Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1983 (week 1)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of November 3, 1983. 

Atari Force #2: After how good the first episode was, I suppose it's natural the second might be a bit of a letdown. We're still "getting the band together," so we check in on Pakrat and Babe who pretty much repeat their story beats from last issue. Tempest faces prejudice from his (former) girlfriend and her father due to his mutant powers. Morphea has a chat with Martin Champion, who we find out is viewed as a bit of a kook because he believes there's an evil force behind the strife and conflict in this part of the galaxy (spoiler: he's right). The real spotlight here is on Dart, though. She and Blackjack have taken up with the rebels after their former employer burned them, but she winds up having to go one-on-one against Warbeast, a creature sent by the Dark Destroyer. 

DC Comics Presents #66: Wein and Kubert bring in Etrigan the Demon for his last appearance before Moore gets ahold of him in Swamp Thing. And there's an interesting thing: Etrigan rhymes here. I had always thought that was a Moore invention, as it wasn't an original attribute of the character, but no, Wein does it first. Anyway, Prof. Lang unveils an ancient, wooden statue of a Druid at an event, but it turns out that it isn't a statue but the actual evil druid, Blackbriar Thorn, who was turned to wood for his crimes. He comes to life thanks to astrological conditions, and Superman and the Demon must do battle against his sorcery. He's defeated through cleverness as Superman lifts the group he is standing on, severing his connection with his elemental powerbase, and throws him into space.

Kubert is an unusual choice for the Demon or Superman, but he draws a great wooden druid. What this issue most makes me think about is the real lack of rigorous formula for inclusion in the Who's Who, at least around the edges, as Blackbriar Thorn (1 appearance) gets an entry while Black Eagle (strip headliner with 6 appearances!) did not. I suspect the fact that Wein was editor of Who's Who had something to do with it. 

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #10: Dark Opal is seeking fragments of various houses gems so he can usurp their magical power. He doesn't have them all yet but next on his list is amethyst. There is an amethyst gem fragment in his domain thanks to Granch, but Opal hasn't found it yet and Amethyst and friends want to retrieve it. Topaz goes to convince his sister to join the rebellion while Amethyst and Princess Emerald face Carnelian.

Blackhawk #267: The death of Blackhawk's doppelganger provides ad opportunity. He hatches a plan (with Churchill's blessing) to let the world believe he has died, then infiltrate Germany pretending to be the doppelganger, Agent Schoener, and kill Hitler. Beyond that, a lot of the issue is given over to exploring the Blackhawks' attitudes toward Germans. They tell us several times that the German people are fundamentally different from other nations, and that Hitler has them utterly in thrall. Blackhawk's assumptions are challenged when he meets and falls for a waitress in a German restaurant. She happens to be a "Helga," having the same first name as Domino. All of this is fine but poorly integrated thematically, I feel like, with the main story, involving Blackhawk's failed assassination attempt and swift escape. Still, I appreciate the depth Evanier and Spiegle are trying to give the title.

Fury of Firestorm #20: Conway and Kayanan/Rodriquez are mostly doing setup this issue. Firehawk (Lorraine Reilly) and Firestorm start their relationship, much to the discomfort of Martin. On the plus side for him, he gets his job back, though maybe it isn't so much of a plus since it's due to the machinations of whatever shady entity his ex-wife is working with. Then, Killer Frost escapes prison, kills a few people and comes for Stein. 

Justice League of America #223: Months back, I said Conway's work on the JLA was underappreciated, and I stand by that, but this arc has been a counter-argument. Conway and Patton/Tanghal bring the Beast Men storyline to an end, and I'm not sorry to see it go. Given the number of heavy-hitters on the JLA, it stretches credulity that Maximus Rex and his cronies get the better of them at every turn, yet they do. Somehow Dr. Lovecraft is aware of Superman's power loss under a red sun and exploits it. Somehow, he knows Firestorm will get a power drain if he tries to use his power against organic material, and he exploits that, too. While the League takes out some of the Beast Men, it is Reena that does battle with Rex, and in the end, it's their continuing mutation into pure animal forms that dooms them, not the League's actions.

Wonder Woman #312: Mishkin and Heck continue the gremlin storyline, and we learn some of the history of the alien species. It turns out the bigger aliens from last issue are really just replicas used by the gremlins to throw off suspicion. Anyway, they agree to return Wonder Woman's invisible jet, but Wonder Woman and Trevor manage to make off with the robot plane too before the gremlins' ship returns to the stars. Meanwhile, Circe gets ahold of Major Griggs.

In the Cavalieri and Speigle Huntress backup, Nedra Borrower and Terry Marsh have stirred up public animosity toward the Huntress. It's so bad that the cliffhanger ending sees the Huntress in the grip of an angry mob. We also learn that Marsh is in the employ of Earthworm, and his moves against the Huntress are to get her out of the way to help Earthworm's baby-selling ring.

