NTRPGCon

I'm in Texas for the  North Texas Rpg Con once again, this time for a summit of the Hydra Publishing Collective as well as the usual gaming an debachery. I met up with the usual suspects last night: Chris Kutalik, Robert Parker, and Justin Davis, and met Mike Davison for the first time. I'm looking forward to meeting Jason Sholtis.

Oh, and I picked this up yesterday:

Some of us are in an indie publishing panel on Saturday morning which they closed registration up prematurely, so if you're at the con and can rouse yourself at 0800, you should come by regardless.

Wednesday Comics: Indie Apocalypses

Continuing my survey of post-apocalyptic comics (focused on those) in print. Previously, I reviewed Marvel's and DC's offerings, now it's time to look beyond the Big Two:

Hunter
What's the Apocalypse? A nuclear war, starting in 2001, whose radiation creates psionic mutants called "demons."
Who are the heroes? Demian Hunter, half-human, half-demon demon hunter.
Where can you read it? Eerie Presents: Hunter

Mighty Samson
What's the Apocalypse? Nuclear war.
Who are the heroes? The titular Samson, a super-strong barbarian adventurer.
Where can you read it? starting with The Mighty Samson Archives volume 1
.

Just A Pilgrim
What's the Apocalypse? "The Burn," a solar coronal expansion.
Who are the heroes? Pilgrim--a religious fanatic and reformed (maybe) cannibal--and other survivors.
Where can you read it? Just A Pilgrim Complete.

Sabre
What's the Apocalypse? Nuclear war.
Who are the heroes? Sabre, Melissa Siren, and other freedom fighters against a fascistic regime.
Where can you read it? Sabre 30th Anniversary Edition

Scout
What's the Apocalypse? Ecological damage and economic collapse after most nations have levied punitive sanctions against the U.S.
Who are the heroes? Emmanuel Santana aka Scout, an Apache ex-U.S. Army Ranger on a quest to destroy a supernatural evil
Where can you read it? start with Scout volume 1

Walking Dead
What's the Apocalypse? A zombie outbreak of unknown cause.
Who are the heroes? Rick Grimes and a a changing group of survivors, many of whom will die.
Where can you read it? start with Walking Dead Compendium One

Wasteland
What's the Apocalypse? "The Big Wet" that left "half the world covered by poisonous, rising oceans" and the remaining dry land is desiccated and broken.
Who are the heroes? Michael, a scavenger who finds a machine that talks in a forgotten language.
Where can you read it? start with Wasteland Book 1: Cities in Dust

Xenozoic Tales (aka Cadillacs and Dinosaurs)
What's the Apocalypse? Ecological upheaval, leading humans to abandon the surface for hundreds of years. They return to find dinosaurs.
Who are the heroes? Jack Tenrec and Hannah Dundee. They drive cadillacs and run away from dinosaurs. And other stuff.
Where can you read it? Xenozoic

The World of Tiger Lung

Tiger Lung series of stories by Simon Roy (Prophet), assisted at times by Jason Wordie, published in a collection by Dark Horse. The title character is a shaman in Eastern Europe in the late Paleolithic era, the mediator for people between the material world and the world of spirits--a world not that far away, but alien to most.

In its fundamentals it recalls Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard-boiled Shaman. The story "Song for the Dead" even follows the formula of the Wolfsbreath stories: a conflict with a spirit reveals a secret transgression in the human world. But where the Muktuk Wolfsbreath series wrings some humor from juxtapositioning the activities of a Siberian shaman with dialog in the style of hard-boiled fiction, Tiger Lung plays it straight

Roy is not trying to write a standard prehistoric comic in the Tor or Kong the Untamed vein (not that those aren't cool in their own right), but more resembles Shanower's Age of Bronze in his attempt to create a level of (pre-)historical verisimilitude. It's most definitely fantasy, though, with its realms of the dead, various spirits and even were-hyenas. The only fault in the collection is with only 3 stories, it's all too short.

Art by Simon Roy

Fury Rails

In the wastes of the old world, poisoned and drained of life, the first, true Barons built the railways between what settlements remained, taking the last scraps of the old industry in their grasps and empires. They are gone now, too, and only petty tyrants and poisoned-brained madmen remain. The deserts have grown even harsher and strange monsters lurk in their sands. The railways--those rusting few that remain--are the only way through. Civilization clings to them. Despite road agents, psychotic tribesmen, and giant beasts, the trains have got to keep rolling.

Take the post-apocalyptic cultures and aesthetic of Mad Max 2: Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury, but make it a little less 1980s and a little more 1880s, and combined the burrowing monsters and extensive railways of Mieville's Railsea. Season to taste with The Hills Have Eyes and Spaghetti and Acid Westerns, and you've got a kickass campaign setting, I think.

More Strange Stars Art--And A Question

Here's another piece of art by the guy who has done more than anyone to define the look of the Strange Stars universe, David Lewis Johnson. We see Zao Pirates pursue a vessel, but finding that their prey-to-be has friends.

In other news, I've been thinking about doing some collections of back posts (like Jack did with his Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque books) and make them available as pdf and maybe POD. While they're all here on the blog, people seem to like compilations quite a bit and in fairness, with 1440 posts, finding things or reading a series of posts isn't always convenient.

So if you have any thoughts on that, let me know.

Back to the Strange Stone Age

Or maybe forward to a remote future? Whichever, it's a time where prehistoric humans do battle with monsters--both known to history and unknown--and with incursion of aliens or ultraterrestrials, part Kirby and part von Däniken. The actions of the aliens create sores in the skin of reality where the normal laws are warped and disrupted.

Some humans have benefited (or so they believe) from alien technology and even interbreeding. They view themselves as superior to the others and hunt them for slaves--or worse. But humans have allies, too: the gregarious Small-Folk (Halflings, pakuni, homo florensis), the hardy and aloof Stone Folk (dwarves, T'lan Imass, Neanderthals). And then there are the spirits, made stronger since the aliens rent holes in reality, with whom the shamans intercede through the use of sacred, hallucinogenic technologies--their "passkeys" into the operating system of the universe.

Inspirations:
Comics: Devil Dinosaur, Tor, Tragg and the Sky-Gods, Henga (Yor), Turok, anything New Gods by Kirby or Morrison (for the "magic as technology" aspect).
Fiction: Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories (mainly the implied pseudo-scientific background), Manly Wade Wellman's Hok, Roadside Picnic (the portrayal of zones and alien artifacts)
"Nonfiction": alien abduction stuff and forteana, "forbidden history" stuff, Chariots of the Gods.

Wednesday Comics: Marvel Apocalypses

Continuing my review of post-apocalyptic comics with Marvel's contributions to the genre:

Deathlok
What's the Apocalypse? Not entirely clear, but evidently a coup by Roxxon Oil followed by war.
Who are the heroes? Luther Manning aka Deathlok, a cyborg.
Where can you read it? Deathlok the Demolisher: The Complete Collection.

Killraven
What's the Apocalypse? An alien invasion (from Mars) in 2001.
Who are the heroes? Killraven and his companions, freedom fighters against Martian rule.
Where can you read it? Essential Killraven volume 1.

Planet of the Apes
What's the Apocalypse? A nuclear war.
Who are the heroes? Time-displayed astronauts, a human named Jason and an ape named Alexander.
Where can you read it? back issues only. Or here.