Monthly Archives: November 2012

Welcome to my new blog

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I already have a long established RevolutionSF blog called The Culture where I record my thoughts on the comics books I read. This new one will have a slightly different focus.

I have been collecting comics on and off for the last 30 years or so and there are a number of series that I would like to re-read – mainly from the eighties and nineties. Most of these will be from Vertigo but there are others from DC, Marvel and 2000AD that I would like to read too. So I will record these readings here separate from my main blog.

The final spur to actually do this is the news from DC that the only ongoing title throughout Vertigo’s 20 years of existence, John Constantine, Hellblazer, is to end with issue 300 and move back to DC as part of the New 52. Like most fanboys, my views on this change are not entirely positive but the closing out of the series on Vertigo means that now is probably a good time to go back and revisit the series as I have been meaning to do for some time.

So all things John Constantine will be my first focus. I will look at some of his appearances in Swamp Thing before moving onto his own series and the associated spin-off series that he also appeared in. I will probably not start before December so you have time to dig out your old back issues if you want to join in.

My Skyfall review

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Even though RevolutionSF hosts this blog, I know some of you may not routinely check out the main page. For y’all slackers, here’s the news that I reviewed the latest James Bond Skyfall for the site.

One of the finest James Bond installments, 2006’s magnificent Casino Royale infused an air of realism rarely seen in the previous films. Daniel Craig’s expert portrayal of the neophyte agent hearkened back to the dark, less humorous visage of Fleming’s novels. Picking up immediately after the conclusion of Royale, the disappointing Quantum of Solace paled in comparison to its predecessor, derailing much of the hoped-for future promise of the series. In the franchise’s 50th year, Craig returns for his third outing in Skyfall, a picture that successfully returns to the excitement and quality of Casino Royale.

 

 

Read the rest…

 

 

The New Deadwardians #1-8 (2012)

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“One day I recall, I had to re-kill my entire platoon.”

The New Deadwardians #1 cover

This recently finished 8 part mini-series from Vertigo was created by writer Dan Abnett and artist I.N.J. Culbard. Abnett has had a long career as a writer of prose books, most notably a large number of Warhammer 40K novels, and comics books mainly for Marvel and 2000AD. Ian Culbard has illustrated a number of adaptions of literary works including  Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, H.P. Lovecraft stories and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars.

Set in an alternate history London of 1910, a curse has spread across England since zombies (known as the Restless) first mysteriously appeared in 1861. Attracted by the living, the only cure is to become a vampire (known as the Young) an option taken up mainly by the wealthy and privileged members of society. The rest of the human race (known as the Bright) live in barricaded zones surrounded by hundreds of the Restless pressing in attracted by the living. In this setting, Chief Inspector George Suttle is called on to investigate the murder of a Young aristocrat who death is made more mysterious by not being due to one of the three ways to kill the Young. During his investigation, Suttle has to cross into a Bright zone and deal with the reawakening of long dormant desires as well as secret societies and pressure to close the case quickly without any scandal.

Abnett has taken some very old (and possibly tired) supernatural species and managed to weave a fresh story full of intrigue. The zombies are mostly background threat with a couple of incursions in the living zones of London. The most interesting relationship is between the Young and the Bright and the simmering resentment that pervades the whole series. Suttle goes through a transformative experience when made to interact with the Bright that challenges the life (or unlife) he has been leading for nearly 50 years. I liked the art by Ian Culbard and the subtle colour palette used throughout the book. Worth a look for a different take on some classic horror tropes.

Aces & Eights – The Legend of Pecos Jake

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In my every-other-Sunday group we have returned to my long-running Aces & Eights campaign. I have a lot of material on that campaign that I’ll eventually set up at this blog, but for now you can follow it at its own site, Guns In the Cauldron.

In our most recent session, French-Canadian mountain man Antoine Beaujoureaux, slick-talking grifter Sly Murray, and famous young gunfighter (and recently appointed deputy marshal) Pecos Jake spent a couple of weeks settling into their new home in Lazarus, a prospecting boomtown in a little green valley just south of the San Juan Mountains.

Jake decided he liked the respect he got from wearing a deputy’s star, and he and Antoine helped rebuild the establishments that burned down the night of their last fight with the One Spur Gang. Antoine befriended a wealthy Indian with a familiar name who’d just moved into town. Sly set about making friends (or at least marks) among the townfolk and decided to try his hand at politics.

And the newspaper, the Lazarus Spectator, carried the news of their arrival and their battle with the One Spur Gang out to all the towns in the region — including some where Jake and Antoine may have left old enemies behind.

Read the detailed Actual Play report here.

