Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1984 (week 1)

My mission is to 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 March 8, 1984. 

Giordano's "Meanwhile.." this month talks about the debut of both the New Gods reprint series and Blue Devil. He also talks about the upcoming DC Who's Who and a maxi-series History of the DC Universe.

Atari Force #6: Conway and García-López/Villagrain continue the story from last issue with Tempest, Dart, and Pakrat infiltrating the alien ship that we know belongs to the Dark Destroyer. They walk into a trap. Tempest is beaten by the Dark Destroyer himself, but Dart and Pakrat manage to elude his troops. The Destroyer taunts Martin about being close to his goal of killing the children of his enemy the Atari Force. Instead of breaking Martin, though, it rouses him to action. This issue is better than the last few. It finally seems like we are moving forward and García-López's layouts are great.

Fury of Firestorm #24: This was the first Firestorm story I ever read. Indeed, it's perhaps the only issue of the title my brother and I ever bought off the racks. It's a good issue, but it may have been the Blue Devil preview that lured us in. In the main story, the Conways and Kayanan/Tanghal continue from last issue with Lorraine and Ronnie paying a visit the Bonner's house to try and confirm Ronnie's suspicion that Byte who was out to kill Belle Haney is actually Blythe Bonner. They discover that Frank Bonner, Blythe's and Barney's father and Ronnie's teacher, is probably an alcoholic and he's pining over a photo of Belle Haney! After an angry Blythe throws them out, they go find Belle Haney who admits she was once Belle Bonner and the mother of the kids. When she was working at home, the kids got accidentally shocked by some of her computer equipment. Frank got angry and kicked her out, though later it seems he has told the kids she left them. This being the 80s, instead of just getting a shock, the kids got super-powers, so our heroes learn the origins of Byte and Bug, just as they show up to whisk their mom into a computer Tron-style and kill her.

The heroes save Belle, and Byte and Bug exit to the real world. Bug begins to have second thoughts about killing people, and Byte lashes out at him too. Frank arrives to see all this. Byte realizes what she's done escapes into an electrical outlet as her brother dies (according to the internet; I didn't feel like the issue was entirely clear), but her parents reconcile. Anyway, pretty good story with 80s themes of computers, women in the workplace, and the dissolution of families.

In the preview by Mishkin/Cohn and Cullen/Marcos we are introduced to Dan Cassidy, a movie stuntman who has made an almost Iron Man-level powered suit as the monster costume for a film. See what we lost with the rise of CGI? Anyway, the Trickster, another special effects guy in his regular ID, shows up to take Cassiday down a peg. Hijinks ensue when a silly villain takes on a guy who doesn't know from superheroics and still has to work the kinks out of his new suit. This preview well presents the humorous approach to supers that will inform the title and also introduces us to the books supporting cast. After this, we were looking forward to the ongoing book, and we didn't have to wait long.

DC Comics Presents #70: Team-up comics have always been the "junk food" of comics publishing, but some stories are better than others. Kupperberg and Saviuk/DeZuniga deliver one of those others here, teaming up the Metal Men with Superman. A mad scientist captures the Metal Men and puts them through several end-of-the-world scenarios created by his seemingly all-powerful computer in an effort to find someone that can continue with him post the end of the world. Superman shows up and saves the Metal Men, then suggests to the scientists that it just might be his creation of a very real end of the world scenario that ends the world.

Justice League of America #227: Cavalieri and Patton/Alexander conclude their Fiatlux stoyline, and really, it's about time. Lord Claw, the third Fiatlux leader, takes control of the cult after the defeats of the other leaders in previous issues. His gimmick is the use of genetically engineered animals. Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, and Hawkwoman return from Hellrazer's dimension to join the other Leaguers in attacking Claw's island base, with only Hawkwoman having any suspicion that Zatanna has been possessed by the demon. Hellrazer emerges from Zatanna's body and kills Lord Claw, taking over Fiatlux himself, but luckily Zatanna remembers the spell that will transport the demon back to his own world.

This is a rather Marvel-type story with a fair amount of action, but it isn't really a very good one. Interestingly, a lengthy letter in this month's letter column says the problem with JLA's low sales is that the characters can't have impactful stories here (in contrast with the New Teen Titans) due the need for characters to appear elsewhere. Editorial responds that Conway is still working on a plan to deal with that...

