Wednesday Comics: I Hate Fairyland

I Hate Fairyland #1 (October 2015), Story and art by Skottie Young

There once was a 6 year-old girl name Gertrude who fell into Fairyland. The kindly Queen Cloudia gave her a map and a guide named Larrigon Wentsworth III and set her on a quest to find her way  home. Twenty-seven years later,Gertrude is physically no older, but is psychologically an adult--with a bad attitude.

So begins Skottie Young's comedic, hyperviolent send-up of the likes Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. When Gertrude gets into an argument with the Moon, whose narration of her exploits is annoying her:

She also trips out after eating a bunch of mushroom guards in the city of Las Fungus and angers Queen Cloudia so much she sends a barbarian hit-man after her.

Young (who also, ironically, illustrated Marvel's latest Oz book adaptations) has a style that's part modern animation and part classic comic strip. Everything here works great. The main question is whether he can maintain the tone and energy over an extended run.

Strange Stars OSR NPCs & Adversaries

I completed a chapter on the Strange Stars old school rule book this weekend--the second completely done, though a few others are close. This chapter provides Stars Without Number stats for a number of monsters, encounters, and potential adversaries from the setting. Here's a contents list:

Algosian Torture Cultist
Caliban
Boma
Eratoan Assassin
Hannibal T. Early
Hellhound
Ksaa Cold Egg
Kuath
Minga
Necromancer
Quickling
Runic Dragon
Scavenger
Slaver
Ssraad (Blue, Green, Red)
Skulker of Tenebrae
Telosian
Thrax
Voidglider
Vokun Lord
Wanderer Avatar
Xann
Zao Pirate
Zhmun Lord

The Mummy Unwrapped

by R.L. Allen

Halloween draws ever nearer, and with it, a bandaged wrapped form shambles out of the darkness. Too classic mummy-centric posts rocket from the crypt: 2010's "Famous Monsters: The Mummy" and 2013's unwrapping of variant mummy, revealing that "Mo' Mummies" may mean more than mo' problems.

Frankenstein Reprise

Halloween approaches. Cue up the Edgar Winter track and revisit a couple of classic posts about the modern Prometheus. From 2010, here's "Famous Monsters: Frankenstein." Make it a double feature with 2012's "New Flavors of Frankenstein." (And you thought it he only came in green!)

The Cloud Castle of Azurth

This is a map of the Cloud Castle of Azurth and its environs by Arlin Ortiz. Here are some points of interest:

The Vitrified Forest, where lives a man with a very fancy hat.
The Terrarium, giant-sized, as is everything in it.
The Tower. where Zykloon, the Tornado Tyrant dwells.
The Air Docks, where visitors once arrived to see the sights.
The Lair of the Cloud Dragon, perhaps not forlorn, but lonely.
A Cosmic Cat, curled upon a fallen star.

Horror Comic Name Generator

Since the days of EC, horror comic names often have a certain ring to them. Use this hand generator to create your own just in time for Halloween!

Apply rolls on the table to the following patterns to generate titles:

[B] of [C]
[A][B]
[A][C]
[A][B] of [C]
[A][B] of [A][C]
[C] of the [A][B]

Over There

Take the fairyland across the border of Lud-in-the-Mist or A Fall of Stardust. In between it and the "real world" there is a wall or barrier-- let's say an "Anti-Alien Protection Rampart" in official terminology. Instead of England on the real world side there's East Berlin and the GDR or some sutble Eastern Bloc stand-in. Drüben indeed,

While "Workers of the World, Unite Against the Faerie!" would be interesting enough, recasting the fairy presence with some Zone phenomena-like details out of Roadside Picnic and a bit of the seductiveness of the Festival from Singularity Sky: "Entertain us and we will give you want you want." Faerie should be weird and horrifying but also weird and wondrous--in a horrific way, naturally. Miracles, wonders, and abominations.

Of course, the authorities don't want anybody having interaction with the faerie, much less smuggling in their reality-warping, magical tech--and maybe they have a point. But if PCs did the smart thing they wouldn't be adventurers, would they?