Wednesday Comics: Things You Might Have Missed

Two great sci-fi comic collections have come out this year that might have come in under the radar. That would be a shame, as they're both from accomplished writer/artists and both well worth checking out:

Star Slammers: The Complete Collection is a work by Walt Simonson, conceived and began before his time at Marvel and DC, but first officially published by Marvel, then later continued under Malibu's Bravura imprint and Dark Horse. This tale of interplanetary mercenaries has the feel of something that might have come out of 2000AD or maybe Heavy Metal but with a style that is all Simonson, even as it was developing.

The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane was originally presented in Heavy Metal (or Metal Hurlant) and begins the weird and baroque science fantasy saga of Lone Sloane a man given strange powers after encountering a Lovecraftian cosmic entity and throwm into another dimension. He becomes a freebooter and Han Solo-esque rogue involved in various space opera struggles. Philippe Druillet (like Simonson) has his own distinct style. If there was something called Cosmic Acid Space Opera, this would be it.

A Weird Adventures Review

It's been a long time since we had one of these, but Corey Ryan Walden has done a review of Weird Adventures on his blog. Check out his other reviews, as well!

Tussle with the Tornado Tyrant!

Art by Richard Svensson

When we last left off in our 5e Land of Azurth game, the party had just triumphed over a group of hairy humanoids in the dungeon of a castle in the clouds. They are still stuck on a cloud island with no means off, and the magic stone they worked so hard to get in still in the hands of a evil giant wizard. Party roll call: Cully (the bard), Dagmar (the cleric), Erkose (the fighter), Kairon (the sorcerer), and Shae (the ranger).

One of the goons managed to summon the jailer: a two-headed, musclehead troll with the bombastic demeanor of a pro-wrestler. Unaware of the troll's regeneration  power, the group lucks up when and Kairon uses a flame attack. The bardic dissonant whispers sends the troll off to get a workout in.

King Cumulo (freed by the party last session) is marshaling his troops for an assault on the castle, hoping to drive Zykloon and his henchmen from it. He gives the party some healing pills and his people show them how to command the giant flying ship. Cumulo offers the party a roll in the glorious battle to come. They enquire about treasure; he tells them the biggest hall is guarded by a multiheaded Skydra in the lowest level of the dungeon, but that Zykloon is probably keeping the stone he stole from the party in his tower:

Though Cumulo also mentions Queen Desira of Virid's glass pegasus, Zephyr, is in the giant's terrarium--and she'll likely pay a reward--the party focuses on the Whim-Wham stone. When the Cloud Folk head off for the attack, the party heads over to the top of the tower in the flying ship.

They decide stealth is prudent. Kairon turns Shae and the flogling thief they rescued, Woggins, invisible and they sneak into the tower from the observation deck. Seeing a number of strange things, they soon find Zykloon's bed chamber--where he's still sleeping!

Something awakens the giant, but he doesn't see his tower's invisible infiltrators. After talking with his minions with some technological device, he leaves to join the battle. The party searches his quarters and finds and invisible object under his bed that radiates magic and a large chest in his closet that has magic objects inside it.

The party moves their loot to the ship and takes off for home, figuring they can deal with investigating the haul when they're out of harm's way.

Own Over the Garden Wall

The great  Cartoon Network mini-series by Patrick McHale (previoualy of Adventure Time!) is now available on DVD (no blu-ray, unfortunately). I wrote about it when it aired, but I'll give a pull-quote from that post here:

"It's part Grimms' fairy tales, part Wizard of Oz (and maybe a bit Sandberg's Rootabaga Stories), imbued with great deal of folksiness. Where Adventure Time has rap and chiptunes, OtGW has parlor music and ragtime. Where Adventure Time has non sequiturs and weirdness, Over the Garden Wall has whimsy (not that it isn't weird at times)."

Check it out.

The Stone Sages

by David Lewis Johnson

In the Country of Yanth in the Land of Azurth there is a circle of eight monolithic stone heads in which reside the intellects of great sages of  pasts eras. No one knows who constructed the stones or how the particular sages were chosen. These are questions the members of the circle are unable or unwilling to answer. The names of the sages and their scholarly specialties are:

Whindbog the Historian
Blathrur the Astronomer
Pomphus the Philologist
Laangvynd the Geographer
Eggedd the Scientist
Baombast the Physician
Drohninon the Mathematician
Nowhitaul the Theologian

These learned minds may be consulted by touching their respective stone, allowing telepathic communication as long as the contact is maintained. They will answer questions put to them, though they tend to do so with a degree of irritation and condescension.

Wednesday Comics: Star Trek

Yesterday was the 49th anniversary of Star Trek the Original Series, so today seemed like a good time to revisit one of my favorite Star trek comics: Who's Who in the Star Trek. The two issue limited series was released by DC Comics in 1987 at the time when they held the license for Star Trek comics. Done in a format similar to there Who's Who series in general, it contained entries on characters that had appeared in their comics and characters from the TV show and movies.

In an era before I owned all the episodes on blu-ray (or DVD or VHS) it was a window into parts of the ST universe syndication had yet to show me. Plus, it had famous comic artists doing Star Trek characters. Check out the cover above by Howard Chaykin. Or these Orions by Todd McFarlane:

How about Talosians by Bill Wray?

There's also stuff by Walt Simonson, Gray Morrow, John Byrne, and Ron Frenz there, among others. It's well-worth tracking down a copy.

My Labors

Happy Labor Day everybody.

 After the InDesign chewed up the last round of major edits, Lester was forced to reconstruct them, causing some delays, but John Till's Strange Stars Fate is back on track with just some record sheets and a last bit of clean up to go.

Here's another sample page, featuring art by David Lewis Johnson:

Speaking of Dave, he's done a great job on a painted cover illustration for another project I'm working on: an adventure set in the Land of Azurth: