Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of September 13, 1984. 

Flash #340: So finally, as the cover declares: "The Trial of the Flash Begins," but don't expect any legal drama from this issue. Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin are up to the same old thing as Flash escapes from and then befriends Big Sir but rescuing the misguided giant and a bear cub he's concerned about. Meanwhile, the Rogues go on a crime spree, and a psychic brought in by Captain Frye gets closer than either of them realizes to the hereabouts of Barry Allen. The trial begins with the shady DA confident of a conviction, and the Flash late to proceedings.

Arak Son of Thunder #39: We get an introduction to the various legendary beasts held with Satyricus, and as they all have a hatred of Barmak, the caliph's vizier for their imprisonment, they agree to join Alsind in seeking revenge. Meanwhile, Malagigi attempts to secure the release of the others, but the vizier denies knowledge of the other captives. The wizard finds Arak's otomahuk, proving Barmak is lying. He escapes Barmak's goons and finds the caliph with his harem. Just then, the beasts attack.

Malagigi, Arak and Valda fight to protect the caliph from the beasts. Most of the animals are slain, but after Barmak kills Alsind with a thrown dagger, the basilisk attacks him and turns him to stone.

Batman #378: Moench and Newton/Alcala reveal the verdict in the custody battle that has been running through the bat-titles: Natalia Knight gets custody of Jason. While dealing with all this, Batman keeps up the pressure on Mayor Hill, by "haunting" him. The Mad Hatter, meanwhile, wants Hellstrom's loot from the Nightmare, Inc. robberies and delivers a special hat to Natalia to get the information out of her mind. Thanks to this happening on Jason's fist night with her, Batman happens to show up to stop him, which is a good thing because if the Hatter had gotten away with the data in his computer, he might also have learned Batman's and Robin's secret IDs. Nocturna again makes a plea for a new relationship with Batman and Robin, but neither trusts her.

G.I. Combat #272: In the Haunted Tank story, Stuart's Raiders lead a one take invasion as they serve as the feint giving cover for the D-Day landing. Mlle. Marie and her resistance fighters make a guest appearance. The Mercenaries take a job to find a Vietnam vets Vietnamese wife and bring her to the U.S., but things get complicated when Vietnamese officials get in the way, and they discover the couple has a young daughter. 

Kana appears in a very unespionage-related O.S.S. story has he flies a mission to destroy a Japanese Kamikaze base and discovers his cousin Myobu is one of the Kamikaze pilots. In the nonseries story, the Allies send three French agents into occupied France to carry a code book to the resistance. One of the agents proves to be working for the Germans and takes the codebook to them, but the Allies were aware one of the agents was a traitor and so implanted homing transmitters in the dummy code books to guide a bombing raid.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #4: Something I've never thought of before, but Superman's appearances with other characters (particularly newly introduced characters) often involve Superman acting without full information and making the situation worse. Such is how he is utilizes by Potter here. Working with a government a rogue agent to track down the Saturnian, Superman suspects he isn't being told the full story but goes along with a confrontation that escalates quickly and leads to a fight with Jemm, then Superman getting shot himself by his revenge-maddened ally who has stolen a secret government super-weapon designed to take down any alien. Then, the White Saturnians show up, and Jemm and others are taken captive, but not before a young girl is accidentally killed.

Omega Men #21: This is a fill-in issue, done while Moench and Smith were working on the annual. Sharman Di Vono, the credited writer, just has a couple of DC credits and seems to have worked mostly in animation. Alex Niño appears to be their go-to for fill-ins on this title. His work is more pleasing here than on the late Thriller. Anyway, Omega (Wo)Man Syri (first and only appearance) and a robot sidekick are on a routine mission when they have to deal with leftover Citadel forces that have turned to piracy.

Star Trek #9: "New Frontiers" perhaps signals that Barr and Sutton/Villagran are stuck bridging the "gap" between two movies that (though maybe they don't know it) that follow directly. They do an admirable job of filling this (forced) space, even if the continuity produced isn't going to be seamless. We pick up where STIII ended, with Spock still convalescing on Vulcan and Kirk and crew heading off in the stolen Bird of Prey to do something else important. Meanwhile, Starfleet is sending Styles and the Excelsior to bring them in.