John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Devil’s Trench Coat (2012)

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“Welcome to Hell, John …”

With this latest collection (#283-291), the regular creative team since #250 – Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini – are just one issue away from matching the previous longest run on the series. This was the peerless run in the early 1990s by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

The book contains two related stories from the long running series -The Devil’s Trench Coat and Another Season in Hell. In the first, Constantine’s niece has stolen his old trench coat and sold it. But the coat being exposed to years of magic has a will of its own that it exerts on a series of new owners leaving death in its wake. Meanwhile John finds that he is more susceptible to wild magic and not as finessed in the spells he casts. All of which results in a Mafia hit man trying to gun him down while possessed by the coat. In the second story Constantine agrees to go to Hell to speak to his sister so that his niece, Gemma, can find out why she found her mother crying one day and free her soul from Hell. While John thinks he has out-smarted the First of the Fallen, the demon comes to Earth to enlist Epiphany’s consent to bind her father’s soul to him.

During his run, Milligan has done a good job of taking Constantine back to the basics of the character and gradually introducing a darker tone to the storyline. This book contains some of the darkest material yet with the dark magic radiated from his old trench coat to Constantine’s return to Hell and his revenge on his evil twin for raping his niece. Not comfortable viewing or reading at times but a must for long time Constantine fans and horror lovers.

The One Ring — The Old Road Trading Company

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The player-characters in our campaign of The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild have changed a bit over time, as heroes in long-term games often do. We started with Kester, Falco, Gismund, and Caranthir, and at the hobbits’ encouragement those four founded the Old Road Trading Company to bring goods — especially pipeweed! — from the Shire to Rhovanion.

Today Gismund and Caranthir are joined by newer companions as Falco’s player is away at school and Kester’s player (that’s me) is running the game while our other Loremaster is taking night classes. Here’s a look at the companions and their present disposition.

Also online: A Tale of Years.

Beli of the Lonely Mountain

The dwarf warrior Beli traveled with the Old Road Trading Company in their 2948 journey across the Misty Mountains and back.

  • Culture and Standing: Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain, Standing 1.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 6 (8), Heart 3 (6), Wits 5 (6).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 3, Wisdom 2, Endurance 31, Hope 13, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Battle, Craft, Search, Song, Travel; Mattock.
  • Specialties: Fire-Making, Burglary, Tunnelling.
  • Distinctive Features: Cunning, Suspicious.
  • Rewards: Grievous and Keen Mattock.
  • Virtues: Confidence.
  • Calling: Treasure-Hunter.

Caranthir of the Woodland Realm

A very young elf at only 160 years of age, dark-haired Caranthir comes from a high house of Thranduil’s people. A minor lord or knight of Thranduil’s court, he fought in the Battle of the Five Armies and saw first-hand the value of alliance with the other Free Peoples. He has spent the last few years adventuring with friends from beyond the Elvenking’s lands, drawn by curiosity to see and learn things for himself that have been unknown to the wood-elves for long years in their isolation. Caranthir is often stern but his adventures with men and hobbits seem to have lightened his spirits in ways that the merriment of the wood-elves could not.

  • Culture and Standing: Elf of Mirkwood, Standing 3.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 4 (7), Heart 4 (6), Wits 6 (7).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 4, Endurance 26, Hope 14, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Athletics, Awareness, Battle, Inspire, Lore, Travel; Bow, Sword.
  • Specialties: Elven-Lore, Fire-Making, Rhymes of Lore.
  • Distinctive Features: Lordly, Quick of Hearing.
  • Rewards: Keen and Grievous Sword (Galgos, “Lightning”), Mail Shirt of Cunning Make.
  • Virtues: Confidence, Elvish Dreams, The Speakers.
  • Calling: Scholar.

Falco Proudfoot

Falco and his brother Kester came from the Shire across the Misty Mountains and so to the Long Lake a few years after Bilbo Baggins’ return from his great adventure. The Proudfoot brothers were first cousins of Bilbo; their mother Ophelia and Bilbo’s mother Belladonna were sisters, daughters of the Old Took. Falco and Kester befriended Gismund of Dale and Caranthir the wood-elf and immediately set out to have as many adventures and get as rich as Bilbo himself. Falco was always the more rakish of the brothers, with light fingers and a lighter conscience.

  • Culture and Standing: Hobbit of the Shire, Standing 1.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 2 (4), Heart 7 (8), Wits 5 (8).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 3, Endurance 23, Hope 21, Shadow 2.
  • Key Skills: Battle, Courtesy, Stealth, Travel; Shortsword.
  • Specialties: Gardening, Storytelling, Burglary.
  • Distinctive Features: Elusive, Robust, Small.
  • Rewards: King’s Sword (“Stalk Chopper”), Cunning and Lucky Leather Corselet.
  • Virtues: Confidence, Small Folk.
  • Calling: Treasure-Hunter.