Vigilante #3: Wolfman and Pollard/Marcos figure having a guest star from the popular New Teen Titans can't hurt. Vigilante is chasing Cyborg and an organized crime figure, Stryker, through a forest with the intent to kill Stryker who was only found guilty of a firearm possession charge due to a "technicality." Cyborg is trying to get the guy to prison alive. There is a lot of back and worth about Vigilante's philosophy and he (multiple times) justifies killing the guy, but when he gets the change, he can't do it. When Stryker kills somebody and takes a hostage, Vigilante kills him. Vigilante's ideas about exactly what the parameters of his mission are seem to be evolving; he certainly is willing to kill, if necessary, but he isn't an executioner. We also get an indication that some shadowy organization trained him, which was something I had wondered about. Chase also mentions that "somehow" he got years of training in months, which lampshades why he's suddenly so formidable, but I wonder if that's ever really addressed?

Kiss of Blood (part 1)

 We had our first session of They Came From Beyond the Grave! last night adapting the Call of Cthulhu adventure, Kiss of Blood.

The cast:

• Tony Kovac - San Francisco cop whose vacation in the Old Country is anything but relaxing. (Jason).
• Jess Barrow - Half of the occult folk-rock duo, Fata Morgana, gifted with second sight. (Andrea)
• Dean Starkey - The other half of Fata Morgana. A guy used to gettin by on his wits.

The three Americans arrived in Karloczig, Wystdovja Vale, (in Slovenia, on the Adriatic) for different reasons. Kovac was going to get a vacation and help local cops out on a case as a favor for a friend. Dean and Jess had been booked to play the local festival around Walpurgis Night. None of them imagined they'd wind up working together to find a missing girl. Well, the players did, the characters, not so much.

While Kovac discovered Inspektor Hochmair wasn't exactly overjoyed to have his help. Jess and Dean met Gustav Homan, the father of the missing girl, Matilda. They also heard that there were a lot of disappearances around the village of Karloczig, but the local Burgomeister doesn't take them seriously. There are legends about the castle Heidenstein up on the hill. It's cursed, it's said.

That night at the festival, Jess sees an eerie, mysterious woman, perhaps watching her, but the woman disappears before she can point her out to Dean.

After a night of attempting to out-drink Hochmair, Kovac is awakened early by a knock on his hotel room door. There's been a body found. Hochmair takes him to the office of the coroner (and doctor) von Kluge. The woman is young and brunette, but she isn't Matilda, but someone from out of town. She has been mutilated, as if by some animal, her throat ravaged and her body partially exsanguinated.

They Came From Beyond the Grave!

This weekend, in the spirit of Halloween, I plan to run a one shot (well, probably two shot before it's over with) of the Onyx Path game They Came From Beyond the Grave! It's part of their series of They Came From games, each made to sort of emulate some cinematic genre from 50s to monster movies, to Italian Sword and Sandals pictures, to (in this case) 60-70s horror films of the Hammer, Amicus, or AIP variety.

All these games use the Storypath system which is basically a descendant of the old White Wolf d10 dice pool system, but lighter and with some mildly narrative mechanics, like Rewrites which players can use to change the results of bad rolls or get a bit of narrative control. One of the things Rewrites can be spent on (though this is an optional rule) are Cinematic Powers which imbue the game world with the elements of the low budget films it's emulating. For instance, there's Dangerous Liaison wherein a player can pay for an awkwardly inserted scene (utterly free of danger!) to romance an NPC.

Players have other, less game-reality bending extras to employ like Tropes, Trademarks, and Quips that lend bonuses in specific situations. In fact, if I have any criticism, it's that the system is perhaps a little overstuffed with options for an otherwise "at the light end of rules medium" game.

Anyway, I plan to run to run Cthulhu Dreadfuls Presents #1 - Kiss of Blood, which is a very Hammer Horror flavored scenario. It seems easy enough to adapt.

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on the newsstand on October 27, 1983.

New Adventures of Superboy #49: Nice Kane cover. Kupperberg and Schaffenberger have Clark and Lisa go on a date to see a Smallville performance by Zatara. When the magician's magic accidently opens a portal allowing the barbarian warrior, Turlock the Berserker, to invade Earth, Superboy's and Zatara's powers combined aren't enough to stop him. Luckily, Johnny Webber, the former Dyna-Mind, has genuinely reformed and surreptitiously renders aid.

In the Dial H backup, Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Giacoia reach the end of this arc and with it the entire series. The Master remains confused as to his goal in all of this, and our heroes can't help him. When the Wizard that created their dials shows up, he merges with the Master, and it turns out they were actually two parts of Robbie Reed, the original Hero Dialer from the 60s. He tells the kids how he got split and how he lost his original dial. Thanking the kids for their good deeds, he decides wisely to retire from hero-ing and gives his dial to Nick. The Dial H kids get one last appearance in Crisis.

Ronin #4: Miller really takes his time with this one. It looks good but not a lot happens. In one half of the story, the Ronin gets around (eventually) to rescuing Casey from an underground cannibalistic tribe. In the other, where things happen at a bit of a quicker pace, Peter McKenna, concerned about Aquarius' move into weapons manufacture, comes to believe Taggart isn't himself. That's true, but McKenna is unprepared when he discovers the truth about what's behind Taggart's sudden personality changes.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #15: Picking up where last issue left off, Mara attacks Chaon with predicable results. The god of Chaos gloats for a little while, but then Chian senses the danger and comes to Arion's aid too. She rescues Arion from the sewers, but Chaon (disguised as the priest Trykhun) slaps a spell on Mara so she can't say anything. He urges Arion and Chian to go back to the sewers. They fight a gang of mutant folks of some sort then reach something called the Flame of Hjerta.  Chaon tricks Arion into thinking Chian is dead to goad him into attacking. Somehow, if Arion strikes him, he'll achieve victory and be able to destroy existence, but this isn't clear to me. Anyway, thanks to Mara's ingenuity in discovering she has telepathy (not just in animal form) and her persistence, Arion gets wise to Chaon's plan, and instead strikes the Flame, ending Chaon's threat for now.

Action Comics #551: Kane is on art and Wolfman is back as the writer. With him, the simmering Vandal Savage storyline gets mentioned again, but it's mostly it's just background. Two children are going to die without an experimental medication from the Soviet Union, but the supply is being held up due to an attack by Afghan militants. Superman races to get the drug in time but is held up by emergencies around the globe. 

All-Star Squadron #29: The Shining Knight has just finished a sortie against German raiders over Britain when he gets a request to assemble with all the All-Stars back in America. Pondering whether to leave his native Britain, he tells Churchill of an adventure he had with the Seven Soldiers of Victory, which is essentially a retelling and expansion of Leading Comics #3, where all Seven Soldiers get a solo mission in Golden Age team comics fashion.

Detective Comics #534: Moench and Colon/Alcala continue the story from this month's Batman. The captured Dr. Lignier refuses to give up anything to the police, and Jason doing his own investigation can't turn up Ivy's location. When the Wayne Foundation execs that visited Exotica get up and walk out of the office though, the situation gets more urgent. Ivy calls them to her, and her plants and machines steal their brainwaves to create more of those plant men. 

Batman figures out the fire was ruse, and Ivy is still at the site of her "old" Crime Alley hideout, just underground. He and Jason go there, but Ivy throws a vine rope around Jason's neck and Batman has to fight the plant men. It's Jason that saves the day by turning the tables on Ivy and getting the garrot around her neck and forcing her to call off her minions. Later, with Ivy in custody, Batman announces Jason is ready to be his partner, and they humorously discuss possible codenames.

In the Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and Patton/McManus, the Werewolves of London motorcycle gang make off with the black box everybody's after, and The Detonator also escapes. Green Arrow gets a captured gang member to tell him where they're holed up. When he goes to the Werewolves' hideout, another of their crew gets the jump on him before he can do anything.

Jonah Hex #80: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga pick up where last issue left off. Hart rescues Jonah but the arrival of the sheriff means Hex has to do his recovering in jail. Hart agrees to go retrieve the letter which will exonerate Hex--though not from this most recent false charge--but he's captured by Turnbull's men who also want the letter. Emmy Lou (dressed like a "Sexy, Native American Princess" Halloween costume) is at the jail at the same time Mei Ling visits making things awkward. Man of Two Bloods shows up that night and busts Hex out of jail. Meanwhile, Hart has escaped the goons, but Turnbull is off to get the letter.

Hex and Turnbull have a confrontation at the place the letter is hidden. It ends up with Turnbull getting rattlesnake bit. Dying, he still aims a pistol for Hex's back...

World's Finest Comics #299: The intriguing cover only barely has any connection to the interior. I have to hand it to Kraft here: This story is a really modern-seeming condemnation of colonialism for something from 1983. Superman and Batman (still tense with each other over the Markovia incident) follow Zeta into the tree. Zeta, still pondering his place in the cosmos, plans to send them to two different places where they will be individually tested. They agree.

Batman meets the aliens at the top of the Cosmic Tree who tell him that their world is in danger of over-population. The Cosmic Tree is a portal to other worlds that they use to seek out new colonies for their people. They claim their enemies at the bottom of the Tree are impatient with the pace of things and want to commit genocide on Earth to hasten colonization. Superman arrives at the bottom of the Cosmic Tree, and he meets a group called the Sensitives who can see through time. They claim that the aliens at the top of the tree are dooming their race by preventing them from colonizing new worlds. Superman is lied to by the "Present" who was creator of the Pantheon. 

In the end, the problem is communication. Both sides of this struggle have stopped talking. However, both plan to exploit the Earth and destroy humanity. It's only the timeframe and means they are arguing about. We are told their society is nothing but consumers who produce nothing,

Batman and Superman manage to trick the aliens, allowing Superman to get back to Earth where he can stop Mu of the Pantheon from executing his plan. But the portal closes and Batman seems trapped on the alien world.

A 10th Azurthversary

This week marks the 10th anniversary of our Land of Azurth campaign using 5e. While nothing's for certain, I suspect we will "finish" in this year as the big conflict with the Wizard of Azurth that simmered in the background for several years and finally boiled over the last two will come to a conclusion.

I wrote a post on the last anniversary which felt necessary not only because nine years is a nice run (though it is), but because we had faced adversity due to the pandemic and the loss of two members of our group--Eric due to burnout on tele-anything and Jim to cancer--and I felt like our perseverance needed to be commemorated. 

I don't want to just repeat what I said there, so I won't. Instead, I will say that 10 years of a an elfgame with a group of friends which now includes a new addition, Kathy, who plays the Mortzengersturm pregen, Zabra, gives me completely different insights and perspective on gaming than my nearly 15 years of blogging or the latest wisdom dropped on social media. 

Games are a social activity. While rpgs are fun to theorize, write, or argue about, the real alchemy comes in the playing of them. And, for me at least, the playing of them not mainly in pickup games with strangers, though I don't discount the fun in that, but with the same crew, repeatedly.

Thanks to Andrea, Bob, Gina, Kathy, and Tug, for still being here, and to Eric and Jim who came most of the way. Azurth wouldn't be the same without you. 

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on newsstands around October 20, 1983.

Thriller #3: Scabbard wants the President of the U.S. dead, and he's coercing Salvo to do it by kidnapping his mother and putting a bomb under her skin. Scabbard's holding a train on the LA-New York route hostage unless the President surrenders himself. He also wants Dan Grove to join him on the train for some reason. Dan isn't thrilled about this, but the team isn't giving him much choice, and a visit to Beaker's confessional where he revisits his father's death helps a bit. Meanwhile, Proxy is already on the train in disguise, and the rest of the Seven Seconds prepare to go into action.

Power Lords #2: Fleisher and Texiera/Dee continue the story from last issue, and we discover that Arkus's blast didn't destroy Adam and Shaya, it merely sent them to the Dimension of Doom where they will be imprisoned forever. There, they meet the boastful, orange, sauroid Sydot who knows of a way out through an interdimensional cavern guarded by monsters. They make it out, but all this battling has drained Adam's power gem, so they go looking for a means of recharge. They try the Toranian power crystal, as one does, but it has been destroyed by Arkus. They have no choice but to seek the Wellspring in a distant dimension. After some trippy scenery, they arrive at the place. There's a guardian that resembles a golden, child buddha. The Extraterrestrial Alliance is also there, and a fight breaks out. When the fight is over, the villains are revealed as illusions. The guardian reveals the power was in Adam all along. Our heroes fly out to confront the villains in the final issue.

Batman and the Outsiders #6: Barr and Aparo start this one off with the Outsiders settling into their civilian lives in Gotham: Halo starting school, Katana and Black Lightning starting jobs, and Geo-Force and Metamorpho visiting Dr. Jace in the hospital. Then, there's an attack by a new villain, the Cryonic Man, who tries to steal an artificial kidney that's supposed to go to a young girl who is a patient at the hospital. While the Cryonic Man talks to his family who seem to have been in suspended animation for decades, the Outsiders lay a trap for him. He takes the bait, and it leads to a fight on a Gotham City highway. In the end, the Cryonic Man takes Katana hostage and manages to freeze the rest of the team in liquid nitrogen.

Green Lantern #172: The new creative team of Wein and Gibbons take over, and they waste no time dispensing with the detritus of the old storyline. Jordan flies up to Oa, greets his friends, and has his hearing in front of the Guardians. They allow him to return to Earth, and he gets back in time to reunite with Carol and manage to fight some earthly crime. The spaceship he bought and has been traveling in for several issues is never mentioned, and poor old Dorine who has been his companion for the last few stories is only mentioned in a line of dialogue (telling us Hal dropped her off on her homeworld).

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Klein and Gibbons, a professional scavenger Metalfinder on a distant world finds an unconscious Green Lantern, the Green Man, and salvages his ring and power battery. When the Green Man wakes up, he tries to warn the villagers about the threat from the Spider Guild, they but won't return his stuff. When the Spider Guild does arrive, he suggests they can keep the metals from the ship if they help him, and they agree. The plan works and the village is now metal-rich, but the Metalfinder is now out of a job and about to leave town! He asks Green Man to take away the riches of the other villagers so he can be their supplier again, but the Green Lantern refuses.

Legion of Super-Heroes #307: Levitz and Giffen/Mahlstedt begin the teasing reveal of a new menace. A group of Legionnaires investigating a destroyed planetoid encounter and are forced to flee from something so powerful they namecheck Darkseid in categorizing it. Meanwhile, Elemental Lad can't believe he was elected chairman. With another group of Legionnaires on a difficult diplomatic mission to Khund, we find out Saturn Girl is pregnant. The mission is interrupted by the arrival of the menace to Khundia. The Legionnaires hear the Prophet proclaim Khundia's coming destruction!

The story juggles a lot of characters, action, and character bits nicely. It's a bit exhausting in this era of decompression, but I think I like this approach a bit better in some ways than the Claremont/X-Men style of handling big casts. Giffen's art here straddles his Kirby-influenced past and the simplification and packed grid layouts that are coming, showing both styles.

Sgt. Rock #384: The main story by Kanigher/Redondo has Easy in Sicily where they encounter a fatalistic old farmer and his recalcitrant mule. After a firefight in a cemetery, the paisano has a change of heart and goes off to join the partisans. 

For the first time (at least that I've noticed), the other two stories are reprints. Friedrich and Thorne present a story about war in the trenches not ending just because there's an armistice from Our Army at War #227 (1971). Glanzman clues us in to how liberties work on WWII era naval vessels in a piece from Our Fighting Forces #138 (1972).

Supergirl #15: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner reveal Blackstarr's origin, and sure enough she is Mrs. Berkowitz's daughter who got separated at Aushwitz. She came to feel abandoned by her mother and when taken in by the camp commandant and his wife, begins to identify with their ideology and view her own people as weak. She kidnaps Berkowtiz, trying to decide whether to kill her. Supergirl intervenes and their fight that takes them to the center of the universe. When Blackstar manipulates gravity around her to reduce Supergirl to atoms, Supergirl rushes towards her. The overwhelming gravitation draws close two black holes which rip Blackstarr apart. Supergirl returns to visit Berkowitz, and wordlessly shares with her a sad smile before flying off. Ultimately, this arc seems to have abandoned its themes (such as they were) for a superhero fight.

Swamp Thing #20: This is Alan Moore's first issue as writer of this title, and he's joined by artists Day and Totleben. I don't think this issue was included in the original, first trade paperback of Moore's run, and there's a reason. As the title suggests it's tying up "Loose Ends" rather quickly. After defeating Arcane, Sunderland Corporation comes for Swamp Thing and his allies. Liz and Dennis, whose relationship seems to be over just as it seems to have been starting, luckily escape a bomb left in a motel room for them and are forced to go on the run. Abigail is like Liz, disenchanted with her partner, though perhaps for better reasons. Matt is drinking still, but his broadcast hallucinations/demons appear to be better. Perhaps they are just under his control. Swamp Thing spends a lot of the issue brooding about his place in the world before he is shot dead (apparently) by Sunderland goons.

Warlord #77: I covered the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, some unknown technological power is notified of the re-activated battleship Jinal found last issue. She's barely had time to show off a few of its wonders, before someone takes remote control and causes it to be destroyed. Jinal and friends decide to seek out this hidden power.

New Talent Showcase #1: This is an anthology book to (as the title says) showcase "new" talent. I'm not sure if the talent was responsible for the creation of the characters as well as the stories, but it's interesting that there are no straight-up superheroes among them. The first, "Forever Amber" by Margopoulos and Woch/Maygar, tells the sort of origin of a biracial young woman in Southeast Asia who gets powers from Kali after a gem she stole from a Dacoits Temple becomes embedded in her palm. She plans to find and confront her American father who she believes abandoned her mother and her.

Skydogs by Kellog and Mandrake is a swashbuckling romp with the twist that the titular rogues have a ship, Moonjammer, that flies via a balloon (I think). Hawke and his mate Ndemba find themselves embroiled in magical doings after the rescue (I guess) of a princess of India. "Rock of Ages" is a oneshot involving a timeloop by Tod Smith. Klein and Scott Hampton present their sci-fi Class of 2064 strip. A virus is stolen from a lab on Mars. Later, a group of high school kids are traveling to Earth on a school trip, and Pern meets a young girl who is secretly carrying the virus with her.

Weird Revisited: Middle-Earth in Blacklight

I've been thinking about this sort of material again, recently. The original version of this post appeared in 2021...

It's well known that hippies were into Tolkien's work. Some of its themes appealed to them, certainly, but like with Lee and Ditko's Dr. Strange comics, there was also the idea that the works might somehow be drug-influenced. The author, it was assumed, might be taking the same trip as them. This was, of course, a false belief, but it was one that existed.

I this appreciation of Tolkien filtered through 60s countercultural and mixed with the prevalent cultural representations of fairytale fantasy led to a subgenre or aesthetic movement within fantasy, most prevalent in the late 70s and early 80s, before D&D derived fantasy came to ascendancy. While this subgenre likely finds expression in literature and even music to a degree, I think it is most recognizable and definable in visual media. It's evident in works like Bakshi's film Wizards and the Marvel comic Weirdworld (both in 1977), and in the Wizard World sequences (starting in 1979) of Mike Grell's Warlord. Elfquest (1978) shows the influence to a degree. Bodē's Cheech Wizard (1966) and Wally Wood's Wizard King (introduced 1968 but significantly presented in 1978) are either the oldest examples or its direct progenitors.

Essentially, the subgenre eschews the serious world-building of LotR for a more drug-influenced riff on The Hobbit, often with greater use of anachronism, camp, and sexiness, and often with a degree of psychedelia. Beyond the Tolkien influence, these works tend to share a number of common features:  a "traditional" visualization of elves and dwarfs as "little people," arising in folklore and classic illustration, but coming more directly from Disney animation and the fairytale comics of Walt Kelly; the influence of Denslow's Oz illustrations or the design aesthetic of The Wizard of Oz (1939); absurdism and humor borrowed from underground comics and Warner Brothers cartoons; unreal landscapes and visually alien settings informed by Sword & Sorcery and science fiction comics rather than historical or mythic sources of Tolkien.

Given they were contemporaries, D&D shows some in influence from these sources, primarily in its early art and occasionally humorous tone. But as a game that arose from wargaming there was always a thread of verisimilitude or equipment fixation that runs counter to this freewheeling psychedelic adventure vibe. Also, the violent, heroic narratives tended to have less room for the silly or less competent characters of psychedelic fantasy works.

