This week in comics: Bendis, Rob Liefeld, Being Awesome & More

Some days I come home, and find that the comic book industry has released little news of note. And then there are days like Tuesday.

* Brian Michael Bendis will leave the Avengers books next year. I cannot tell a lie: I love many of Bendis' early works. Fortune & Glory was great, Ultimate Spider-man (especially the first arc) was stunning and Sam & Twitch was much, MUCH better than any Sam & Twitch comic had a right to be. Plus, I had a letter published in the letter pages. Why? Because I'm awesome, that's why.

But his Avengers run... uhhh. Not my thing. Too much talkey, not enough 'splodey. Plus, it doesn't feel like an Avengers book, it feels like Marvel's Greatest Heroes Team-Up. I'm a traditionalist, what can I say. I think Spidey isn't a team player and Wolverine going off and killing people in Uncanny X-Force makes it hard to figure out how he can actually be on The Avengers and not get, y'know, arrested. And look, I can see how some people like looking at Spider-Woman, but come on... I can only take so much Jessica Jones. I mean, Jessica Drew. Wait, wasn't Jessica Jones based on Jessica Drew? So how are they both in the b-

Never mind.

I will give Bendis credit for one thing, though: Luke Cage is not a C-lister anymore. He made Cage a player. It is one of the few successful pushes for a minority character at Marvel in the last ten years.

So, Bendis is leaving. Someone else will be taking over. It's a change that's overdue, and I'm happy to see it happen. Given the downward spiral that have been the store's Avengers sales for the last 6 months, I don't think I'm in the minority on this one.

* ONCE UPON A TIME on NBC is by some of the LOST writers. Confession: I'm a huge LOST fan. HUUUGE. That said, I'm also a FABLES fan. It looked to a lot of people that NBC had ripped off the great Vertigo comic. So, what did Bill Williamson, creator of Fables do? He did an interview at CBR, telling people to lay off. What a guy.

Go. Read.

* I've been bad. I shouldn't talk about it, 'cause if I give away my secrets, you won't come to the blog and read my posts. Which is funny, because I write two entries a month, if I'm lucky.

I've been a bad comic manager. There's this comic that came out a month back, and I've been making people read it. Not buying it, but reading it. In the store. And it's... well, it's not your average comic. It's part sci-fi, part parody, part love story and part world-breaker. Reading this comic, will warp your mind. It will change the way you see things. It will alter your perception of reality.

Most importantly (and really, this is the main point), you'll put the book down, ask me "Why... why?" and then put your head in your hands and sob while I laugh hysterically at you. Amanda will laugh too, if she's around. She's like my little padawan of sadism. I'm so proud of her.

So, by all means, please go read OUR LOVE IS REAL.

(Just so there's no confusion, this is not a book for anyone under the age of 18. Oh, and I love it.)

* I like the idea that The Den is a place to get away from politics, religion, the real world, and other hot topic issues. We're an escape from the real world. At least, that's the way I like to think of it. I know, it's a crazy idea and I'm nuts for bringing it up, but that's the kinda guy I am: Nuts. Awesome. And slightly sadistic, in case you couldn't tell from the previous item.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Politics. So, as some of you might know, a couple people here and there have been getting together for sleepovers in a couple cities across the planet. And by "couple", I mean "thousands" and by "sleepovers", I mean "Occupy". See what I did there? I was sarcastic and you didn't see it coming. I told you I was awesome.

So, there's an Occupy Comics book coming out. It's not something that will be offered by our distributor, but the talent included in the project is stellar. It's one of those fancy-shmancy Kickstarter things.  Go take a look, and maybe pledge a couple dollars towards putting it together.

* This indy project caught my eye. I have no idea who any of these creators are, and who is publishing it, but I want:

Death Sentence

* In the ongoing debate about the role that digital comics plays in the comic industry, there's been a lot of conversation about "digital day-and-date", and whether digital comics will end up putting comic book stores out of business. I'm not going to lie, I get a little concerned sometimes that ten years from now, everything will be electronic and noone will come in to yell at me that they didn't get their Deadpool comic that week. I don't think comic/games/popculture stores are going to disappear, but I think there's some darwinism at play here: The stores that make themselves a destination for the customer, will get the tall green dollars. Those that don't, won't.

But then there's the creator side. What's it like to be a comic creator, watching the industry grudgingly move towards digital day-and-date? How does that tie into sales over the last few years?

Brian Wood, writer of DMZ, Northlanders, and the soon-to-be-published Wolverine mini-series, writes on his Tumblr about some of these topics, in lieu of the brou-haha that erupted around Dark Horse's digital day and date policy over the weekend. and a couple loud-mouthed retailers, about Dark Horse's digital day-and-date policy. Wood is always very honest about his work and his career, without taking shots at others. This is a great read for anyone who enjoys hearing about the "other" side of comics, as well for any future creators out there.

Highly recommended. Make with the clicky.

* And last but not least... Rob Liefeld. I don't know that there's a more polarizing figure in comics. Is he crazy? Is he a genius? By all accounts, he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet, and loves comics. I mean _loves_ comics. A buddy of mine had him in for a signing at his west coast store, and swore to me that Liefeld was the best salesman he'd ever had; The guy was pointing people towards great books left and right, many of which didn't have Liefeld's name on them.