Frerin the Far-Traveled, Son of Farin

Always accompanied by his best friend, the raven named Hrafn — a wealthy prince among birds, with more treasure in its nest than most men see in a lifetime — Frerin the dwarf joined the company in their return from the Shire to Esgaroth, and then accompanied them on an expedition into Mirkwood and in a battle against hill-giants in Greenfields the next year.

  • Culture and Standing: Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain, Standing 2.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 7 (8), Heart 2 (3), Wits 5 (7).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 4, Endurance 30, Hope 10, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Craft, Persuade, Search, Travel; Axe.
  • Specialties: Folk-Lore, Smoking, Trading.
  • Distinctive Features: Cautious, Cunning.
  • Rewards: Fell, Grievous and Keen Axe (“Giant’s Bane”).
  • Virtues: Confidence, Expertise in Persuade, Ravens of the Mountain.
  • Calling: Wanderer.

Gismund of Dale, King’s Man

Gismund apprenticed with dwarves of the Lonely Mountain as a blacksmith before devoting himself full-time to adventuring and serving King Bard. Gismund comes from a large, still-growing family, with something around a dozen younger brothers and sisters. In the last year the king made Gismund marshal of Greenfields, a farming region in the Dale-lands. Gismund was very young for such trust but the kingdom is newly returned and he proved himself on dangerous errands for the king and the king’s allies.

  • Culture and Standing: Barding, Standing 4.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 5 (7), Heart 7 (10), Wits 2 (3).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 4, Endurance 32, Hope 19, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Awareness, Battle, Insight, Inspire, Persuade, Travel; Sword.
  • Specialties: Old Lore, Smith-Craft.
  • Distinctive Features: Adventurous, Generous, Afraid of Spiders, Elf-Friend.
  • Rewards: Mail Hauberk of Doubly Cunning Make, Tower Shield.
  • Virtues: King’s Man, Confidence (x2).
  • Calling: Treasure-Hunter.

Kester Proudfoot

Kester prides himself on keeping his brother Falco out of too much trouble, for while he is  good-hearted, generous and unfailingly courteous he is also undyingly loyal to his little brother. Always cheerful, Kester has composed countless songs of the companions’ travels to while away the long hours of exploring and hiking across the Wild. When the brothers returned to the Shire in 2348, Kester commissioned a fine new hobbit-hole for them to share and hired a household of local hobbits to build it and take care of it. He also made trading allies of his first cousin Bilbo Baggins, his first cousin Fortinbras Took the Thain, and the mayor in Michel Delving. He and Falco run the Old Road Trading Company out of their fine home and a warehouse in Esgaroth on the Long Lake.

  • Culture and Standing: Hobbit of the Shire, Standing 4.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 4 (6), Heart 6 (9), Wits 4 (5).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 3, Wisdom 3, Endurance 22, Hope 18, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Awareness, Courtesy, Hunting, Persuade, Song, Stealth; Bow.
  • Specialties: Folk-Lore, Smoking, Storytelling.
  • Distinctive Features: Fair-Spoken, Reckless.
  • Rewards: Fell and Keen Bow.
  • Virtues: Fair Shot, Tough in the Fiber.
  • Calling: Wanderer.

Theodore Took

A cousin of Kester and Falco Proudfoot and a sometimes hunting companion of Kester’s, Theodore Took often wandered and explored the bounds of the Shire even before Bilbo’s return from afar sparked his imagination. When Kester and Falco came home wealthy and well-traveled and then went east again, he couldn’t resist. Theodore obtained the blessing of the Thain and letters of introduction from Bilbo — who had become rather accustomed to writing them for adventurous hobbits — and persuaded dwarf traders from the Blue Mountains to let him accompany them to the Wild just as his cousins had done a few years before. When Theodore reached Esgaroth, his cousins put him in the care of their partners Gismund and Caranthir.

  • Culture and Standing: Hobbit of the Shire, Standing 1.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 2 (4), Heart 7 (8), Wits 5 (8).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 3, Endurance 23, Hope 19, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Awareness, Battle, Hunting, Courtesy, Riddle, Stealth; Dagger, Bow.
  • Specialties: Folk-Lore, Herb-Lore, Smoking.
  • Distinctive Features: Bold, Elusive, Elf-Friend.
  • Rewards: Fell and Grievous Bow of the North Downs.
  • Virtues: Art of Disappearing, Fair Shot.
  • Calling: Wanderer.

