original Kickstart The Week write up!

Pretty awesome, huh?