Wonder Woman #316: Mishkin and Heck continue Wonder Woman's fight against Tezcatlipoca. She finally defeats the god (maybe) when she shatters an image which bound him to his mortal host. She frees the Amazons from his mental domination--though these strangers are still a mystery. They ask Wonder Woman if she is really Artemis and tell her that Hippolyta told them she was dead, but that the queen has "lied before." Meanwhile, Griggs meets a soldier in the Central America nation of Tropidor who tells him the rebels worship Tezcatlipoca, Steve Trevor and a gremlin near Paradise Island, and Sofia threatens Hippolyta with revealing the secret of her manipulation of Diana. Still not sure where Mishkin is going with this, but if this were a modern comic I'd say we're heading toward a soft reboot.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Beachum/Martin, the Sea-Lion takes time to gloat as he prepares to inject the captured Huntress with a mutation, giving her time to escape. Sea-Lion is defeated and taken into custody.

[Greyhawk] The Aerdian Church of Law

Nomism (not to be confused with Gnomism!) is the umbrella term for the doctrinally diverse and often competing churches of Law in the Flanaess. These traditions all hold the belief that cosmic order derived from the divine force of Law must be maintained and supported against destructive Chaos which threatens all existence.

Nomism in the Eastern Flanaess developed from Oeridian polytheism and philosophical ideas borrowed from the Bakluni and Suel. The various traditions hold in common that Law is divine and transcendent and has transmitted through holy writ a body of rules for orderly society and virtuous living. Faithful adherents are promised an afterlife in a Lawful Plane. The traditions often differ in regard to cosmogony, the status of gods, ordination of priests, and interpretation of scripture. 

The primary canonical text of the churches of the Eastern Flanaess is the Book of The Eternal Law, which is a liturgical manual, code of clerical behavior, and collection of aphorisms. Also important are the Twelve Tablets of the Law of the Aerdi which lay out the foundations and principles of Aerdian society and jurisprudence. Various commentaries on both the Twelve Tablets and Aerdian common law are also considered canonical.

The hymns and verses of the Book of The Eternal Law reveal a cosmology wherein certain gods of the Oerid tradition are viewed as "Lawful" and so worthy of veneration as "of the substance and essence" of Law. Chief among these is Pholtus, the Oeridian polytheistic god of heavenly light, though many others are considered important.

Other old gods are deemed "Chaotic" and deprecated if not outright suppressed as "antinomian" and thus, anathema. The faith also recognizes hosts of "rebel angels," beings of "the substance of Law" who broke their oaths of fealty and now work to establish their own, flawed order in the universe. These are the Devils.

Nomism views no law as entirely secular, though it does differentiate between immutable, divine principles and customary law. Nomist priests act as advisors for temporal rulers and higher-level clerics serve an appellate function for decisions of local temporal powers. The Aerdian Church which co-developed with the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, has a supreme Hierarch who is elevated above the others in their role as "Holy Censor," the highest religious authority and (theoretically) final arbiter of legal disagreements within the churches sphere.

Commentary: This is admittedly a fair bit of additional material when compared with the sparseness on this topic in the Folio and is fairly divergent in some details. Canonical Greyhawk is polytheistic (or henotheistic) with religious institutions that gesture toward historical, monotheistic models. I chose to adapt the polytheism to something more like the implied D&D setting monotheism, and got a religion that has elements of, well, a lot of real-world belief systems but in a way a think seems plausible and playable.

A Pantheon from a Picture

The above illustration by Enrique Alcatena, Argentine comic book artist extraordinaire, inspired me to create a group of deities. 

Werdagda, Dying-and-Rising, Green God of Growing Things.

• His rites are performed in sacred groves and in fields at planting and harvest
• Bees and other pollinators are considered his messengers
• Scarecrows are often made in his image
• Both wine and hallucinogenic mushrooms are used in his ceremonies

Ulumé, Lord of the Cycles of the Heavens and Fate.

• He has a dedicated priesthood of astrologer-priests who inform the community of the most auspicious time for various actives. 
• Groups of ascetic sages contemplate his mysteries and are often considered mad and touched by divinity.
• There are few rituals dedicated to him directly, but he is invoked in the beginning of most rituals to other gods and always the first and last god praised of a year.

Onorgul, Judge of the Dead

• He is depicted with the head of an onager, a beast associated with the desert wastes, and the barren, gray plains of the afterlife. By tradition, the dead are carried to their resting place on the back of a kunga.
• A braying of a donkey at night is considered an ill-omen because of its association with the god
• In the courts of the Underworld, he weighs the souls of the dead and adds those of sinners to the folds of his Hell Robe.

Tlasheeng, Lady of Beauty, Vanity, Glory and Vainglory

• Called Pavonina, for her garments of peacock feathers; peafowl are holy to her.
• Green eyes are taken as a sign of her favor.
• She is called upon by those who wish the other gods to see their deeds.
• Her festival in Midsummer called for the wearing of colorful, extravagant costumes, making extravagant boasts, and the attendance of masked revels.

Hernarl, Horned Lord of Beasts

• Guide of the hunter, but also a god to be propitiated when a kill is made.
• Acknowledged at trail-side shrines center around phallic pillars or stones
• Gives blessings in the forms of large herds, plentiful game, and healthy children
• The tolling of his bell pronounces a person's doom.
• As The Howler he is worshipped by a mystery cult in wild dances and acts of ecstatic frenzy.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 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 February 23, 1984.

World's Finest Comics #302: Grittier than usual cover this issue by Hannigan and Janson. A yacht full of rapidly decomposed corpses in Gotham is harbinger of a terrorist attack on Metropolis using a kryptonite-based plague. The mastermind demands a high ransom for the antidote, lest Gotham suffer the same fate. Superman barely escapes after having to crawl through the subway tunnels and gets to Gotham where he starts trying to find a cure while Batman does detective work in a race against time. 

The green plague and the yacht full of skeletons are pulpy details, like something out of a Norvell Page Spider novel. Kraft's story presents a problem it takes both Superman and Batman to solve without it being a cosmic-level threat, though Chen's and Marco's art gives the mystery of the mastermind's identity away by rendering him with a look that says "villain" from the moment he's introduced.

Action Comics #555: It's the 25th Anniversary of Supergirl's debut in Action Comics and all Kupperberg and Swan/Hunt got us was an appearance by the Parasite. The baddie returns to Earth, saps Superman's powers as he's wont to do, and traps Supes in an airtight prison with only minutes of breathable air. The ever-resourceful Superman uses the super- hard lenses of his glasses to cut through the side of the container, escapes, and then hypnotizes the Parasite into restoring his super-powers. After he imprisons Parasite, he goes to meet Supergirl, fulfilling the anniversary requirement of this issue.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #19:  Kupperberg and Duursema pick up with our heroes still reeling from the drowning of Khe-Wannatu. There's little time for grief, though, because Garn Danuuth isn't done. He summons the dark god, Thalas, and Arion and the Golden Goddess Deedra must do battle with them. Deedra turns Garn to gold and she and Thalas leave this plane, but poor Arion is left underwater to drown. He's saved by Fawndancer, Wyynde's wife, who has somehow been transformed into a mermaid.

I perhaps don't comment enough on what a unique comic Arion is. It's very much Dr. Strange meets Conan with some elements from literary high fantasy of the era thrown in. I think it has some of the problems of Dr. Strange, like not well defining what magic can do and how it works leading to a lot of "the solution is this thing we've just introduced this issue" and the weaknesses of trying to adapt high fantasy (a genre that traditionally engages in a lot of rigorous worldbuilding) to the comics approach of making it up as we go. It is an interesting experiment, though.

All-Star Squadron #33: Thomas and Hoberg/Collins deliver a split story.  On Earth-X, Uncle Sam and the nascent Freedom Fighters battle a Japanese attack on Santa Barbara only to come face to face with Baron Blitzkrieg who has Hourman in a deathtrap. On Earth-Two, Firebrand and Johnny Quick meet Neptune Perkins, while Starman and Liberty Belle spy on a meeting of Japanese Americans where Tsunami tries to get them to join the Japanese cause. When they refuse, she lashes out, injuring her own father.

Meanwhile, The Spectre is still being held between worlds by the command of the Voice. He tries to get back to Earth-Two but finds his efforts are threatening to draw both Earth-Two and Earth-X together--and maybe destroy them both.

Detective Comics #538: Moench and Colan/Smith bring a mildly amusing follow up to this month's Batman. Collins, Catman's former cellmate, is allowed to break out of prison so he can lead Batman and the police to the loot from his last heist. He steals Catman's costume, and thinks it's giving him nine lives, but it's really Batman secretly helping him out of danger. After a cave in, Batman finds the loot, but Catman winds up in the Batcave, where a weary Batman confronts him and beats the hell out of him.

