Ringo!*

Mike Wieringo caught my eye this week. He was never one of my favorites, at the time he drew Superman in the aughts I was not a fan, I thought his look was too cartoon-y. Which is odd, because Pasqual Ferry who was also on the books at the time was one of my favorites.

Wieringo, before Superman, I knew only from two issues of ‘The Flash,’ the ‘Zero Hour‘ issue, and the one immediately after it, the 0-numbered book. That 0 issue, that was one of my favorite single issues for a long time, but the Flash was never one of my favorites so I didn’t pick the series up. (I did collect a Mark Waid/Mike Wieringo series later on, their run on ‘The Fantastic Four,’ and to this day, I have no idea why I did that. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I’m not really a Marvel guy, why did I collect that book!?!)

So last Friday though, for whatever reason, I really wanted to look at his stuff, and now, a few years on, I absolutely love it! My FF and Flash books were sold long ago, of course I’ve still got the Supermans, he did this other book, ‘Tellos,’ that I’d never heard of but now have to hunt down. But his lines are beautiful!

So now I’m scrounging the internet and the local comic store and wondering how much of his style I’ll be able to absorb, and trying to come up with another story entirely where I could use crisp clean lines like that. Just another project on the pile of projects I’d like to tackle some day.

 

*Not the drummer.

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Magic Realm – Second Encounter

I can’t stop playing this game. It was set up on my kitchen table all of last week, I stared at it longingly through the window while my brother helped me rip out the old patio and sidewalk. We only played the physical version once, the first encounter only so there was no combat. It went about as well as expected when two people play a game they barely know, it was fun and we did great, because we weren’t following the rules.

RealmSpeak however, I played that at least three times a day, and died every single game, sometimes more than once. Unlike a lot of games, where you’re allowed to do just about anything, not matter how stupid it is, this game will slap you down for being stupid, it will slap you hard. Turns out, a big heavy night can’t fight off a horde of quick moving bats, and a wily rapier wielding swordsman isn’t much use against a giant troll with an equally giant club in one hand.

I run an older version of Windows on my computer, so it installed easy-peasy and I was off to be slaughtered. My brother’s laptop is Windows 8, and it took a little time to get ti to run properly, and when we did, it took just as long to figure out how to play the game LAN style. It was fun single person, it was more fun with multiple players, and it was even MORE fun to watch a character die that wasn’t mine.

The next challenge is to figure out how to play at greater than LAN distances, and how the whole ‘e-mail your turn’ thing is supposed to work. A challenge, but a challenge worth besting, not like the Tremendous Dragon that guards the Hoard in clearing six who kills me every, single, time! Damn that guy!

He’s got a week left in town. In that time we’ve got a lot of work left to do on the patio, I of course, have got the strip to draw, my daughter’s some vacation has started so there will also be swimming, dog-walking, craft-projects and general hanging out to do. But, BUT, there will also need to be some MR played, because that is a thing that will happen at least three times a week.

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Magic Realm – Almost the Merunga Board Game

For a time as a kid I lived with my Dad six miles out of town. It was an age when cell phones were still a new thing no one was connected at multiple levels of engagement 24/7. There was also an hobby store in town, ‘Around the World,’ that always had Avalon Hill games on sale because board games were passe at the time. It was also a time before Hasbro owned AH and AH made different games rather than different versions of the same game. I managed to nab quite a few of them, not that there was much competition and the prices kept going lower so a seventh grader’s allowance was enough.

I had two favorites, Merchants of Venus (of which a new, and of course inferior version has just been released,) and Magic Realm (which remains dense enough to deny re-issue.) (Although there is a digital equivalent available, I don’t think it’s as fun if you can’t lose the pieces.)

Merchants I enjoyed because I could set it up, and play it, which I did frequently. For a time I kept track of fuel costs, dabbled in military and corporation victory conditions, a rudimentary stock market, it was fantastic. Good times were had by all, which was just me.

Magic Realm I liked just to set up. The game is frankly ridiculous, and even now I enjoy reading the 80 page rule-book just to be confounded by all of it’s labyrinthine intricacies. I have it set up on my kitchen table as I type, denying my wife and child a comfortable place to sit and enjoy their breakfasts or their suppers. And I’m probably not going to play the game this time either, I literally just wanted to set  it up.

Bring this back around to the title, you build your own map, and travel from clearing to clearing in search of your personal victory conditions. When Meruna: The Board Game happens (and it will happen,) that’s the flavor I want. The rest of the game engine is being chucked straight out of the window, but that map mechanic, that’s amazing.

Picture it, a new map every time, different locations of creatures and mysteries that your caravan will travel to and from, searching for that one rare monster or spell that will mean victory over your opponents. Like any game ever really, but with that really snazzy Merunga flair. Oh yes, that will happen.

In the meantime, I’ll be content with RealmSpeak, which I just downloaded again because now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t not download it. And I’m certainly not going to spend the time to play out the version currently sitting on my dining room table, so I have to get my fix somewhere.

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Moving to New Hosting

My site went down on Saturday morning, it’s not usually a big day for me, but it’s not the first time my site has done down without warning either. I get super-cheap hosting from some place in Australia, a dollar a month cheap. It’s an item that easily fits into the budget.

However, having the site go down frequently, at least once a week, is irritating, and detrimental. So I’ll be switching hosting, theoretically everything should go off without a hitch, but you never know. If you stop by the site sometime this week and there’s nothing, do not panic, it’ll be back up eventually, and there’ll be an appropriate number of strips to catch up on waiting for you.

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Moebius Pages

I’ve only recently discovered Moebius, which I’m almost certain is a crime of some sort amongst the comic community. I know of him, I do own one piece of work he produced (Silver Surfer: Parable,) but I’ve never really taken the time to look at his work. I’m not an art guy, I look at the pictures in a comic last, right before I turn the page.

But, in doing a little bit of prep and research for a project, he came to mind, so I asked great god Google about him, and wow, that’s some impressive stuff. I really like all of the lines, I really like the lines. Negative space is not an artistic concept I’m comfortable with. If there’s negative space, then I’ve done something wrong. I usually only leave negative space if I can’t think of anything to put in there (something that is wrong,) or I’ve wasted too much time and have to slap dash something together and draw less to meet a deadline (also a wrong thing.)

Moebius does use negative space, he uses it very well, but he also uses a ton of lines, and that, I love. I’m sorry I found this so late, but I’m so glad I did find it.

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