Weird Revisited: Castle Ravenloft

The original version of this post appeared in 2018...

I think it might be cool to make Ravenloft a little more Gormenghast: the castle is bigger and more dilapidated (visual reference: the castle in The Fearless Vampire Killers) and becomes more central to shrunken Barovia, which is maybe no more than a valley. The castle and environs would be a bit like Dark Shadow's Collinsport. There would be a lot of weird doings in just the house and area. Strahd would be perhaps a bit toned down in villainy, more like early, non-protagonized Barnabas Collins. Strahd should probably have some bickering, eccentric, and likely inbred human family inhabiting the castle as well.

The outside world would exist, but it would be vaguely defined. Barovia would be a hard to get to place, somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. The strange doors of Castle Ravenloft would open onto other Domains of Dread, though.

The play of the Gothic horror, I feel like it would work better with a funnel type situation, where characters of humble backgrounds either work at the castle and discover it's horrors or are visitors to Barovia.

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics released on the week of October 13, 1983. 

New Teen Titans #38: I was 12 years old when I first read this story in Best of DC #61, The Years Best Comic Stories. "Who is Donna Troy?" was in there beside other famous tales like "The Anatomy Lesson." At the time I had not read any New Teen Titans, but I was blown away by what Wolfman and Perez did here. It's a superhero story without any real superheroics: Terry Long asks Robin to do some detective work and try to find out about Donna Troy's past. All she remembers is being saved from a fire as a toddler by Wonder Woman. Robin does his mentor proud in use of the skills of investigation to uncover the twisting path that led Donna to be in that fire and the two loving families she had prior to being adopted by the Amazons.

Thirty-nine years later, I think it still holds up. Sure, Robin's investigation of a nearly twenty year-old mystery is a bit too easy. It differs from what might have seen in a detective drama of the era in that Robin has to do everything himself with little information from surrogate investigators. It also relies on a fair bit of coincidence. The pacing of a 23-page comic makes the poignancy and drama the story is going for perhaps a little more performative than earned. But all of those are the criticisms of a 51 year-old who has had many more years consuming media and has seen comics grow up. This is a very cinematically told story (just look at the opening and closing pages), that really centers the character drama, not punch 'em ups, at a time when comics were still on newsstands and had a preteen target audience.

Superman #391: Interesting Garcia-Lopez/Giordano cover on this one. Bates/Maggin and Swan/Hunt continue the story from last month with Vartox manhandling Clark then kidnapping Lana and holding her for a time in a volcano. Vartox is acting weird, and it turns out that's because he's possessed by an alien entity called Srakka. Srakka is going to have use up Vartox soon and wants to move on to Superman. Meanwhile, Lana's stalker is upset that Superman isn't doing enough to rescue her. He's also holding a woman captive who looks just like Lana.

Arak Son of Thunder #29: The Thomases and Randall/Forton pick up some time after last issue, with Arak apparently accepting his role as new high priest of Artemis, likely due to some ensorcellment. Arak renounces his name and gives up his quest to return home. After a ceremony with the Amazons, he also gets to take the beauteous Dyanna as his bride. Meanwhile, Satyricus has been living it up playing captured devil for credulous rubes at the home of the man Delan that Arak gave the arrow to. That's all blown, when an evil wizard, Maximus, shows up to claim the arrow and Satyricus' hide for a spell. Satyricus is chained and brought into the woods. He soon sees Arak, but his old friend doesn't recognize him. Instead, Arak raises his axe to deliver a killing blow.

In the Valda backup by the Thomases and Randall/Yeates, Valda makes it to castle of Baledor, where there's a magical combat going on between Malagigi and Baledor, allowing her to escape her distracted captors. Her arrival dsrupts the battle, allowing Baledor to get the upper hand. The evil sorcerer sends an enchanted suit of armor to attack Valda. To save her life, Malagigi surrenders.

Batman #367:  Swamp Thing-looking creatures are causing trouble in Gotham. Coincidentally, I'm sure, Poison Ivy has set up an executive stress relieve business in an abandoned house in Crime Alley with the help of a botanist-geneticist accomplice. Everyone gets sent home with a plant after a treatment. Several Wayne Foundation Board members have been gotten treatment, and now are acting strangely. Batman and Jason Todd (in a costume, but not Robin yet) sneak into Ivy's place after hours, but one of the monsters attacks them, and Ivy escapes, but not before starting a fire. 

Flash 329: Despite the cover, there is no actual confrontation between Grodd and the Flash this issue. Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin continue to keep the story at a slow boil. The Flash gets a lawyer who's Barry's old college roommate. Fiona Webb gets committed due to self-injurious behavior, and I can't help but think her mental state is partial Barry's fault for choosing to disappear while the Flash faces charges. Gorilla Grodd continues with his plans, having his gang do stuff, and getting a new human pawn in the form of Flash-loving teen, Angelo Torres.

