New Comics Day - 9/5/2012

City of Heroes is going to be ending - I am saddened, and I think I may have to do some kind of tribute to my characters on here, or maybe one of my other blogs. I need to grab some screenshots before it goes down for good..

Today's comics :

• Knights of the Dinner Table #190
• The Hypernaturals #3
• Before Watchmen : Silk Spectre #3
• Night Force #7
• G.I. Combat #0
• Dial H #0
• The Phantom Stranger #0
• Stormwatch #0
• World's Finest #0
• Earth 2 #0
• Green Lantern #0
• Action Comics #0

That's it.

Week in Geek

Well, I'm feeling better, so I might as well!

Friend Eric ran a session of his 1974 Superhero game on Saturday, and it went well. Our super-team slash Mystery, Inc fellows came up against the Cropsey, New Jersey's prototype for Jason, of Friday the 13th fame. He's a lot less threatening if your Superman-type yoinks his axe out of his hand, though.

My game from the weekend before was also a hoot, as I got to debut my favorite villain creation of the game thus far - Pratfall, the Vaudevillian Villain. He's a dash of the Prankster and a pinch of the Creeper, with just a smidge of the Joker thrown in for good measure. Chloroform cream pies!

As far as other hobbies, I've still been working on the Pokemon stuff, and I still haven't gotten out to see Tangled, Megamind, or Harry Potter 7. I did, however, watch the entire first season of True Blood. Not bad, except for the fact I hate the South.

Week in Geek

I finally got to see Spaced, which I absolutely and totally enjoy. For those unfamiliar, it's a British sitcom infamous for its overdose of American pop-culture references. And it stars Simon Pegg, who is hilarious.

I also spent some time in StarCraft, getting my ass kicked repeatedly.

Most importantly, though, my friend Eric kicked off his Silver/Bronze Age superhero campaign, so I got to introduce Dr. Nathan Wells, AKA Incarnate. Dr. Wells is a Superman type, but with a pool of 'extra' powers he can use one at a time, in addition to being a flying brick. I've loosely based him on Martian Manhunter, Ultra Boy, and Thundermind from DC Comics. Dr. Wells was an American traveling and studying in Tibet, where he unlocked the secrets of the "Inner Mind" - transforming him into a Bodhisattva and giving him strange powers.

And yes, I'm fully aware of the implicit cultural arrogance there - Buddhists look for enlightenment for centuries, and a blond, white guy shows up and discovers it in months. It's a conscious nod to the monoculturalism prevalent in comics of the time period. The group had a good time riffing about that.

"Oh, hello there, monks, I seem to have found this enlightenment, lying here by the road up to your monastery!"

"Really? We've been looking for that for ages!"

I'm also enjoying doing the Clark Kent secret identity schtick.

Week in Geek

I finally finished the single-player campaign of StarCraft II - excellent stuff. I don't look forward to trying to play it on 'Hard', though, to get the unlockable achievements.

There was a good gaming session on Saturday; got back to the Giant Robot game. Debuted the robots' alternate vehicle modes, and had a fun aerial battle. We're at about the midpoint of the first-season arc for that campaign, and I've decided I may stop it at one season. It's fun, but it's hard to get everyone to show up, and the sentai team theme is essential. So I will be pondering other campaign ideas.

Week in Geek

Hey, it's one of these again!

I had a fantastic weekend. Let me talk about three things. First! I saw two movies for the first time - Universal Soldier, and Treasure Planet. I liked Universal Soldier as a basic action movie, but Treasure Planet - wow. I loved it. It was one of those movies I really wanted to see in the theaters, but could never make time to go see. I probably should have, as it bombed pretty badly. But it's an awesome little movie.

Next! Video games - I've been working on Pokemon Ranger : Guardian Signs. I kinda don't like it. I mean, the gameplay isn't bad. In fact, everything's pretty good, except - every damn time you meet a new NPC, you are subjected to ten solid minutes of painfully tapping or button-pressing your way through insipid, useless conversation. It's annoying as hell. But I keep playing, because it will get me certain rare Pokemon I can transfer over into the real games.