The Red Stag

A woodman who abandoned his name and became a wandering warrior after orcs slew his family  in their steading near Woodmen-town. He encountered Gismund of Dale, Caranthir of the Woodland Realm, and Theodore Took of the Shire in the Misty Mountains near the ancient ruins of Haycombe, where he helped Gismund recover from an orc-arrow’s poison and undertook a strange, dreaming adventure to help the companions protect the elf-maiden Irimë from an evil spirit.

  • Culture and Standing: Woodman of Wilderland, Standing 1.
  • Attributes (Favored): Body 4 (5), Heart 5 (8), Wits 5 (7).
  • Other Ratings: Valour 3, Wisdom 4, Endurance 25, Hope 15, Shadow 0.
  • Key Skills: Battle, Craft, Explore, Healing, Song, Stealth, Travel; Long-Hafted Axe.
  • Specialties: Anduin-Lore, Leechcraft, Orc-Lore.
  • Distinctive Features: Elf-Friend, Hardy, True-Hearted.
  • Rewards: Keen Bearded Axe, Feathered Mail Shirt.
  • Virtues: Fell-Handed, Herbal Remedies, Hunter’s Resolve, Staunching Song.
  • Calling: Slayer.

Shareholders

These are the owners of the Old Road Trading Company. (Each share represented an investment of 400 silver pennies, or 20 points of Treasure.)

  • Falco Proudfoot (5 shares).
  • Gismund of Dale (4 shares).
  • Bilbo Baggins (2 shares).
  • Kester Proudfoot (2 shares).
  • Beli of the Lonely Mountain (1 share).
  • Caranthir of the Woodland Realm (1 share).
  • Frerin the Far-Traveled, son of Farin, of the Lonely Mountain (1 share).

Graphic novels received 10/31/12

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Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

"Came the Dawn" and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library)

“Came the Dawn” and Other Stories

Written by Al Feldstein, Gardner Fox, and others
Art by Wallace Wood

Promo copy: 

Horror and crime shockers from the EC vaults, illustrated by a comics grandmaster.

Wallace Wood applied his preternaturally lush brushwork to over two dozen stories in the thematically overlapping (“dreadful things happen to people, both innocent and guilty”) horror, crime, and suspense genres. This work is the subject of one of the two premiere releases in Fantagraphics’ highly-anticipated new EC reprint line.

Taking its title from one of Wood’s all-time classics, the evil little paranoid thriller “Came the Dawn,” this collection features page after page after page of Wood’s sleek and meticulously crafted artwork put in the service of cunning twist-ending stories, most often from the typewriter of EC editor Al Feldstein.

These tales range from supernatural shockers from the pages of Tales From the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear (“The Living Corpse,” “Terror Ride,” “Man From the Grave,” “Horror in the Freak Tent”) to often pointedly contemporary crime thrillers from Crime SuspenStories (“The Assault,” “The Whipping,” and “Confession,” which was singled out for specific excoriation in the anti-comics screed Seduction of the Innocent, thus giving it a special cachet), but the breathtaking art and whiplash-inducing shock endings are constants throughout.

Like every book in the Fantagraphics EC line, “Came the Dawn!” will feature extensive essays and notes on these classic stories by EC experts — but the real “meat” of the matter (sometimes literally, in the grislier stories) will be supplied by these ofted lurid, sometimes downright over-the-top, but always compelling and superbly crafted, classic comic-book masterpieces.

 

WOW! OH WOW!

 

Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories

Hand-Drying in America And Other Stories

by Ben Katchor

Promo copy:

From one of the most original and imaginative American cartoonists at work today comes a collection of graphic narratives on the subjects of urban planning, product design, and architecture—a surrealist handbook for the rebuilding of society in the twenty-first century.

Ben Katchor, a master at twisting mundane commodities into surreal objects of social significance, now takes on the many ways our property influences and reflects cultural values. Here are window-ledge pillows designed expressly for people-watching and a forest of artificial trees for sufferers of hay fever. The Brotherhood of Immaculate Consumption deals with the matter of products that outlive their owners; a school of dance is based upon the choreographic motion of paying with cash; high-visibility construction vests are marketed to lonely people as a method of getting noticed. With cutting wit Katchor reveals a world similar to our own—lives are defined by possessions, consumerism is a kind of spirituality—but also slightly, fabulously askew. Frequently and brilliantly bizarre, and always mesmerizing, Hand-Drying in America ensures that you will never look at a building, a bar of soap, or an ATM the same way.