What Kirk and crew is up to is telling Carol Marcus about her son's death in person. She blames Jim at first but ultimately realizes that he has lost a son too, and they hold a memorial service.  The story then makes a disorienting shift to Enterprise at the Regula One Station. Kirk accuses Carol of undermining him with their son, then sentences her to death--and has the station destroyed. Before the last page reveal, I knew we were in the Mirror Universe, but the smash cut shift is a clever device.

Superman #402: Bates and Swan/Oksner have Daily Planet newcomer, Justin Moore encounters what appears to be a stubble-bearded Superman in an alley, with limited memory and powers, begging for help. Moore helps him avoid the apparent aliens searching for him and hides him in the Superman Museum. Unfortunately, Justin's help is repaid with paranoia, and he soon finds himelf running for his life from a semi-super madman. That is until the real Superman and the aliens, who are really cops from the future, arrive to take the psychiatric patient from that same future with delusions of Superman-hood into custody. The Monitor's satellite makes an appearance as the future folks seek out his help in locating the real Superman.

In the backup story by Bridwell and Boring/Marcos, it's a sort of Freaky Friday where Jor-El wakes up in the body of his adult son on present day Earth, while Kal-El is in his father's body in Krypton of the past, thanks to the machinations of Phantom Zone escapee, Kru-El.

Tales of the Teen Titans #49: The Titans are getting ready for Donna's and Terry's wedding. At least in the framing sequence with art by Perez. Most of the issue deals with Wally and Frances defeating Dr. Light in Central City (which Wolfman tells us is a small, suburban city in the Sunbelt, weirdly) which provides a good place for Infantino to make a guest appearance on pencils. An amusing detail is that Dr. Light never actually sees who defeats him, since Wally is moving too fast, and Frances' powers aren't visible. A brief cameo by the Flash confirms what Wally already suspected: using his super-speed power is killing him and there is no cure. Despite the horrible new, Wally phones to confirm his attendance at the wedding.

Revisiting Skaro

I originally posted these maps in 2018, but I came across them again and thought they were worth re-sharing. For those of you not familiar with Doctor Who lore (it's at least possible somebody reading this isn't!), Skaro is the homeworld of those plunger-armed, shrill-voiced robotic monsters, the Daleks.

According to the map, first appearing in The Dalek Book (1964), Skaro is almost AD&D Outer Plane weird. Check out the named locales here:

Seas of Rust, Ooze, and Acid. The Lake of Mutations. The Radiation Range. All pretty dire stuff. Also, don't miss the note on the giant "serpents" of Darren that are really mutated earthworms!

If that's not enough, subterranean Skaro, is just as weird:

Readings in Planetary Romance: Lost on Venus

Not too long ago, I made the case for Planetary Romance, and particularly its Sword & Planet (sub-)sub-genre, as good fodder for role-playing games, particularly games focused on exploration of the sort come to old school hex and point crawls. I've recently re-read the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs Venus series, Pirates of Venus (1932) and read for the first time its sequel, Lost on Venus (1935). These provide could examples of the Sword & Planet virtues I mentioned.

The Venus series follows the adventures of Carson Napier, young engineer and daredevil, who's launched out in a missile for Mars, but due to faulty calculations, winds up on Venus. Unlike most epic fantasy or even Sword & Sorcery heroes, but like most of his Sword & Planet brethren, these adventures largely come down to him being lost a lot and stumbling onto monsters and weird civilizations.

In Pirates of Venus, he falls in (literally) with the Vepajan loyalists in exile, in a city built high in titanic trees. After learning the language, he gets a job as a tarel gatherer in training, which turns out to be a dangerous line of work, as tarel is the silk of a giant spider. After getting lost in his first outing, he and a friend end up on the ground, where they encounter more hostile wildlife before being taken as slaves by birdmen working for the Vepajan's enemies, the Thorist revolutionaries. 

Taken on board a Thorist vessel, he foments a conspiracy among the other slaves and leads a mutiny to take control of the ship. They briefly turn pirate (or privateer without letters of marquee since they act in Vepaja's interests), until the Vepajan princess Carson is in love with is abducted by Thorists into the wilderness and Carson gets tossed overboard in a storm.

