Christmas Comes Early

In line with the Christmas decorations already up in many a retail establishment, Action Lab has released the Christmas comic Northstars Vol 1: Welcome to Snowville on Comixology. it will be out in hardcopy later this month, I believe. This kids comic (something of an homage to those TV Christmas Specials and Harvey Comics of yore) is written by my friend, sometime collaborator, and fellow rpger, Jim Shelley and his daughter, Haigen. Art is supplied by the very talented Anna Liisa Jones who I would love to have do something for the Land of Azurth one day.

Here's one of the character designs:

Wednesday Comics: Storm: City of the Damned

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: City of the Damned (1982) (part 3)
(Dutch: Stad der Verdoemden)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

When last we left our heroes, the computer guiding the city makes a request of Storm: Strange energy barriers have appeared in places across the city without warning. People can cross into the areas behind them but not back out. Thousands of people have been lost in these sectors. The computer believes only someone like Storm--a fighter, a survivor--can sole this crisis.

Storm isn't interested. He doesn't like the computer's interference.

Ember urges him not to be so rash. He should take some time to think it over. She believes there is something strange happening here.

Storm finds it ironic that she is suggesting anyone be careful. He also thinks her curiosity can get them killed. He does agree to sleep on it, though.

Storm finds a strange woman in his room. She says her name is Anor. She is a product of those genetic experiments to develop psychic powers: A successful experiment.

Her powers are strong enough to overcome Storm. She reports back to her unseen master.

The next morning Ember finds Storm missing from his quarters. She finds him in Terminal One walking arm in arm with Anor. She informs Ember Storm has decided to stay permanently in the city. Ember is confused. She offers Storm his sword he had left behind. Storm says he doesn't need it anymore.

Bewildered and angry, Ember storms off and comes upon one of the energy barriers. Passing through, she finds herself in a place of darkness where brutish guys with Medieval weapons attack her. She drives them off, only to be attacked again by a towering dark knight whose sword drops bubbles or eggs with tiny reptiles inside:

She's rescued by people who live in the maintenance tunnels. They too passed through the barrier at one point to be stuck in this world of shadow. When a barrier goes up, the people are enslaved and forced to work demolishing building for scrap. Most of the metal is used to make weapons of war to outfit an army. The leader of this army is a man named Gor, a product of experiments that gave him to power to dominate men's minds. When the experimenters tried to destroy him, he teleported into the underworld beneath the city.

Those able to control others develop red eyes. Ember remembers the woman with Storm had read eyes. She must be controlling him!

Ember has to rescue him. If she can't go through the barrier, she'll go around. She throws a mace through a window and prepares to climb the outside of the city.

TO BE CONTINUED

Voyage to the Sun

The Demiurge, the creator of the Cosmos, convalesces within the Sun. His rest is not to be disturbed on order of the Heavenly Powers. Even in repose, the orb of pure creative energy formed around him is a source of life for the entire Cosmos; a source of the animating substance azoth as well as mundane heat and light.

The energy spontaneously generates lifeforms, in shapes, perhaps, from the dreams of the Demiurge. Angels flit about, recording the birth of ever creature, and assuring nothing dangerous escapes, though solar flares sometimes eject such beings beyond their reach.

Their activities are directed by the Oyarses Och. It may be that Och is mere avatar of the Demiurge. Certainly she is able to tap into the mind of that being. Och sometimes speaks with visitors, mostly warning them away, for fallen beings like humans were never intended to look upon the resting creator or walk in the splendor of the solar halls.

This doesn't stop them from trying. Swift and specially-hulled sunrakers set out from Mercury to catch what plumes of azoth they can. Such cargo brings a high price on other worlds.

The Halloween Special

Sorry, no Fall Guy or Elvira actually in this post. I didn't do any Halloween related posts this year, but just sit back and relive these horror-themed classics:

Need a name for a horror comic? Generate it with this post.
Ever heard the legend Spring-hilled Jack? Well here are his stats.
A different way of the thinking of Ghost Towns, from Weird Adventures, but usable anywhere.
And finally, a 2013 Santacore request unwittingly opens, "The Tome of Draculas!"

Rapping With Thrantrix

Anybody who has watched the Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter video is familiar with that chaos godling and bon vivant (well, maybe just the former) Thrantrix the Ineffable. Now, as you know, Chaos Godlings say the darnedest things, and that Thrantrix is quotable beyond all others. Hydra has a little contest going: Give us your best Thrantrix quotations and we'll collect them into one tome. Also, the very best will go into the adventure as "sample dialogue" the godling might drop on the PCs, so that's the sort of quotation we're looking for: cutting adventurer put-downs, Underworld gossip, incomprehensible cosmic musings, weird worship requirements, gripes about other Godlings, etc.

The top submission will receive the actual model of Thrantrix that appeared in our Kickstarter video, once the campaign ends and a winner has been chosen!

Bad Hombres on the Planet of the Apes

"THE WAR WHEEL" 

Player Characters:
Jeff Call as Brock Irving
Jarrett Crader as Aurelius
Billy Longino as Olsen Potter Graves
Lester B. Portly as Eddy Woodward
Jason Sholtis as Francis La Cava

Nonplayer Characters:
Ted Cassidy as Eezaya
Mutant driver
Various tribesfolk

Synopsis: The Kreeg War Wheel attacks the conclave on the Rio Grande, but the astronauts and their ape friend strike back.

Commentary:
As heavily armored as a tank, the weapons of the astronauts are pretty much useless. Graves and Aurelius hatch a plan to tip the machine over with the grenades they acquired a few sessions back. From the back of a horse-sized mutant dog this doesn't go exactly smoothly, but is nonetheless sucessful enough in damaging the War Wheel to make it retreat.

Graves continues his alcohol-fueled heroism and tries to blow torch his way into one of the gun turrets. After evicting one of the mutants, he manages to damage the controls and crash the thing.

A mutant like the one Graves killed

Eezaya finally seemes impressed with the Men from the Sky and willing to listen to their suggestions.

Aurelius acquires a pistol (the astronauts hadn't been letting him have one before) and a helmet like this:

Wednesday Comics

No Storm update this week, instead here are a couple of recent comics related purchases I made:

Head Lopper is the story of a white-haired and bearded warrior who carries around the still living head of witch he decapitated, while he goes on a quest to kill a sorcerer for a queen. Headlopping is what he does best and there is a lot more decapitation along the way. This is fun fantasy comic with an interesting setting. I only wish their was more of it.

The Star Reach Companion is a history of an obscure, but in some ways, important part of comics history. The titular Star*Reach (1974-1976) was one of few anthology series that bridged the gap between underground comics and the mainstream. Featuring edgier work by known creators, it prefigured Heavy Metal and independent comics in general. This retrospective not only gives comprehensive coverage of Star Reach, but it also covers similar anthology series of the 70s.