Games - Off to Midlam Manor!

The long running saga of my boardgame 'The Curse of Midlam Manor' continues as I'm off work for a week's playtesting.

The game itself is almost ten years old and has had a slow and sporadic development. but I'm hoping that post playtest I can write up a good version of the game for download.

Attempts at getting art for the game have floundered, so I'll be picking up the pen myself, which may well lead to horrific consequences of their own.

The game is a fun, roleplay-lite experience. It's scenario based and has a huge scope for expansions and stories to be told.

More to follow...

All the best

Paul

Games - 54 Jones and the Kingdom of the Disgusting Shunk

Well, with little time to sit down and write at the moment, I've been working on the latest update of the 54 Jones game (see Games for more details). It's always nice to have a break from one set of problems with another different set :)

I and others have been playing the game a good deal for a few months now, and the game has had a few rules queries sorted out in that time, plus the game has had some unneccesary complications trimmed away.

Playtesting is now beginning on the expansions, which will be small additions to the main game introducing new tiles, icons and mechanics. Expansions are a thorny problems for games in that they often take away from the game more than they add. But early playtesting has gone very well. The extra tiles seem to add new tactics and challenges, without hampering the game.

We (a bunch of like-minded spirits) are currently working through the idea of professionally publishing the game, but it's in investigatory mode only at the moment. I have of course been here before with games. It's as difficult publishing a game as a comic, if not more so. But hopefully we can exhaust all possibilities.

The latest version of 54 Jones - Keeping up with the Joneses is still freely available to download and play on the yahoo group, accessible via the Games section of this site. It's currently been played by people as young as 10 (with a little help from a parent) and has been very well received by players. As always, feedback on the game is welcome!

Real Life - Arrgh!

Since the start of the year I've had a pretty good record for blogging, only taking some time off when on holiday and my comic was out. Mostly managing to post every day! So I thought I'd better warn you that I'll be posting less frequently for a while as real life is getting more complicated than usual :)

But don't worry, I shall still try and post at least once a week, if not more when I can. Plus all for the projects I've started are carrying on (Omnivistascope comic and the 54 Jones and Midlam Manor games). However I'll be unlikely to start any new projects for a while. Having said that, any new strips I come up with will end up in OVS and I cannot say for certain that inspiration won't strike for a new game, but I'll be trying my best to dodge it.

So please stick around and support me in all of my strange adventures and hopefully in the near future real life won't be so awkward.

Cheers :)

Paul

FIlm - Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull

Some minor spoilers in here, but nothing you won't have picked up from watching the (over-long) trailer.

Well, I went armed with no expectations and came out smiling. While it doesn't have the vitality of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and you'd hardly expect that, it is comparable with Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade.

The film makes much of it's 50's backdrop, in both character and plot terms and there are numerous nods to incidents and characters from previous films. The jokes and the adventure were all present, along with some nice character development.

It was really nice to see Karen Allen back and Mutt Williams was funny and likable. Though the cartoon Russians were a real shame, but at least it was balanced to some degree by the morally ambiguous McCarthy-era government agents.

There is one confusing part, but you have to remember that the item found at the beginning, is not the same as the one they are searching for. There are two different ones!

I was glad I caught it at the cinema, as I had the rest (I can even remember where I saw the previous three (London, Durham, Stockton). It's a worthy film to add to the rest.

But, I honestly think George Lucas should find another hobby now. He did make some great films, but there's too much sense of an alien mind at work in his new stuff, as if he's not quite with the rest of us, or really even aware or bothered there is an audience. Frankly, I think he's gone to live with Elvis. His worst flights of fancy were largely suppressed here, but occasionally shined through. Just remember George, vines grow up, not down.

Comics - Pat Mills Subjected to Inquisition by Deathray!

Deathray Magazine, one of a number of good SF magazines currently out there (my old friend SFX Magazine, Sci-Fi Now... I think we're somewhat spoilt these days and don't really appreciate them all enough) has had an interview with Pat Mills this month, next month is Alan Moore.

It is a nice interview, with a good overview of his work, which frankly is as breathtaking an array of imagination as you'll find anywhere. Who else but Pat Mills could give us a demon descended from a trilobite, sworn to destroy the Human Empire? And make him the hero. Or an intelligent and well-researched moving World War I story in a gung-ho, all action stations, comic such as Battle? I could go on, Pat Mills imagination is unrivalled in British comics and I'm sure could probably win gold at some improbable comic Olympiad.

The article does seem to preoccupy itself with some of the popular preconceptions of Pat Mills that abound, which is something of a mistake I feel. I've met Pat Mills a few times, no doubt an underwhelming experience for him, but he was always enthusiastic and happy to disagree with equal enthusiasm. Forget what other people may or may not think, concentrate on what he has to say and his works! Which are legion.

