Archive for the ‘Books & Comics’ Category

Here’s What My Brother Is Going To Buy Me For Christmas

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

The world turns, but the more things change, the more they remain the same. Take, for instance, the eternal struggle of what to buy me for gifts? As I did once before, I received the following message from my Brother:

Yo sibling! I’ve learned that the Christmas gifts you’ve gotten me are mighty indeed, and I want to reciprocate in kind. Any suggestions?

Well brother-of-mine, your sources are true, for I have indeed obtained some of the mightiest gifts you will ever receive from me! Since it is the wish of all men to one-up each other in terms of gifts, I understand your motive. Thus, I will humbly offer some suggestions…

Books Category

Blood Sword (books 3-5)

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Well known as one of the best ever gamebook series, I only have the first two installments and the latter 3 continue to elude me. It’s not that they are particularly hard to find, more hard to afford. Prices online seem to range from ~$30 (for book 3, Battlepits Of Krarth) to $250+ (for book 5, The Walls Of Spyte). Yes, we all know they are being rewritten, simplified, and converted to the Virtual Reality system for a reprint, but – let’s face it – as a purist only the original version is acceptable as a Christmas gift πŸ™‚

?????? Chronicle

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I’m not going to lie – this one will be difficult! This is (of course…) the Japanese Fighting Fantasy doujin magazine that has published every two years (or so) since 2003. Details are scarce. Who publishes it? What’s in it? Where can it be purchased? Does it even exist? I have confidence the answers to all of these will be in my hand when I open my Christmas gifts!

Fighting Fantasy Second Age

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When one completes their Fighting Fantasy collection, one must seek gratification elsewhere. Therefore, my attention has turned to the Czechoslovakian-only sequel series, Fighting Fantasy Second Age. Bernard’s going to have to work quite hard to find a book in this insanely rare series (book #1, Island Of Exiles, is shown above), possibly including (but not restricted to) personally scouring the shelves of used bookstores in Prague! But he will no doubt be motivated by thinking of my smiling face on Christmas morning πŸ™‚

This…

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It’s not particularly rare or expensive, it’s 33 years old, it’s (cough) ‘written’ by the best Doctor Who ever, and it has an awesome cover. I want it. Make it happen please?

Toys Category

Remembrance Of The Daleks figure set

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I’ve got a pretty large collection of Daleks at this point, of all sizes, but I don’t have this amazing set. Sure it’s wildly overpriced and possibly impossible to find, being limited as it was to one store and released as a limited edition two years ago…. but hey, it’s Christmas!

Revoltech Yamaguchi MH Rathalos Liolaeus

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This Japanese monster hunter toy is a little tricky to find… in the colour shown above. While I – and, let’s face it anyone – would love to own this, the impossibly hard to find limited ‘Silver Rathalos’ version is the one that would bring a tear to my eye on Christmas day! Could a young mans dream come true?

Material Handler Lego Technic

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Remember that chat we had during the summer where I told you how every single Technic series includes a crane? Here’s another! You’re really going to have to pull out all the stops to get this for me for Christmas though, since it isn’t released until January 13, 2013! Maybe this one waits until my Birthday? πŸ™‚

Dungeon & Dragons Trading Card Sets

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TSR released factory sets of AD&D Trading cards each year from 1991 until 1993. Naturally, I’m mostly interested in the largest set – released in 1992 which contains 750 cards. Factory complete, sealed and unopened examples of these are wildely available. After all, who would want them now? And as I’m sure you know, this would be a fine gift for a fellow such as myself!

Music

Gone Petshopping (Pet Shop Girls)

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Seriously… just go read last year’s entry again and understand I’m serious about this one!