In a more somber Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and McManus/Marcos, we get parallel stories of Ollie taking down a gunrunner, Jacaruso, while remembering three years ago how he was to have an interview with a famous musician (heavily implied to be John Lennon) only to have the musician killed in front of him just before. Interestingly, Ollie is referred to as a "gonzo journalist" in this story.

Jonah Hex #84: Hex buys some new guns and heads down to New Orleans on a job to protect the beautiful daughter, Adrian, of a wealthy man from a kidnapping scheme. The girl falls for Hex, naturally, and her fiance is, naturally, not happy about it. They are jumped at Mardi Gras and Hex and Adrian are taken, but ultimately Hex gets them out. The cowardly fiance is out, and now Adrian plans to marry Hex.

Meanwhile, we see Hart and Mei Ling, and Jonah's son who somehow looks about 6 now. Then there's Emmy Lou, still being held captive by the robber, whose advances she keeps spurning.

Nathaniel Dusk #4: McGregor and Colan come to the conclusion, which feels a bit abrupt, but that's not uncommon for the detective genre. Dusk escapes a death by ferry propellor and gets out of the river. He's figured out his friendly corner newsstand owner has been informing on him to the mob. After he confronts that guy, he goes to meet Joyce's mother. She reveals that Joyce was married to an abusive mobster who have never accepted she ran away from him. The blonde goon greets Dusk as he leaves the old woman's apartment, and he's again treated to a deathtrap with an injection of rat poison. After a night in the hospital, he goes to confront the mobster. Blondie accidentally kills his boss in the conflict, then Dusk sets the guy's curly hair on hair in the scuffle. 

Some have complained there isn't a whole lot of mystery here, just "scuffles and chases," which is true, but this is a detective story, so I don't think it's out of bounds. At worst, it's one twist short. I would agree the story is slight for the run time and is filled with action set pieces. It's a level of action more akin to 70s film and TV shows than a reflection of pulp fiction gumshoes, and the ending the first 3 issues on a cliffhanger feels like movie serials. 

New Adventures of Superboy #53: A lot going on this issue, but the first thing to notice is how different Schaffenberger looks under Giella's inks. After their first assault on Earth fails, aliens from Drulok ally themselves with the Superboy Revenge Squad against Superboy, but that doesn't come to a whole lot this issue. While dealing with these aliens, Clark has to deal with Lana making a play for him in jealousy over his relationship with Lisa. Councilman and profiteer Gary Simmons escalates his attempts to keep Jonathan Kent from running for political office by taking a hit out on him.

Ronin #5: I had almost forgotten this series was still going. Anyway, the Ronin and Casey get closer, and she begins to be able to see things the way he does. For instance, Virgo's new robot soldiers appear as demonic samurai. Meanwhile, McKenna thinks he has pieced most of it together: Billy's telekinetic powers were greater than anyone, but Virgo knew. He created this Ronin identity from TV shows he saw as a child. But what's Virgo after, and what's her role? Five issues in Miller has really established his own style and the influence of European comics and Japanese manga seems more subsumed into his vision.

Setting Presentation Again

 Not for the first time, I've been thinking about the best presentation style for setting material. This time it was prompted by re-reading the Greyhawk Folio and noting it's ergodic nature. While I'm partial to the format I used in Strange Stars, it is very picture heavy and probably works better for science fiction than for fantasy. I am fond of the approach Jack Shear took in Krevborna and here's an attempt at the Holy See of Medegia (which I've covered before. Sorry!) presented in a format that borrows a bit from that and a bit from other places like Fabula Ultima and Strange Stars OSR.

MEDEGIA

The Holy See of Medegia

Theocrat fiefdom ruled by a corrupt cleric allied to the Overking of Aerdy

While nominally still the supreme religious authority in the Aerdi lands, the Holy Censor has seen his clerical authority decline with the weakening of the Great Kingdom, even as his temporal power has increased over holdings granted and seized around the city of Mentrey. The Censor remains an ally to the Malachite Throne, if a cautious one, he cares little for the moral or temporal restoration of Aerdy so long as he can continue to fill his own coffers.