Lost on Venus picks shortly after that, when both Duare (the love interest) and Carson have been captured and taken to a Thorist colonial settlement. There, Carson is placed in a death trap with 7 deadly doors. He escapes though and manages to rescue Duare through a series of the sort of coincidences that Burroughs is famous for. They run into and get lost in the Venusian forest where they have to avoid dangerous animals and cannibals and figure out a way to get food, which involves making a spear and bow and arrows.

Eventually, there's a capture by a mad scientist-type with an army of undead (and another escape), then Carson winds up in an advanced, scientific "utopia," which is really a totalitarian state with an obsession with genetic purity. And then they escape...

If this all sounds rather episodic, well it is--in exactly the way roleplaying games are episodic. The deficits (at least in this regard) these originally serialized stories have as literature are virtues for the table. Finding food and shelter is a concern, too, in a way it might be in a hexcrawl, though the plot armor provided Burroughs' characters ensure none of them starve.

Burroughs' protagonists, and Sword & Planet protagonists in general, are often more reactive than players are or at least often like to be. Things happen to them, or they are forced into a certain course of action. I feel like some of this is broadly acceptable, though there should usually be ways to avoid an encounter by cautious players, and there should always be multiple of ways out of any predicament. 

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1984 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands in the week of September 6, 1984. 

Atari Force #12: Conway/Helfer and Garcia-Lopez/Smith move toward the climax of the arc. Christopher Chance starts his trial on New Earth by condemning the authorities for their foolishness and trying to escape again. Meanwhile, the crew of Scanner One, still dealing with Blackjack's betrayal, are pulled toward the Dark Destroyer's ship in orbit around a planet at the edge of New Earth's system. Escaping via a smaller craft, they land on the planet in secret and discover the Dark Destroyer's horrifying antimatter bomb. They attack the Dark Destroyer's forces, but they're outnumbered, and Blackjack betrays them again. Though defeated, Martin confronts the Dark Destroyer, who removes his helmet to reveal he's Martin Champion, or at least looks like him.

There's a humorous Hukka backup story by Giffen. In the letter column, we're given the news that Garcia-Lopez is leaving the book for the New Teen Titans and Barreto is replacing him.

DC Comics Presents #76: Mishkin/Cohn and Barreto team-up Superman and Wonder Woman. As weird creatures attack a demonstration of new biological research, the heroes spring into action. It turns out the mastermind behind the attacks is a woman raised by the Amazons who now uses their secret of living clay, like the substance from which Wonder Woman was created, to make warriors and monsters that do her bidding. Ultimately, it's revealed she's doing this to seize the scientist's formula as rescue herself from the potentially fatal results of her self-experimentation, but she fails and dissolves to mud in Wonder Woman's arms.

Fury of Firestorm #30: Cavalieri and Kayanan/Tanghal pick up where last issue left off. Mindboggler has Firestorm in her control, but before she can bring him back to Breathtaker, the cops show up and arrest him for his erratic behavior in Central Park. Still out of it, he's beat up in jail, before being picked up for transport to another facility. It turns out, though, that the transport is a fraud, perpetrated by Incognito who has gone rogue to prove himself to Breathtaker. Firestorm escapes after a run-in with a rival gang, but Mindboggler grabs him again and appears to be in total control.

Justice League of America #233: Conway and Patton kick off the Detroit League's debut in the regular title with a story that perhaps emphasizes their new direction: a focus on the characters and their interactions. The spotlight here is mostly on Vibe who is challenged by the Skulls to take a stand in the conflict between their gang and his former gang, El Lobos. Zatanna and Vixen step in to help, but Vibe doesn't appreciate their involvement. When local grandmotherly type Mother Windom fills in the other Leaguers on Vibe's background and the fact that his brother is now leader of El Lobos, they get involved in the turf war, easily ending the conflict--for the moment. Not exactly high stakes superhero action, but in the coda, Crowbar, former leader of the Skulls, is mysteriously transformed by an unknown being calling itself the Overmaster.