Anomaly

Anomaly

Written by Skip Brittenham
Art by Brian Haberlin

Promo copy:

EARTH 2717: THE 3RD GOLDEN AGE

Building a better tomorrow today…

The planet we call home slowly dies beneath us.

Most humans now live in teeming surface “Terrarium Cities,” off world colonies or orbiting space stations. All of earth’s resources have been depleted.

All corporations, nations and technologies have merged into THE CONGLOMERATE, whose Enforcer Battalions now conquer whole planets to feed its shareholders’ insatiable appetites.

THE CONGLOMERATE,  which began with the spirit of the best mankind had to offer, saved humanity from itself by taking us to the stars and has become the most ruthless profit machine to ever exist.

Never use a robot when a human will do…

Dishonorably discharged from the Conglomerate’s elite Enforcer Corps, Jon is doing a job too lowly for a robot. He leaps at the chance to go on a peaceful, first contact mission to an untainted world. Playing armed babysitter to Samantha, the daughter of a powerful Conglomerate executive, shouldn’t be too hard.

What could go wrong?

Everything…

For Jon, it’s a relief to get away – on an easy assignment protecting a couple of do-gooders visiting a peaceful new planet. For Samantha, it’s a mission to change the world. For Jasson, it’s a chance to put his theories to the test.

Being marooned on Anomaly where technology doesn’t work, the terrain is lethal and the creatures even more so, Jon quickly learns he’s not the man he once was. Dark secrets surround the various species that call this world home. Jon’s actions here have the potential to ripple across the void of space, and touch everything in it… Maybe even the Conglomerate…

But when Anomaly sprouts synthetics-eating viruses, flesh-eating mutants and deadly magic, it becomes a race against which form of death will come first. Who will survive? Who will return?

Join us on an adventure that reclaims our humanity and saves a world!

Bonus: includes Anomaly UAR that integrates the print and virtual experience like never before.

 

Rocksalt Issue 5- October 2012

Contributors:

Jeanne Thornton (fictioncircus.com/Jeanne )
Sam Hurt (eyebeam.com)
Aaron Whitaker (www.aaronwhitaker.com)
Mack White (mackwhite.com)
M. Austin Bedell (skweegieisland.com/)
Gilbert Smith (crithit.org/spooky)
K. F. Harlock (crithit.org)
Nouri Zarrugh (www.nourizarrughart.com)
Geoff Sebesta (unnecessaryg.com)
Brian Horst (http://www.flickr.com/…
Antonius Wolfsblut (muskville.com)
Jason Poland (robbieandbobby.com)
John David Brown (flickr.com/photos/jdbrow npopart)
Miracle Jones (miraclejones.blogspot.co m/)
Simon Jacobs (simonajacobs.blogspot.co m)
Monte Hayward
Mast (absolutemaster.blogspot. com)
Dylan Edwards (studiondr.com)
Dieter Geisler (dietergeisler.com)
Kathleen Jacques (bvbcomix.com)

Cover by Zach Taylor (gnourg.org)

I picked up this interesting looking b&w strip magazine (printed on newsprint) at the Austin Comic Con. The entire issue is available for free online.

 

Blood Crime (Graphic Novel): An Original Hollows Graphic Novel

Blood Crime

Written by Kim Harrison
Art by Gemma Magno

Promo copy:

You can’t tell the story of how it all began for supernatural cops Ivy Tamwood and Rachel Morgan without telling how it all nearly ended. The fiery living vampire and erstwhile earth witch never asked to be paired up in the first place. And having to work Inderland Security’s crummiest beat—busting two-bit paranormal street punks—sure didn’t sweeten the deal. But when it counts, Ivy and Rachel always have each other’s backs. They’d better—because someone just hung targets on both of them.

It doesn’t take a hotshot homicide detective to know that nearly getting flattened by a falling gargoyle or impaled by a lead pipe aren’t on-the-job accidents. But it doesn’t seem possible that the class of crooks Ivy and Rachel routinely collar could kill anything but brain cells. So who put Cincinnati’s tough and tender twosome on their “to do in” list? Is Ivy’s vampire master, the powerful and seductive Piscary, jealous of her growing bloodlust (and just plain lust) for Rachel? Or have forces unknown—living or undead—made the partners prey in a deadly witch (and vampire) hunt?

Before this case is cracked, Ivy and Rachel will face down vicious dogs, speeding locomotives, rogue bloodsuckers, and their own dark desires; spells will be cast and blood will be spilled; and Kim Harrison’s hair-raising, heart-racing, dark urban world of magic and monsters will leap howling from the pages of her second electrifying, full-color graphic novel.