Aesthetics: High-spired temples; imposing and stern marble statues of Lawful gods; clergy dressed in finery, the poor groveling for alms outside the temple doors; swaggering mercenaries in livery of the temples, chained debtor in public stocks

Locales: forbidden, hidden library of the Holy See, reliquary with the remains of saints of heroes, secret site to worship chaos gods in the forest

People:

• Spidasa, His Equitable Nemesis, Holy Censor of Medegia. Unimaginative as he is venal and grasping.
• Sister Hildegrund, Imposing, scarfaced former paladin with a vow to aid the poor. Abbess of a hospital in Pontylver.
• Captain Ribaldo Belswagger, Captain of the City Guard, mustachioed dandy who is always looking for a bribe.
• Delienn Goodfellow, Wood elf bandit, Robin Hood-type figure to the rural peasantry.

So with this I was looking to convey the basics of the area so that a DM could understand it quickly and know how to convey it features in game. I also wanted adventure seeds to immediately come to mind. I probably would even suggest some possibilities, but I also want to keep it short. The bit of history paraphrasing the Folio might be unnecessary, but I feel like it helps the entirety of the setting cohere, maybe.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1984 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics Santa might have stuffed in a stocking that were published February 16, 1984, the week of my eleventh birthday.

Warlord #81: This was the only issue from this birthday week for me that I bought on the stands. I discussed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and friends move toward a mysterious, more technologically advanced city. She discovered Barasha was educated there for a time in his youth. Lurking nearby, however, is a Qlov scouting party.

Batman and the Outsiders #10: Lightle/Trapani take over art this issue. Black Lightning is a prisoner and meets the woman that arranged his capture: the mother of Trina Shelton, the young woman whose death resulted from his actions. Faced with his obvious guilt and remorse over what happened, Mrs. Shelton begins to have second thoughts about the whole "hiring supervillains to execute someone" thing.

The Outsiders come looking for their comrade. Batman gets into the Masters of Disaster's hideout in the guise of Matches Malone. The others stage a full-on assault. During the ensuing battle, the repentant Mrs. Shelton jumps in the way of a blast fired by Heatstroke, taking the blast meant for Black Lightning. The Masters are routed, and the heroes go home.

Green Lantern #176: Wein and Gibbons/Giordano continue the story from last issue. Jordan's body is in a coma and is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, his intellect is trapped inside the Shark's mind, as are the Shark's other victims. The Shark is toying with them before he consumes them, but Jordan still has access to his power ring's energy and manages to hold him at bay for a time. His ring's charge will on last so long, though, but luckily Carol figures out it might help and brings the power battery to Hal's semi-conscious body and coaxes him into recharging his ring. He floods the Shark's mind with green energy and frees all the captives. Then, GL has to stop the Shark from getting more radioactive material in the physical world. In the melee, the Shark appears to die in an explosion.

Meanwhile Congressman Bloch calls the Monitor, unaware Smith from Con-Trol is spying on him.  The Monitor agrees to help Bloch and calls in the Demolition Team. At Ferris Aircraft, Rich Davis and Bruce Gordon are discussing the new solar-engine powered jet. Richard is still having chest pain and dismissing it. Bruce finds a threatening note under his blueprints and assumes it comes from Bloch.

Infinity, Inc. #2: The Thomases and Ordway/Machlan finish off the origin of the team and get them up to the point of their first appearance in All-Star Squadron. While the newcomers argue about their next move, Brainwave, Jr. crashes the JSA setting and gets into a fight with them, leading Star-Spangled Kid to make a decision. He forms a team, Infinity, Inc., and invites the six newcomers Power Girl, and the Huntress to join. After that Ultra-Humanite blasts them, and then the events that lead to All-Star Squadron #25 occur. 

This is kind of an odd way to introduce a new team. Ending a two-issue arc with a sort of "now you know the rest of the story" doesn't really build moment for the next issue and provides a convenient jumping off point. I think it might have been better to start after the All-Star issues and flashback to how they came together.

Legion of Super-Heroes #311: There are two stories in this issue. In the first by Levitz, Brainiac 5 has a showdown Computo, whose mind he's trying to separate from Danielle Foccart's body. He succeeds and gets a new Legion HQ in the process, but he has to blow the old one up first. The story plays lighter than most and Giffen's art brings the humor to the fore.

The second story has art by Colan and Mahlstedt. Wildfire goes in search of Dawnstar, who is still on her cultural proscribed quest for a soulmate. We get to see Dawnstars homeworld and her people, at least briefly. In the end, Dawnstar decides Wildstar is what she is looking for at least in terms of love and friendship, despite his lack of a physical body.

New Talent Showcase #5: The cover feature of this issue is Dragon Knights by Scianna and Scarborough who don't seem to have done anything else beyond this. It's a fantasy that aims at a bit of whimsy, I think, with somewhat cartoony art, but while there may be a kernel of something here it's amateurish. There's a quest in the offing, a brother and sister raised by a wizard must find the Dragon Knights to stop the big bad.

The most accomplished story this issue is "Moon River" a science fiction tale that I wonder if was originally submitted for one of DC's anthology titles and inventoried. It's a clearly Logan's Run-inspired story of a dystopian future, would-be escapees, and animal themed hunters. It marks the debut of Mindy Newell, who will go on to do a lot of work at DC and at First, and Cara Sherman-Tereno, who has a short-listed of credits, but still got work throughout the 80s at DC and First.

We also catch up with Feral Man (Ringgenberg and Carlson) and Ekko (Margopoulos and Lightle). Ekko continues to read like an indie supers title maybe based on someone's Champions campaign with the number of costumed characters it introduces every installment, but it has the most polished art with Lightle's accomplished use of screentone. The primetime supers conspiracy story of Feral Man probably has the better story of the two by a hair (heh), but its art is notably less accomplished.

Sgt. Rock #388: Pretty standard stuff. In the main story by Kanigher and Redondo, a little Arab girl takes a liking to Bulldozer after he gives her some chocolates and warns Easy of bandits robbing corpses of equipment to sell on the black market. When the raiders come after her in reprisal, Bulldozer defeats them in a firefight but is unable to save the girl. The second story by Harris and Lindsey is one of those "impaired soldier scared and alone is guided to safety by a voice on a communication device, only to later find the device didn't work and there was no one there." Sometimes this sort of plot is an implied ghost story, but this one ends with no ready explanation.

Supergirl #19: Linda Danvers is watching TV with her friend when she's startled to see Supergirl on it. She decides to go confront this imposter, but discovers she no longer has her kryptonian powers! Meanwhile, Supergirl keeps having fleeting thoughts of another identity she doesn't quite remember. Ultimately, it turns out that the Linda Danvers is actually formed from the diminutive Supergirl clones that Supergirl depowered a few issues ago. The real Supergirl gets her memory and identity restored and the clone is promised a life of her own. 

Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner deliver a short of off-beat story that, for its unusualness, is one of the most interesting in the series so far. It does share some similarities, at least in concept, with a Spider-Man story by Flanagan/Butler from What If? #30 (1981).

Saga of Swamp Thing #24: Despite the cover, Moore and Bissette/Totleben use the JLA in what amounts to a cameo. The Floronic Man announces his intentions to the world. He's going to have plants pump out oxygen to force humanity to abandon fire or destroy themselves. The JLA debates what to do, but isn't able to come up with a solution that could stop him when he has the Earth's plant-life on his side. Thankfully, Swamp Thing is here to break his arm, then point out that he's harming the Green and is acting just like another human. The plants reject him, and Woodrue is forced to flee, then is captured by the League to take to Arkham. Swamp Thing reveals to Abbie what he now knows of his origin and tells her he is at last happy.

Postcards from the Flanaess

 In thinking about Greyhawk for my recent posts, I've been inspired by Anna Meyer's great maps. Particularly her climate map which has challenged me to consider locations in the context of not just their historical European cultural inspirations, but their often not-European climate.

Ket

I didn't mention it in my post on Ket, but Meyer places it in the Dfa (humid continental) region which would make it like much of the American Midwest, perhaps Nebraska as pictured above.

Perrenland

Greyhawk's Switzerland Meyer puts in the Bsk (cold, semi-arid) Köppen climate region. Something like Denver or Boulder CO would be similar.

Lordship of the Isles

On Meyer's map, these islands fall into the Cfa (humid subtropical) region like the American Southeast or Bermuda. Given that they are in the tropics, though, I wonder if they might be better represented by Cuba or the Florida Keys and be mostly tropical savanna (Aw)

Keoland

Though the U1 describes the area of Saltmarsh being like the coast of Southern England, its location would put it in a climate region Af (tropical rainforest).