G.I. Combat #261: The Mercenaries get a rare (thus far) cover appearance. In that story by Kanigher/Vicatan, the trio of soldiers of fortune are in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where they are forced to hastily take a job working as bodyguards for a guy running guns for the "Meiner-Badoff" Gang, the "Red Front" in Italy, and the Nicaraguan rebels. Unfortunately, he also runs cocaine, which is a no-go for our Mercenaries, so things take a violent turn and they wind up on a river in Cambodia where they wind up agreeing to protect a Temple of Angkor Thom from drug-running invaders for the vague promise of a reward.

The first Haunted Tank story is a flashback to an earlier part of the war when Arch and Slim were still alive. Jeb is forced to play Russian roulette with a sadistic German Colonel, but luck is on our heroes' side. The second story is a sort of humorous one that sees the each of the crew dreaming of just what exploit won it for them as they are transported a quartet of medals. It turns out they were just the delivery boys.

In a story that seems a bit Hogan's Heroes inspired, a German commandant of a stalag finds out one of his prisoners is a former chef. He puts him to fixing fancy meals but barely lives long enough to regret it when Frenchie substitutes poison mushrooms in a recipe.

Omega Men #10: Slifer and Smith/DeCarlo follow the remaining Omega Men as Lobo turns Primus and crew over to the resurgent Citadel. It winds up being a trick, though, and from within their fortress the Omega Men turn the tables, leading to a standoff with Harry Hokum. They're fooled by his believe and agree to a summit where both sides can gather allies for a partitioning of the Vega System. The deplorables side with Hokum, but so does pacifist Changralyn. And there's another surprise as Kallista plans to go isolationist, and Primus is left with a choice: Stay and help rebuild the coalition of free Vegan worlds or return to the world of his birth and his wife.

Go Go, Iron God!

 

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with the party finally making it to the "brain" around of the giant construct. The Gnomish wizard Boq was waiting for them with a vicious Chain Lightning spell. Again, Dagmar's healing was the only thing keeping the party from defeat. Boq couldn't take it as well as he could dish it out, though, and in a handful of rounds the party had defeated him.

There was a kaleidoscopic sphere of energy, which enveloped Erekose. The party was prepared for the worst, but actually the energy was a manifestation of the giant. It recognized Erekose as wearing the control armor and integrated him into its system. 

It was a good thing, too, because some sort of malign, cloud entity was fasted approaching. Erekose tried to turn the construct to run, but they weren't very fast, and the cloud was shooting energy at them. First, they tried to fire missiles from the construct's hands, but they were too proficient with the weaponry and kept missing. Eager for a melee weapon, Erekose asked the mind of the construct if there was a sword. It turned out there was.

A couple of hits with an energy blade seemed to route the cloud thing. They proceeded on their way back to their base. After most of the party took a long rest, Shade and Dagmar tried to see if there was a way to reload the missiles they fired. Climbing down into the hand, they found they most of the missiles had been looted, but there was one extra.

Next, the group looted the bodies and got quite an array of items they presumed to be magical.

Weird Revisited: Mondegreen's Mixed-Up Magics

In the Land of Azurth, the wizard Mondegreen is infamous among magical practitioners, not because he was powerful (though he was) nor for his output of arcane scrolls (though it was prodigious) but because of his habit of misprinting magical sigils and formulae. He seems to have suffered some sort of malady in this regard, perhaps a curse.

A Mondegreen scroll will not contain the traditional version of the spell it appears to catalog at cursory examination. The subtle errors will either effect some aspect of the spell 50% of the time, giving:

1 Advantage to the spell save
2 An increased duration
3 Increased damage (if applicable)
4 Decreased damage (if applicable)
5 A decreased duration
6 Disadvantage to the spell save

The other 50% of the time, it will not work as it should, but rather produce a magical effect from a roll on the Wild Magic Table.

The original version of this post appeared in 2018.

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 1)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of September 6, 1983. 

Atari Force #1: Conway and artistic team Garcia-Lopez and Villagran present the story of the next generation, following the events of the first volume of the Atari Force comics that were packaged with Atari cartridges. It's about twenty years later, and we're introduced to a new status quo and a host of new characters: Chris Champion aka Tempest who's got teleportation powers, Morphea, an alien empath recently arrived at the Atari Institute, Dart (like Chris, a child of original Atari Force characters) and Blackjack, two badass mercenaries out to get the employer who betrayed them; Babe a giant, alien child who will one day grow into a mountain, and Pakrat, a rodentoid master thief. We also meet the Darth Vader-esque antagonist, Dark Destroyer. This issue really moves and is full of well-defined characters and interesting concepts, but the real star is the art. I loved this issue as a kid, and it holds up today.

Wonder Woman #311: Mishkin and Heck have Wonder Woman's jet hijacked by mischievous, little creatures Trevor and Wonder Woman term Gremlins. They follow the creatures to a partially solidified sky island where there is a graveyard of planes from different eras. There are some larger beings here too, but their relationship to the gremlins isn't clear before the series end. This issue is a bit of whimsical detour compared to what Mishkin has done in previous issues.