Vigilante #13: Kane is still on art, and Wolfman switches things up for a more investigative mystery sort of story, though still with a lot of action. Vigilante sets out to clear a man who appears to have murdered his partner and his partner's wife (with whom he was having an affair) by poisoning, but Vigilante doesn't buy it. In the course of proving the man's innocence, he fights with the guy twice, then causes him to fall from an airplane in a continued scuffle, shoots him, and steals his parachute, leaving his dead body to drop to the ground. But in the end, Vigilante figures out who framed the guy even though he can't tell anybody. Justice!

Wonder Woman #322: Mishkin and Heck/Maygar engage in some patching up of continuity as they bring this arc to a close. Following Eros's assertions last issue, we find out from Hippolyta (and Aphrodite) that the goddess was only able to resurrect Steve Trevor the first time he died by melding him with the power of Eros, which is why Eros now thinks he was Trevor. The manipulation of Diana's memory is revealed, but then Eros goes on a rampage, trying to kill the Steve Trevor, who (this issue reminds us) is the Steve Trevor of an alternate Earth. Anyway, by the end of this issue the current alt-Steve Trevor has the memories of the dead Earth-One Steve Trevor, so all's well, and we can never speak of this all again! Diana, disillusioned by the Hippolyta's manipulation leaves Paradise Island "forever."

In the editorial, we're told that due to sales, Wonder Woman is going bimonthly following this issue. The next issue blurb teases an appearance by the Monitor who, we are told, has been appearing all over the DCU getting ready for his role in something called Crisis: Earth. 

Bigger and Better! A New Random Appendix N Generator

James over at Adventures in Gaming v2 took my throwaway idea from last week and ran with it! Check out his much more comprehensive generator on his blog.

Random Appendix N Campaign Concept Generator

Need a campaign idea or at least a prompt to develop your own? Just roll on the following table based on the AD&D "Appendix N" and fill in the blanks! 

Protagonists like [A] in a setting like [B] with magic like [C].

Roll     Author

1         Poul Anderson

2         Leigh Brackett

3         Lin Carter

4         Edgar Rice Burroughs

5         L. Sprague De Camp

6         De Camp & Pratt

7         Lord Dunsany

8         PJ Farmer

9         Gardner Fox

10       Sterling Lanier

11       Fritz Leiber

12       H.P. Lovecraft

13       Abraham Merritt

14       Michael Moorcock

15       Fred Saberhagen

16       Magaret St. Clair

17       J.R.R. Tolkien

18       Jack Vance

19       Manly Wade Wellman

20       Roger Zelazny

So, I got A=17, B=20, and C=12, which gives me: Protagonists like JRRT, a setting like Zelazny, and magic like H.P. Lovecraft. I'll interpret that this way: There's a tidally locked planet (suggested by Jack of Shadows), where the nightside is dominated by Elder god-horrors with an oppressed human class in a technological realm, and the dayside is a sylvan realm of elves and dwarves, who seek to keep back the encroaching hegemony of the nightside.

One more example: A=4, B=14, C=10. ERB, Moorcock, and Lanier. This is an easy one. A group of "modern" Earth folk find themselves in post-apocalyptic realm of knights and chivalry where psychic powers are viewed as magic.

Give it a try!

Wednesday Comics: Drome

Last week was a big one for graphic novels for me. I picked up four, and two of the three I've finished, I liked a lot. I wrote about The Avengers in the Veracity Trap over on the Flashback Universe blog, but here I wanted to talk about Drome by Jesse Lonergan. 

Drome is a creation myth in a world part Kirby's New Gods and part Metal Hurlant. He draws bits from a lot of different sources, I imagine, including the association of the platonic solids with the classic elements, but much of it echoes events in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

A black, horned, male deity creates humans, and they war upon each other and the beasts of the world until a white, mohawked or crested female deity sends a heavily muscled demi-goddess born of water to subdue the humans, then teach them civilization. Later, a bestial, nature demigod born of Earth becomes the lover of the god-queen. The two must deal with the arrival of a rampaging spirit of fire, then a rebellion of jealous humans who unleash a cosmic bull.

Lonergan's style is integral to the telling of his story. The pages are often broken in equal-sized squares which are just as likely to be a grid imposed on the scene or part of the scene as they are to organize the story spatially or temporally. There is relatively little dialogue, leaving the images to tell most of the story.

I read the story digitally, but I'm considering picking up the hardcover because it's gorgeous and a work I think I will revisit. It's definitely made me want to seek up Lonergan's other work.

It's A Madhouse!

This weekend I got my (first) shipment from Magnetic Press and the Planet of the Apes RPG Kickstarter. The books are gorgeous and the extra swag (including a cloth map of Ape City) is suitably well done. 

The game focuses on the original POTA continuity, not the 21st Century prequel/reboot films. Hopefully there will be a supplement for that in the future, but obviously the original film era is what most people (including myself) really want. Thankfully, the Burton film was likewise ignored.

The game uses the "Magnetic Variant" of West End Game's D6 system: you roll a bunch of six-sided dice and total the result, comparing it to a difficulty. There have been some modernizations and modifications, but having not played a D6 game in years, I'm not sure the extent of them. It does use a wild die to add additional consequences (positive or negative) to the results of a roll giving the "yes/no, and" and "yes/no but" sorts of spread. The Core book covers rules (and gives archetypes) for ape, astro-naut (they always spell it that way), mute, future human, and mutant characters. There's a clever detail where it is suggested (similar to the Cavemaster rpg) that the players of the bestial, future humans attempt to communicate with the other players only by gesture or pantomime, assuming they are in a mixed character types party.

After equipment, the rest of the book is given over to gamemaster (Lawgiver, in this case) stuff: setting info, campaign advice/suggestions, and adversaries/monsters.

Additionally, I got the ANSA Files Sourcebook, which details the era (or eras, really) related to the original film series. Really, the core book gave the essentials, but this book deep dives into the various time periods of each film, gives suggestions for running games in each, and stats prominent NPCs. I don't know that anyone would want to play a Cold War, space race game in an alternate 1970s, but with this supplement, you could!

In addition to the new films, I'd like to see more coverage of the TV show era and the ability to play speaking humans Also, delving into some of the more gonzo aspects of the various comic series would be cool for a supplement, too.

The Planet of the Apes rpg isn't as yet available to non-backers, but Amazon has pre-orders up for January, and I would suspect it becomes available in pdf prior to that.

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on August 23, 1984.

Fury of Firestorm Annual #2: Conway and Arthur Byron Cover do one of those occasional illustrated text piece stories that I almost always find dull (which is the case here). The art by Kayanan and Colon doesn't seem up to their usual standards, so maybe it bored them too? Anyway, Ronnie plays poorly at a game and worries about letting the team down at the next one because he's hallucinating villains all over the place. To make matters worse, some weird alien, exiled by the Guardians of the Universe, has crashed on earth and decides to use Firestorm as a living power plant to get him into space again. The alien is thwarted, and Ronnie shoots the winning buzzer-beater, redeeming himself. The source of the hallucinations turns out to be the emerging psychic powers of the student manager of the team. The story has real Spider-Man vibes, but of the sort of Spider-Man story you might see in other media. 

Action Comics #561: Despite a cover by Barreto promising something with more, well--action, Kupperberg and Schaffenberger /Jensen provide a silly and mostly stakes-free story of the Toyman setting up a fake quiz show so he can trick a childhood rival into revealing what happened to the very first toy the villain made. The second story by Bridwell and Boring is marginally better with a red kryptonite exposure splitting two Supermen from Clark Kent: one, a Superman of the future with "future powers" and an eight-year-old Superboy from 1963. 

It's not like there haven't been stories done in a more modern storytelling vein or arcs with truly dangerous villains, but we keep coming back to this sort of continuity-free, low action material like it's still the Silver Age. I suspect the blame lies with Schwartz in the editor's seat.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #25: Kupperberg and Sherman-Tereno/Rodriquez open with Arion lost in the Darkworld with no way home after the defeat of Garn Danuuth. Guided by his father, he begins searching through the everchanging landscape for the Nexus, the one place where he might escape. He encounters some alien beings likewise trapped, and they become traveling companions for a time, but they encounter only violence and hardship. Eventually, Arion finds himself at the Nexus. Its elderly guardian demands Arion fight him to the death. Only one of them may leave Darkworld. Arion rejects all the violence and refuses to fight the old man. In being willing to be sacrificed, he frees both himself and the old alien, and they return home.

While the solution to Arion's conundrum was fairly obvious, I thought, this sojourn into Darkworld was a nice change of pace. 

All-Star Squadron #39: I owned this issue as a kid. Any new hero appearance was interesting to me, and I was unaware of Amazing Man prior to this. Thomas and Hoberg/Collins follow-up the events of last issue as a group of All-Stars arrive in Detroit to find Amazing Man. They encounter more racism than they expected and a Phantom Empire (Klan stand-in) rally attempting to drum up support for stopping black migrants to the city from getting housing. In a clash, Amazing Man is defeated by the masked Real American, who is somehow able to drain his powers. Trying to serve the law rather than justice, the All-Stars are spurned by both sides in the conflict. Meanwhile, in Washington, Green Lantern and Hawkman fail to persuade President Roosevelt to lend a hand, so they decide to fly off to aid their comrades.

Detective Comics #544: Nocturna is forced to attack the Thief of Night to save Batman's life, but the Thief gets away. She reveals she knows Batman's secret identity and again suggests they marry and be parents to Jason. Otherwise, she'll keep his secret, but she will still compete with Bruce for custody. Batman is so enchanted by her that he just has to get away rather than give an answer. The trail of the Thief is a dead end, but Batman has better luck pressuring the recently released hitman that tried to kill Bullock. The assassin reveals he's a member of Fang's crew doing the bidding of Mayor Hill. Convinced Hill is also responsible for Bruce's legal troubles, Batman vows to take the Mayor down. Meanwhile, Nocturna turns up the charm on Jason, too.

Omega Men Annual #1: Moench again leans into his very science fantasy interpretation of the Omega Men, as he and Niño/Smith revisit the situation with Harpis' missing wings. They fly through space (telekinetically, not by flapping, if that matters) chased by Hokum and the Citadel and Harpis. The other Omega Men are chasing after her. They come to the planet Sindromeda where a long-ago accident has created a hellworld and a psychically empowered monster. Confronting her on past, and with the help of a balloon-like grafalloon, Harpis reclaims her wings, but refuses to kill the creature that had usurped them. Whether this controversial-among-her-fellows decision leads to good or ill in the future is purposely left unrevealed.

Sun Devils #5: Rik and Anomie are not quite as dead as it appeared last issue, but they are still captured trying to escape. Their friends eventually come to the rescue but not before we get some of Scylla's backstory--and the revelation that there's a traitor among the Sun Devils. Rik and crew have to get themselves out of harsh interrogation by the sauroids, but it comes at the cost of Shikon's arm.

Super Powers #5: Kirby takes the reigns for this final issue, and the art gets a bit better, but unfortunately Theakston's inks smother a lot of Kirby's detail, so it doesn't look all that great. Despite the failures of Darkseid's emissaries, his invasion of Earth commences, but Metron joins in on the side of the heroes. The seed of Apokolips' armies defeat are in the powers given to Earth's villains. Anyway, I guess this helped sell toys. It was also probably a lot of kids' first introduction to Kirby.

Tales of the Legion #317: Newell works from a plot by Levitz/Giffen as Wildfire finds himself again in the Dream Dimension with the two Invisible Kids. Invisible Kid II has figured something out about these strange evens and reveals that Lyle Norg is actually a demon looking to trap them. The two manage to trick the creature and escape.

In the backup by Levitz/Newell and Tuska/Kesel, the other Heroes of Lallor conspire to help Duplicate Boy regain his confidence and his powers as he mops over Shrinking Violet dumping him.

World's Finest Comics #309: Busiek and a journeyman Texiera with inks by Alcala have Superman made the trustee of wealthy businessman Raymond Arnau's estate. Since Arnau appears to have been murdered, the selection of Superman seems particular significant, so he asks Batman to help him investigate. After some investigative work, the two heroes discover that Arnau's former partner Crane is wearing a powered suit and running a criminal operation as Quantum--and he murdered Arnau when he found out. As seems to happen a lot these days, Quantum's suit is able to emit Kryptonite radiation, but Batman is able to take out the villain while he's gloating. 

A Few More Words from the Wyvern's Prophet

Work in progress from Jason

While we're awaiting the technically still awaiting the announcement of the winners of the Appx. N Jam, I've been thinking about what's next for my project. Specifically, I'd like to do an expanded to include things I just could fit into 4 pages.

This will include things like more GM guidance for how to run the factions, particularly once their "balance" has been disrupted by the PCs arrival, and some additional encounters including a chance to visit the accumulator core of the installation and learn the strange fate of Dhu Rojat, former keeper.

Best of all though, it means more art from Jason Sholtis.

This won't be massive expansion. It's still intended to be a minor adventure. A side encounter in a hexcrawl, perhaps. Hopefully, though, this version will improve upon the basic concept. I'm probably bring it to drivethru as a pay what you want.

Cover Design

 I have been recently thinking about adding a page on the blog with a complete listing of my rpg related works including both things I have written and things for which I did some graphic design. Easily, some of my best collaborations in this regard have been with Jason Sholtis.

I'm particularly proud of the alternate covers I did for Completely Unfathomable, though I wasn't directly involved with the final decisions and preparation for print, and with the rush to get the project over the finishline, they maybe didn't turn out as well as they might have.

The one that was used for the final cover was this one with refer to as the "blacklight cover." It isn't blacklight, really, but I colored Jason's art in that garish sort of way to look like it might be.

Originally, we had designed it to use the logo I had made for the original Operation Unfathomable, but on seeing the final mockup Jason was gracious enough to let me quickly do another one I thought would fit the image better.

I had originally designed other covers for the various editions of the book, in the end I believe they just went with the one and the others were just given as extras? Anyway, my favorite of all of them was the faux bubble card wrapper cover:

Recently, Jason and I collaborated again on a cover for my Appx. N Jam submission. He held off his usual grayscale shading to make it easier for me to color. I added some texture in the background I hoped support his great image. The logo hand-drawn (or handconstructed digitally really) based on the title text of the Ace Double edition of People of the Lens by Leigh Brackett was actually the first thing done. Jason and I worked out the cover layout in discussion and then he drew the image.

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 1984 (week 3)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on August 16, 1984.

Legion of Super-Heroes #4: The plan of the Legion of Super-Villains is revealed as they cause Orando to be transported to another universe.  While the Legionnaires back in the main universe are at a loss, Light Lass escapes, regaining her lightning powers once more, and frees her captured comrades. In a life-or-death combat with Nemesis Kid, Karate Kid is pushed to his limited, but assistance from Projectra allows him to destroy the villain's plant-moving device--but at the cost of his life. Intense action from Levitz/Giffen and Lightle/Mahlstedt!

Batman and the Outsiders #15: Von Eeden steps in for art duties as Batman and the Outsiders are challenged to a duel against Maxie Zeus and his New Olympians during the 1984 Summer Olympics. Each of the Outsiders is paired off against a different New Olympian for a specified contest, but ultimately it turns to one-on-on combat where the Outsiders are victorious. In the meantime, Batman learns what Maxie is after: all this was so Zeus could provide his daughter, Medea, with a mother figure. He just intended to do it by kidnapping an Olympic athlete. When the truth is revealed, Lacinia agrees to take care of Medea, and Zeus is willingly taken to the authorities.

Blue Devil #6: This is done-in-one that keeps up the humorous tone but doesn't really deal with the ongoing story elements, other than Dan Cassidy getting used to his condition. On the planet Maldor, two ne'er-do-well aliens, Jorji and Lehni (get it?), are running from the robot cops and accidentally go through a transport portal to Earth. There, they mistake Blue Devil for a cop, and get into a brawl at a studio party, until the robot cops arrive and they have to join forces. The Cullins/Colon pairing on art for some reason doesn't work as well in the first few pages, but mid-issue they hit their stride.