Currently running in 2000AD (available in print and online) is Defoe: 1666, which is a rather stirring and suitably bonkers zombie tale, where the strangest things were probably turned over during research for the era. Mills also brings us ABC Warriors, Greysuit and Savage throughout the year in the comic. And occasionally Heavy Metal magazine will reprint one of his European works.

I strongly suggest you pick up the three deluxe hardback volumes of Slaine: The Book of Invasions. Clint Langley's art (also seen in a stunning interpretation of ABC Warriors) is showcased well in these eye-bogglingly lovely books, something genuinely original and they represent a current end or 'resting place' for Slaine. But of course, you can never keep a good hero harnessed for long...

Anyway, good to see Pat Mills getting the spotlight he richly deserves.

Comics - Cosmos - The Jeff Hawke Fan Club

OVS4 featured a nice article by Ed Berridge on one of my favourite British comic strips, Jeff Hawke. I was a latecomer to the party, which had been running since 1954. I had avoided buying the two Titan Collections when I was a Dredd obsessed teenager, despite two inviting Brian Bolland covers, because I had thought they would be dull, boring, staid. I was wrong.

Now Titan have released four fantastic full stories in a beautiful hardback edition, Overlord, which features some incredibly fresh and vital work by Syndey Jordan and Willie Patterson.

For those who cannot wait for Titan's next release (and I hope it's soon!), then you could do much worse than subscribe to the Jeff Hawke fan club for a year and get three 80-page magazines, each with three complete Jeff Hawke stories, notes, and some warm introductions from Sydney himself.

A subscription is a very reasonable £18.50 in the UK (EU38, Overseas £28), with cheques made payable to the Jeff Hawke Club. Send to The Jeff Hawke Club, 6 The Close, Alwoodley, Leeds, LS17 7RD. Please enquire about back issues and mention Omnivistascope to them if you subscribe.

Comics - I Cashed a Dead Man's Pension

The latest free mini-comic giveaway from Ben Clark is I Cashed a Dead Man's Pension which was given out to an enthusiastic and appreciative lot at the Prestonpans comic convention. You can get this and more of Ben's comics at his website. As always it's very silly and very funny.



http://magicbeans23.wordpress.com/

OVS - Post Prestonpans

Well, it was a very enjoyable day out at the Prestonpandemonium comic event at Prestonpans near Edinburgh. Many thanks to Nigel and Jan for putting on a really nice event. It was a lovely day, it was relaxed (apart from the outbreak of drumming in the car park opposite).

I sold a decent amount of the latest OVS, thanks to everyone who bought one! I wonder if I sold as many in Denmark at the Copenhagen festival the same day? I have no idea what a more sophisticated comic audience would make of it!

I talked myself out of at least one sale to a boy in his teens when his grandad asked if it would be suitable. I said it had the occasional moment where it was not for young children. But it was later obvious that he was reading 2000AD which has its moments of swearing, debauchery and gore, plus he bought Arkham Asylum (which frankly is a foul rubbish). So there you go, perhaps I'm too cautious, but that has to be better than being irresponsible. I think :)

I won the Tales of the Trigan Empire book in the auction for Burma Cyclone Relief. And this is the first time I've had a chance to read any Trigan Empire. But I will talk about that another time once I've got through the whole book.

Ben Clark generously donated his Zenith book 5 and it was won by another friend Paul Glasswell, just pipping Jeremy Briggs (who deserved it for bringing up the House of Hammer incident in the bar later) so that was all well and good!

My Grant Morrison Dan Dare (more foul rubbish, but beautifully drawn) book didn't go for much, which was fine, but it went to a horrible chancer who was putting it straight on e-bay, like everything else he bought that day (though his wife carried all the books). Why he bothered annoying all of the stalls with his ridiculous haggling when he presumably has a decent well-paid job I don't know. It was a lovely day, so why spend it scratting around for this stuff if you neither like comics nor know anything about them? Please don't fund this idiot if you see it on e-bay, instead buy the Knockabout Publishing Ryan Hughes book which contains the Dare story, it's a much better experience :)

I also bought Alan Moore's Forty-Niners and a few DVD's, but luckily came home with much less that what I went with.

It was good to meet up with some friends and it was a good day out. All of the strange stuff that happens at these things (and there were some stranger people still, but it probably isn't fair to mention them) at least makes for an interesting time at the bar later :) As I was driving I was on the orange and lemonade, though I did bow to local customs and have a Barr's Irn-Bru at the end.

As I live in the North East of England, Prestopandemonium and the Leeds Thought Bubble (which I'm booked for this November) have pipped the old Moniaive festival in Dumfries to being my closest events, so it feels like I should support them. Now having been to Prestonpandemonium 1 and 3, if there's a 4th, I'll hopefully make that one too.