Last! My Golden Age game. Every year, I do a special Halloween adventure in whatever game I'm running - I picked the Golden Age game of the two I'm currently doing. My idea for the adventure started as a loose notion about the old urban legend of Abraham Lincoln's death train, the spectral echo of which is said to roam the rails to this day. That morphed several time in my mind until I hit upon the crux - the PCs would be called upon to enter the spirit world, there to defuse a mystic missile - in the form of a train - aimed squarely at the President of the United States. The twist was that after projecting themselves there, they would not have access to their powers and memories at first, instead believing themselves to be some of the passengers on the train.

It went really well and I enjoyed it thoroughly, even if the atmosphere at the table was more Three Stooges than Twilight Zone.

Week in Geek

So, I haven't been keeping up with these like I should. I'm a bad comics blogger.

Spent a good bit of time this week on video games - catching legendaries in Pokemon Platinum, and finally breaking in the multiplayer on Starcraft II. I'm not as bas as I expected, but not as good as I need to be.

Picked up some random comics at a flea market this past week as well - I love yard sales and flea markets, but most of them don't have the kinds of things I'm looking for. I look anyway, because every now and then, I find something I want. Ten bucks for a stack of twenty comics isn't too bad. I picked it up specifically because there were a few Blue Beetle issues in there from the 80's series, but there was also an issue of E-Man and one of Vanguard Illustrated that really intrigued me. Never saw either, before.

Week in Geek

I had an excellent session of my Golden Age game this weekend, introducing a major recurring villain. It was a blast. Then I stay up entirely too late Saturday night and lost Sunday to a headache-filled fog. But now it's Monday, and I've commenced my week of vacation. Video Games, DVDs, Blue Skies, Barthy Burgers, Girls!

Week in Geek

Sort of a low-key Week in Geek. The latter half was hampered by illness, so I basically got to sit in bed, catch Pokemon, and watch Season 4 of 30 Rock. On the other hand, that's probably what I would've done anyway, for the most part.

The Pokemon thing is really coming along nicely. My copy of Platinum now has all three starters from Generations 1, 3, and 4. I'm working through LeafGreen to pick up a couple of other hard to find critters from Gen One. And Sapphire, to cover Gen Three.

I'm on vacation next week, and not going anywhere. I expect I will be playing many video games.

Week in Geek

I have had a hectic week with a lot of things on my to-do list, and very few of them getting done. My monthly Previews order is due tomorrow to my local comic store, all kinds of shows are returning with new seasons (including Venture Brothers, House, and 30 Rock), and my unbagged, unboarded comics are starting to pile up tall enough to be a health hazard, were they to fall over.

I've still been working on Pokemon, but a bit less this week - I need to get back to Starcraft II and City of Heroes.. and probably, I should go ahead and cancel my Star Trek Online subscription. I think it's been six months since I played it.

I did get to run my Golden Age game this weekend, at least, so that's something.

This evening, I'll be working on more of my "want to dos" with Whose Line on in the background, to psyche me up for Friday's show of 'Whose Live'.

Week in Geek

Most of the week, I was sick, so I had plenty of time to indulge in Pokemon (Sapphire and Platinum) as well as finishing up my re-run of X-Com. I also got through Arrested Development for the umpteenth time, and started on my just-acquired box set of Daria. The biggest nerdy news this past week, for me, was the return of the Venture Brothers - the new half-season debuted last night. I'll watch the episode this evening.

Still plenty of things around at theaters that I want to see - The Expendables, Machete, possibly Resident Evil; I just haven't made the time to go see them.

Some fun links, from ComicsAlliance.com :

• Comic Bible Stories
• Comic Bumper Stickers

I love that stuff.

Blogging

Not too much to report this week, and I'm currently enduring some sort of viral invader in the form of a sore throat bug, so I'm giving Week in Geek a miss.

Well, here's the short version : Blah blah X-Com, blah blah Pokemon, blah blah hack wheeze sniffle.

I do have some content ideas to work on when I have the time and energy to address them properly.

Week in Geek

Where to begin - Mutants and Masterminds, I think. I got to run my post-apocalyptic giant robot game this weekend, and enjoyed the session. A new player may be joining the group, and that's always a good thing. I also am working on a Wiki for my various campaigns - I'll post a link here when it's ready.

A lot of the rest of the week went to video games - Starcraft II and Pokemon, specifically. Of course, we also had the release of Elemental : War of Magic. It is a spiritual sequel and update of my all-time favorite turn-based strategy game, Master of Magic. I haven't gotten to play it yet, but this week, I will.

Venture Brothers returns in two weeks!

Week in Geek

Really solid week of geek stuff for me.

Firstly, there was Rifftrax : Reefer Madness. A live (via satellite) show that was tremendously entertaining. And there's going to be another one in October - they'll riff on House on Haunted Hill, the original Vincent Price version.

I finally got through the Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 2 that had been sitting around awhile - I like it. I may have to start picking up the series regularly. I grabbed a few issues of it, just before it jumped publishers, but haven't gone back to buying it yet.

I made some great strides in Pokemon, but most of my video game time went into UFO : Alien Invasion and Starcraft II. UFO:AI really just makes me want to play X-Com, though. This week, we get Elemental : War of Magic, which promises to be fun, and I may have to spend some time in City of Heroes with the new Going Rogue expansion.

And I got to run my Golden Age superheroes game, which was awesome - the characters were up against Dr. Despair and his Misery Museum! And DC Adventures was released this week, too. I'm slowly reading through it, and I generally like what I see. I may have to do a review.

Week in Geek

The computer is off for repair, so I've dug out its predecessor and brought it up to speed with new drivers and suchlike. It's a hair's breadth too slow to play StarCraft II, so I have installed Diablo II and am considering putting StarCraft on it. So, retro-gaming!

I couldn't muster enough of the troops to do my Saturday game, so a couple of us got together to hang out and watch some things. Specifically : The Gamers, an episode of Futurama, all of Blackadder II, and the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.

Wow. I can't believe Firefox's spellchecker let me get away with 'suchlike'.

Week in Geek

StarCraft II.


On second thought, maybe I should expand on that. I just installed it yesterday, but lost about half the day playing it. I like it so far, though I miss some of the units that they've replaced, and I'm hoping some of them get added back in later.

Still awaiting the final word from the company who sold me my computer about who's going to pay for the shipping costs to get it to them so it can be repaired under warranty. I am hoping to hear something this week. Once it's back and functional, I'm going to be a lot less tense.

While it's gone, I'll use my backup PC, and perhaps spend more time on my console video games - I am awfully close to finishing Pokemon Platinum, after all.

Week in Geek

This week's been dedicated to my poor ailing computer, which is still behaving oddly. I did make time for some first-season Saturday Night Live, some Dragonball GT, and Pokemon, though.

I love seeing the old SNL episodes - before they'd really nailed down the format. They're so uneven, but still hilarious. Netflix's video streaming has justified itself.

I also spent a little time retro-gaming, with the XBox Live port of the classic arcade sidescroller Magic Sword. Pure. Chaos.

Week in Geek

And an excellent one, at that, for the most part. Though I am verging close to an eyestrain headache after spending too much time playing Pokemon. I love when I get to take a week off of work and just stay home and relax.

The high point of the week was easily Saturday's gaming session - the Golden Age heroes assembled to unravel a fifty year old murder and a vengeful spirit it engendered. The session, 'How The West Was Wan', also introduced potential recurring menace, Wan Tsung, Chinese crimelord. We also managed three hours of the SolarQuest board game before mounting fatigue demanded we determine a winner by 'who has the most cash on hand'.