Green Lantern #182: In the wake of Hal's resignation from the Corps, he visits the grave of Abin Sur (providing a chance to recap his origin). Meanwhile, the Guardians have no choice but to select a new Green Lantern. It's just in time, too, because Major Disaster attacks a dam, demanding a rematch with Green Lantern. He's angered and confused, and Hal is shocked, when John Stewart arrives as Earth's new protector.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Cavalieri and Kevin O'Neil we go to the planet Grenda, where Yron is critical of the planet's fallen Green Lantern, Stel, and when the Krydos invade, also its new protector from another world. Yron thinks he could do it better, so he attacks the Lantern and demands the guy take him to Oa. Surprisingly, Yron's tactics work, and soon he's a new Green Lantern! However, when it uses his power in an attempt to save his people, he winds up harming them. This story is really made interesting by O'Neil's art that brings a 2000AD vibe to it.

Infinity, Inc. #8: We're still seeing everything the JSA members gone ruthless are doing, and the Infinitors and other Society members being unable to stop them. Green Lantern takes over the world's broadcasting airways. The Atom fights Nuklon at a nuclear reactor, and the kid loses and is apparently killed. Wonder Woman slaps around her own offspring as well as Hawkman's son before taking Steve Trevor to Paradise Island to save his life. Meanwhile, Dr. Mid-Nite and Shiera Hall search for the Ultra-Humanite, and Ultra makes a call to the Monitor.

New Talent Showcase #11: Well, there are fewer superhero stories this issue and some early (and amateurish) work by some artists that will be well known in a few years. The first of those is Tom Grindberg who is with Newell on a story of a disabled Native American(ish) boy who overcomes his disability and the prejudice of his tribe to become a great warrior after he befriends the horse of his dreams (literally): a black beauty he names Night Mare. 

The next story is a very 80s tale of a low intellectual functioning Vietnam vet who snaps and goes on a rampage after an ambitious journalist wrongly accuses him of having killed a child. It's got art by Breyfogle, but he hasn't developed his distinctive style yet. Then there's a comedic (I guess) detective piece by Timmons and Schwartz that I couldn't get into enough to tell you what happened. There's Nick O'Tyme (again). Finally, we get the follow-up to last issue's superhero story "Still Only Human," which is just as amateurish as last installment. 

Saga of Swamp Thing #30: Moore and Bissette/Alcala continue a slow build with Arcane taking time to explain to Abbie how he came to be in possession of Matt's body and Matt's reality manipulation power. Then he taunts the Swamp Thing and leads him to Abbie--who is now dead.

The most interesting thing about this story is how tied to the DCU it is. The Monitor makes an appearance. Arcane's magical power level is compared to that of the Spectre or Trigon. The Joker even gets a cameo. 

Sgt. Rock #394: In the main story, Rock and Easy get through a remarkable day without anybody dying, including any of the Germans they are in conflict with, despite Worry Wort being sure his number is up. The other stories are a short about pilot who is convinced he's got gremlins, and a tale set in ancient Rome where a group of rebellious gladiators see how a cruel Emperor likes risk his life in the arena in front of a fickle crowd.

Warlord #87: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and friends face difficulties taking the captured Qlov back to the Sky City when they are pursued by a Qlov vessel. They are rescued by the timely arrival of the flying city of D'roz.

Thriller #12: DuBay/Niño sort of rally here at the end, I think, as things wrap up better than I might have expected from the last couple of issues. Or Dubay does. I don't know what's going on with Niño's art here, but it is just not up to his usual standards. Anyway, Lusk and friends are provoking a nuclear war to actually bring about the enlightenment of humankind and Angie seems to be helping them. There's a race against time element as the Seven Seconds work to stop things--and appear to make the bad decision to launch the U.S.'s missiles. Only they don't, because Angie has a plan and has been working Lusk. As the story closes, everyone is hopeful for a world with nuclear disarmament. 

While it's easy to criticize this rump half of the series, the truth is the first half was kind of rough, too. Thriller was always better in conception than execution. Whether with time and a sympathetic editor it could have become something great or whether Fleming's and von Eeden's reach had exceeded their grasp, we'll never know.