In the Cavalieri and Burgard/DeCarlo Huntress backup, our heroine is confronted by two sewer alligators, guard animals of Earthworm, after being sent into a trap by an informant. Meanwhile, the Earthworm leaves a baby on the doorstep of anti-vigilante politician Terry Marsh.

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #9: Mishkin/Cohn and Colon continue the story from last issue with Amethyst and her allies fighting to defend the House of Ruby from the Emissaries of Varn. A surviving member of House Diamond showed up at the end of last issue like he was going to kick the Emissaries collective butt, but know they take him out too with their ability to absorb any attack then send it back. The head of Ruby falls before them too, but then Amethyst realizes that each of the 3 Emissaries has a different function. They concentrate their attacks on the middle guy--the conduit--and force them all to retreat from Gemworld.

Blackhawk #266: The Blackhawks get a replacement for Chop-Chop, Ted Gaynor, who's skilled but a bit too humorless and cold-blooded for the rest of the team. The Blackhawk doppelganger returns and frees Professor Merson. The team recaptures Merson and prevents the double from assassinating Churchill.

In the backup by Evanier and Newton/Jensen, Olaf has a meeting with a courier at the circus where he used to perform, but masquerades as a clown when the circus is forced to perform for a Nazi field marshal. In the end, Olaf gets to the courier and the other performers hold off the Germans.

DC Comics Presents #65: Kupperberg and Morrow bring in Madame Xanadu for a team-up. This is her first appearance since the multiple part Wonder Woman story back in'82 and the last time she'll be seen before her appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12. Superman is having nightmares where he destroys Metropolis. Meanwhile, two other people are also having their dreams invaded by an evil force. They feel compelled to visit Madame Xanadu for help. Together, they figure out they are all being psychically attacked by Maaldor, who we last saw in issue 56. Maaldor wants to destroy Superman or at least convert him to evil, but with the help of Xanadu he's able to put Maaldor out with a super-punch.

Fury of Firestorm #19: Conway is joined by co-writer Carla Conway, his then wife. Art this issue is from Colan and Magyar. The story feels like it could have been in a Bronze Age Spider-Man villain, complete with ill-conceived, one appearance villain, which makes sense given Firestorm sort of follows a Spider-Man blueprint, and Conway is writing. The villain in this case is Goldenrod, a plant humaoid, with the power to cause extreme allergies! He's out for revenge against the unethical researcher who made him this way and he appears to die at the end, but of course, no body is recovered, so he could have emerged next spring allergy season or whenever, but he didn't.

Justice League of America #222: Conway and Patton/Tanghal continue the story from last issue. The cat woman Reena reveals the origin and identity of the animal people the JLA have been encountering. They were the board of Repli-Tech who, fearing financial ruin and potential prosecution as Repli-Tech was going bankrupt, submitted to an experimental process by Dr. Lovecraft to give them animal powers. They used these powers to commit robberies and fight in gladiatorial combats for jaded, wealthy patrons. Seems like it would have been easier and safer to financially exploit Lovecraft's process to me, but I guess that's why I'm not a business executive. When Wonder Woman and Hawkwoman fly to the side of Hawkman who had been poisoned by a scorpion guy and is in the hospital, they are captured.

The lion man. Maximus Rex broadcasts a message to the Justice League Satellite, revealing his captives and boasting that he is leader of a new order.

Vigilante #2: Wolfman and Pollard/Marcos have Adrain Chase learn that those things he usually calls "technicalities" might just be justice being done, as he attacks and beats the hell out of a guy who winds up being innocent after all. He gets disillusioned and gives up he vigilante life to work for his father's prestigious but legal firm but gets disillusioned again seeing guilty men evaded justice. In the end, he takes up the Vigilante mantle a second time with the promise to do things differently, but I'm not sure in what way.

Pulp Readings: The Spider: Corpse Cargo (1934)

Volume 3, Issue 2 of The Spider magazine (July 1934) is as clear an indication as any that Norvell Page (writing as Grant Stockbridge) is not going to pull any punches with his Spider yarns. His first Spider outing saw kids dying from the bubonic plague unleashed by the villain. In this one, we're only a few pages in when a young member of a club of wannabe Baker Street Irregulars, "The Spider Fan Club," is tortured to death by a gang of modern-day pirates using a knife charged with electricity.

This is part of a larger plot where the gang, led by the beautiful villainess who calls herself Captain Kidd, is using a pulpy invention to electrify rails so that that glow with almost magical "green fire" and electrocute all the passengers of trains so their corpses can be robbed without any witnesses. The trains are sent rolling on to their destinations with no one living on board.

It's a hell of a lurid set-up, and Page is up to the challenge of delivering on it. The pirates set some pretty good death traps for the Spider to have to escape from. There's also a bit of a mystery regarding a kidnapped inventors missing granddaughter that isn't a big point but has a nice little payoff. 

The only thing missing, maybe, is any hint of femme fatale regarding Captain Kidd. The righteous and driven Spider finds her utterly loathsome (and with her disregard for human life, who can blame him!), and though Page says she is attractive, he doesn't give her the sort of loving description a Robert Howard would have.

Get The Spider: The Corpse Cargo here. Tim Truman did a loose adaptation of this story in comics format in the 1990s.