The game session had a fair share of amusing table talk as well. Resident mystic, The Assyrian, and resident scientist, Professor Express, clashed in their methodologies somewhat when Professor Express skeptically suggested they might need to find a homeless guy to have on hand in case the spell needed an extra soul. The Police Commissioner also reacted poorly to the Assyrian's request to have the body of the murdered man moved to natural soil to facilitate 'arcane rites', saying he'd just have the body released for the night as long as the hero had it back in the morning, no questions asked.

From there, the homo-erotic jokes spiraled out of control a little - I think Frederic Wertham might be spinning in his grave. Flag-Waver caught one of the other potential victims trying to bolt from his apartment, then when the con man tried to sell Flag-Waver the dead marshal's badge for $10, Flag-Waver offered him the $10 just to stay in the room with him. I think you can guess where the riffing went on that exchange.

The capper, though, was the ever-reliable Eric, playing the Assyrian. Earlier in the session, he had used magic to disguise himself, so he wouldn't look like a superhero, so he could sneak around. Later in the session, he wanted to clarify that he was assuming that guise again, but what he actually said was :

"I'm still glamoured to look like a guy."

Which busted us all up.

The team also officially started their trophy room, but we still haven't settled on a final name, though I'm going to make some suggestions this week.

Belated Week in Geek

I got in an excellent session of my Golden Age game this weekend, in between bouts of Magic-card sorting and Pokemon collecting. As one collection wanes, another grows to take its place.

I will be going to the Origins Game Fair this week, and enjoying myself - that'll mean that the Wednesday comics post will have to wait until I get back on Sunday. I will try to do some convention after-reports as well, as I'd like to start pushing more content into this little blog.

The Golden Age game was kind of a debut session - previously we'd had one team-up of two of the characters and one short story-only introduction of the team to their headquarters. The Assyrian, Crimson Cloak, Spotlight, and special guest star Flag-Waver teamed up to foil Catalyst, the sinister mistress of chemistry, and her plan to cause pandemonium in New York City to provide cover for multiple bank robberies. I dusted off my best chemical puns and a rollicking good time was had.

I'd expected the villain to make a getaway, but the PCs fought hard and made the capture - discovering that Catalyst (who wore a primitive hazmat suit) was a female proved to be somewhat disturbing for the chivalrous Flag-Waver, who wasn't comfortable with the idea he'd just been beating on a woman.

Week in Geek

I finally watched some of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya this week - I approve, thus far. For those unfamiliar, it's an anime series about a schoolgirl who unwittingly possesses godlike power to manipulate reality. Two thumbs up. I also picked up a disc of Mobile Fighter G Gundam on the cheap - I like it, but the version of G Gundam that filtered through to Dynasty Warriors Gundam is more appealing. I'd love to see this show redubbed with that cast. At least the VA for Domon Kasshu, in particular.

I have fully succumbed to the Pokemon craze, about 15 years late to the party. I resisted for a very long time, but ultimately, I fell. I guess my worries about not getting my money's worth out of my DS are moot now, though. I spent most of yesterday training Pokemon in Pokemon Platinum.

Week in Geek

I had the week off of work, so I was able to go hog-wild with absorbing as much media as I could possibly stand. A local video store going out of business, coupled with some trade-in exchanges at the local Vintage Video and Game store gave me a pile of DVDs to watch, and I haven't even gone through half of them yet.

The unexpected gem of the lot so far is the third disc of Azumanga Daioh, which I really enjoy. I'm going to Netflix the rest of the series. I also enjoyed a Blu-Ray of Family Guy's Empire Strikes Back parody.

I got in some quality video game time, with Dragon Quest IV and Lunar : Silver Star Story. Really trying to finish Lunar so I can move on to other things.

I suppose the biggest geek thing of the week would be my trip to Pennsylvania, to the home of an old acquaintance who is liquidating a massive toy collection. I found several things for the DC Classics line that I really, really wanted. Mongul and Cyborg Superman! Aquaman, with Grodd's right arm! The Solomon Grundy wave!

Most satisfying.