But the internet loves to hate, and every time an article or interview pops up online, the comments section goes wild with "he can't draw feet" or "That pose looked awesome in 1995" or other low-quality snark. All that said, he's gotten 4 issues of The Infinite and 4 issues of Hawk & Dove out on time in the last 4 months. Any other Image founders even coming close to that?

So, in the spirit of fairness, I invite you to read this longish blog posting on Liefeld's site, where he talks about his work in the 90's, the time off he took around the turn of the century, and what it was like, several years later, to go online and find out that he had become one of the most hated artists in all of comics. It's fascinating and more than a little honest, to see inside the head of one of comics' most intriguing figures.

Reading that makes me want to fly him out for a signing. I wonder how many people would show up?

"How to beat the Haters" by Rob Liefeld

Quarriors! Rise of the Demons Review

So I'm a little behind on reviewing some new expansions and games, but when I saw this one came in I had to crack it open and check it out.  I was so excited to see Quarriors when I was at Gen Con that I had to pick it up then.  I had heard that there was going to be an expansion before the holidays, but I had not had a chance to grab it. 

Opening the small black and green box reveals a small rules insert.  The rules add-on to the game are fairly simple and are about half a sheet of paper.  Below that there are new dice and new cards.  There are 20 new dice and 19 new cards.  The new dice come in three different varieties, including a Corrupted Quiddity (10 dice), Demonic Overlord (5 dice), and Corruption Spell (5 dice).  The cards offer some fantastic new variants to old favorite creatures as well as some new to this set cards.  The old favorites from the original game are all "Corrupted" versions and use the original dice.  For the original monsters there 10 cards, and for the new Demonic Overlord there are 4 different cards.  The Corruption spell also has 4 different levels.  The most interesting card is the Corrupted Quiddity.   It is the first die to give you the chance to get a 0 for Quiddity on the roll... so you can roll and get nothing!

Well I'm looking forward to sitting down and playing this expansion with my play test group, as they are always up for a game! They loved the original and a chance to play with some new spells and monsters will get them excited to play again!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Risk Legacy Review

Risk. A war-waging strategy board game that many have played, but few have conquered. Available in variant formats such as Godstorm, 2210 AD, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and even Transformers, each new generation of war gamer has a reason to play it.
The common idea, of course,  being to defeat your opponent and put away the game until next time you want to re-demolish the world. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if your bombs actually changed the landscape? If the economy ever failed beyond repair? Or if the radioactivity ever drastically changed the population of that country?

Wonder no longer, fellow-Risk players, for Risk Legacy has finally released!

Upon first opening the box, we see that there are 4 sealed decks of cards taped to the interior lid, along with a shrink-wrapped game board. These particular decks aren't to be opened until the game's prerequisites are fulfilled. This can range from when all 9 minor cities are founded to when the world capital is built. 

But wait, what's that paper glued to the board say?

Wow! Hasbro certainly went all out with this one.  It's almost as though they want the players to know they may have to take responsibility for their actions later on...

 Underneath the board we find the rules manual, a sheet of sticker decals, Red Star Tokens, Orange Missile Tokens, the Sideboard, and the double-sided Faction Cards.

 Under all those is are the plastic pieces that will be used to represent the various troops. As in other Risks, there are 1-Troop, 3-Troop and HQ pieces, all colored for the faction they are part of.  The dice are also similar to other Risk titles, as the 3 Black Dice are used for attacking and the 2 Red Dice are used for defense rolls.  The cards consists of Resources, Territories, Coins, Powers and Scars (which permanently alter aspects of various Territories).


Before reading on, this is a MAJOR SPOILER! Read on only if you want to learn more!


The following pictures show which card types are in each of the 4 sealed decks, in order of how you should open them.

Of course, the board itself is fairly standard, and should be easily recognizable to Risk players everywhere. It is divided into 42 Territories, which are grouped into 6 standard Continents. The 15 lines on the left are for the winners names.

Lastly, there are now Mutants and Aliens that players must contend (or collaborate!) with.

 

Won't spoil anything else for now, but I'll certainly reccommend getting a copy of this new board game from our friends at Hasbro. At only $59.99, it's a great holiday present for the Risk/War gamer in your life, or a fantastic way to spend a snowed-in day. Come by and pick one up, or simply ask to see our opened store copy!

Stasi "Dengirl" King

New Paltz Gaming Convention "NPC" 2011

This past weekend was the New Paltz Gaming Convention known as NPC! For the third year in a row we have had a table and have worked with the students that organize and run the event.  We have done more then just have a table though, we have also helped run a few events.  This year we ran a Magic Casual (10 players) event, an Innistrad Draft (14 players), and a Yu-Gi-Oh constructed (10 players) event.  After talking to the students that run the Convention, the attendance was up about 25% over last year and was the largest number of individuals to attend. 

They had many cool events including some fantastic video game tournaments, mock combat with "bofer" weapons, anime viewings, and so much more!

And here are some of the players for the Magic event we ran at NPC.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks