Warlord Wednesday: Animated Interlude

My issue by issue review of DC's Warlord will return next week.  Today, take a look at these pics related an appearance by Travis Morgan and friends (and enemies) in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon:

A turn around of the Jennifer Morgan design for the episode by Zealand (Steve) Jones.

A cameo by Machiste, Mariah, and Shakira from the episode.

A rather barrel chested Warlord action figure.

Toward a Taxonomy of Magic

Discussion last week got me to thinking (tangentially) about different magic systems in media and how they might be categorizes. Maybe taking a closer look at these sorts of models might suggest variations for gaming systems? This analysis is in the formative stages, so bear with me here.

It seems to me that on one side we have ritual-based systems. Spells in these systems tend to be specific, discrete entities with distinct effects. Some sort of ritual (of varying levels of complexity) is involved in their production. Effects may be flashy and visual, but just as often there is no visible connection between caster and effect, other than the caster's ritual performance. Magical duels are games of "oneupmanship" with canny spell choice winning the day.  Various ritual magic systems in the real world are examples of this, as are many popular rpg systems. Card-based systems of various manga and anime (and the card games they support) would probably be a variant. Interestingly, this sort of system is otherwise not particularly common in media.

On the other end of the spectrum are energy-based systems. These portray magic as some force to be manipulated and wielded. Effects tend be very visible. There may be talk of spells or “cants” or “weaves,” but these tend to be portrayed more like maneuvers or techniques rather than strict formula. Magical duels are marked by a concern with the comparative "power levels" of the participant, not in the advantageousness or disadvantageousness of the spells they choose to employ.  Most comic book mages (outside of John Constantine) wield this kind of magic--and so does Green Lantern, for that matter. Many literary mages are off this type: The Aes Sedai in the Wheel of Time series, the Schoolmen in R. Scott Bakker’s Three Seas novels, and the Warren-tapping mages of Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series are all examples.

Of course, it’s a spectrum with many systems showing some elements of both. Also, what characters say about there system is often not completely congruent with how they appear to work; Doctor Strange mentions a lot of spells and rituals, but the appearance of this magic tends to be energy manipulation. Still, I haven’t been been able to think of one so far that does seem to fit. Obviously, there are other parameters to consider--external versus internal power source, for instances--but I think this divide is the most generalizable.

You Might Not Be Afraid of the Dark

I saw the long-awaited (I attended a teaser panel on it at Comic-Con in 2010) remake of Don’t be Afraid of the Dark this weekend. It was directed by Troy Nixey (the artist on Dark Horse’s Jenny Finn) but bears the obvious stamp of script-writer and producer Guillermo del Toro.

In brief, both versions involve a couple moving into an old house where a basement fireplace ash-pit door is opened and tiny, malevolent creatures are released (these are, as Roger points out, the obvious inspiration for Fiend Folio’s meenlocks). The creatures set their sights on the one who freed them--a young housewife in the original, a little girl in the remake--and cajole then terrorize before making their move.

The remake has better special effects and more atmosphere, but doesn’t have the same sort of unsettling, ruthless economy of the original. Of course, I saw the original when I was much younger, so it might not evoke the same dread in someone seeing it as an adult for the first time. The remake seems like Nixey and del Toro set out to make a film that could scar the psyches of a new generation of kids, but the MPAA stymied that a bit with an R-rating.

Many of the changes are del Toro’s usual preoccupations. The creatures of the film are explicitly fairies and they have a taste for teeth (recalling the “tooth fairies” of Hellboy II). The grounds of the Blackwood Manor recall Pan’s Labyrinth. These additions at once lessen the horror but add some depth by explicitly connecting it to the traditions of horror fiction and authors like Machen (who gets namechecked in the film).

If you like the work of del Toro or have fond memories of the original TV movie you probably should check this one out.  It just probably won't deliver the chills you remember back in the '70s.

Random Magical Junk

Never let it be said that hobogoblins are welchers.  Here's something magical from the bindle of the croaker (medicine man) hisself:

1. A wooden toy gun. When aimed at a target, and the bearer says “bang,” it fires. The invisible projectile does 1d3 points of damage and has range like a small sling.

2. A souvenir doll of a grinning man. Anyone who sleeps within 20 feet of the uncovered doll must make a saving throw or awaken feebleminded.
3. An expensive wristwatch that appears stopped--yet somehow never manages to have the right time.

4. A set of 2d6 erotic picture postcards. Most are mundane, but one of them can fascinate the viewer.
5. An old kerosene lantern that, when lit, casts darkness.
6. A wrinkled First Class Boarding Pass for the RMS Titan. If a person holding the pass concetrates hard on the image of someone they wish to kill, the pass will grow cold and damp in his or her hands, and the intended victim responds as if they are drowning in cold water.
7. A cast iron skillet +1 against husbands (+2 if they are cheating husbands).
8. A necrophiliac Tijuana Bible.  It draws all undead from a 10 mile radius to it.  Unintelligent undead are unable to resist its call; intelligent ones are not forced to respond, but may come out of curiousity or desire.  Undead tied to a specific place are tormented by the comics' seductive pull.
9. A half-smoked cigar. If lit, it is particularly noxious. Everyone but the smoker within 20 feet must save or become nauseated.

10. A wooden case containg a flea circus staffed by atomies, who can either be a help or a nuisance to the owner depending on how they’re treated.
11. An ever-full can of baked beans.  It refills in 1d4 hours after being emptied.
12. A roll of electrical insulating tape that gives anything it's wrapped around electricity resistance (absorbs the first 10 points of electrical damage per attack).

Warlord Wednesday: Through the Glass

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Through the Glass"

Warlord (vol. 1) #65 (January 1983)

Written by Mike Grell (Sharon Grell); Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Mike deCarlo

Synopsis: Morgan approaches Castle Deimos in the realm of twilight known as the Terminator. Painful memories come up unbidden as he sees it once again.

Faithful Faaldren leads him to his daughter, Jennifer, the sorceress supreme:

Morgan tells her about Rostov and Shakira, lost in the Age of Wizard Kings. Jennifer unveils a magic mirror to help them scry his friends’ whereabouts. Soon, he sees an image of the two with a centaur....

In the Age of Wizard Kings, Shadowstorm (the centaur) thinks he has a solution to Rostov’s and Shakira’s predicament: They need to find a good wizard. Unfortunately, those are hard to come by as the Evil One keeps killing them. They’ll have to settle for the 10th or 11th (whichever) in line for the title of sorcerer supreme—Mungo Ironhand.

A bit later, in Mungo’s tower, the wizard has just returned to tell Mariah and Machiste that he’s now 9th in line for sorcerer supreme! If the Evil One keeps killing at this rate, he just might make it to the top. Mariah and Machiste suggest the wizards band together to defeat the Evil One before he masters the full power of the Necronomicon.

Before Mungo can make more excuses an alert sounds: They have visitors. Peering into a crystal ball, they don’t recognize Shakira, Rostov, os Shadowstorm. They prepare an ambush. In the melee that follows, Mariah finally recognizes Rostov, but before she can tell Machiste, he appears likely to bash Rostov’s head in with his mace hand.

Morgan (watching all this in the glass) tells Jennifer to bring them back to the present—now! Jennifer replies enigmatically that she can’t--suggesting his friends may play a role in the defeat of the Evil One. Morgan and Jennifer will have to go to them:

Things to Notice:

• This issue's cover more resembles events from last issue (and last issue's more closely matches this one!).
• While her hair has been white since issue #50, we were never really given an explanation of how Jennifer's hair got that way from its original blonde.  Perhaps the shock of her encounter with Deimos?
• Mungo Ironhand seems a rather poorly regarded wizard.

Where It Comes From:
The title references the use of the magic mirror to watch most of the action of the story.  It may have been suggested by the title of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) by Lewis Carroll.

Pulp Planet Maps

Tired of NASA harshing your pulp buzz with "real" images of the solar system?  Well, Edmond "World-Wrecker" Hamilton has got what you need.  Here are some maps of some familiar worlds from his Captain Future series as presented in An Atlas of Fantasy. 

Leave your so-called "reality-based" planetary science at home, and make sure your rocket has the approriate sheen:

The Diamond Planet Heist!

Astronomers have discovered a planet 4000 light-years away orbiting a neutron star every two hours that appears to be composed of diamond.  Read the details here.

Could you ask for a better science ficiton/space opera adventure locale?  It could be a ritzy casino world full of sauve spies like something out of a Bond film or novel.  Or you could do a swinging sci-fi heist film, like a space opera Ocean's 11.  Maybe it's a glitzy disco world like something you might have seen on the 80s Buck Rogers if it had had a bigger budget?

Of course, one could go against all those diamond associations.  Doctor Who has a "crystalline world" in the episode "Midnight" and that's a horror story.