Games

Rune Factory 2 and 3 (DS)

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I practise self-flagellation daily for missing both of these. I played the first, loved it, and somehow not one but two sequels snuck out without me realizing. Once I had found out of their existence… BAM! The resellers had hoarded and driven the prices up to levels this poor college professor could never afford πŸ™

Wizardry Gaiden III: Scripture Of The Dark (Gameboy)

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Despite my greatest hopes, the Wizardry titles I requested for gifts last year never eventuated. At the time, I withheld this one from the list, since it’s so… painful. Back in 2006, I managed to acquire the first two Japanese Gameboy Gaiden titles. Both are boxed, in perfect condition, and beloved by me. And yet, the third has ever eluded me! This fact has been known to keep me up at night, and if only for the good graces of my brother, I could eternally sleep soundly were it finally in my hands. And yet, the task may be Herculean indeed. For this game, now 20 years old, has become almost a footnote in history. Let us see if it can be unearthed?

The Legend Of Zagor Boardgame

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You know how sometimes you have this awesome dream that you own something awesome and have an awesome time playing with it? Well in my dreams, it’s always The Legend Of Zagor boardgame. This near-mythical conversion of an FF book into a game includes a computer voice! Here’s hoping the first thing I ever hear that voice say is “Happy Christmas from your beloved brother!

And there we go, a relatively short and modest list of items intended to assist with my Christmas shopping. Times-a-wasting, so get to it! πŸ˜‰

Let Me Share These With You

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

From a very secret source, I managed to recently obtain the following:

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OMG! It’s a factory sealed box of Star Trek trading cards all the way from 1991! Isn’t it strange how the TNG card says ‘Patrick Stewart’ and the TOS card says ‘James T. Kirk’?

Oh well, let’s look inside:

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ZOMG! Exactly half the box is packs of Next Generation cards, and half is Original Series cards. Such organization! (And yes, that’s my desk visible behind… note the coaster AW)

Here’s a closer look at the two different types of packs:

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I opened exactly one of each type (the ones in the above shot, actually). Here’s the very first card I pulled from the first pack:

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Gadzooks! A nifty hologram of the Enterprise! I imagine these are ‘rare’, and I was very lucky to get one in only the first pack. I wonder how many others are available in the packs in this box?

Here’s the rest of the cards from the pack:

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Yep, they look next-genny enough. Nice pictures, lots of words on the back. Real fanboy (or, fangirl) stuff here folks. Here’s front and back detail of a card most fans would treasure:

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Lovely stuff!

I ripped into an original series pack as well. Some real delights in there! Here’s a standout card:

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Good old Tiberius himself! (Or is that a doppleganger?)

At any rate…

Let me share a few packs with each of you πŸ™‚

I realized, upon buying this magnificent bounty of endless entertainment, that posting about it on the blog would lead to feelings of jealousy and despair amongst many of you. To fend off such things, you can have some packs for free! But there is a very small catch…

To get some free packs of Star Trek cards, simply complete the following sentence in a comment:

“The true and honest reason why I believe every single Star Trek episode is better than every single Doctor Who episode is…”

Depending on your reply, you may find your Christmas parcel stuffed with a few extra Roddenberrian goodies this year:

Poster Boy (part two)

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Earlier this year, this post caused a few chuckles. Who doesn’t love terrible old photos?

Certainly not me! So with pride, two more:

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Lovely aren’t they? Thanks to my brother for fishing these out of an abyss πŸ™‚

Now, some analysis. Obviously these two photos were taken at the same time as before, and painful as it may be to admit, the calendar dates it as 1987. The bottom picture (these were taken in my room) shows bits of the same posters as before. But there is now more to be seen, so much more!

For starters, in the top picture, in which I’m pulling off an early Monkey D Luffy look, the wall behind me is plastered in vaguely homoerotic art. Most prominent above me is a Depeche Mode poster (circa 1985), but I can also see Duran Duran, U2, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw and (dare I admit it?!) Wham. Can anyone decipher any of the other posters?

Ignoring my outfit for now (and frankly, for ever), let’s investigate what I hold. In my right hand is my yellow (yes, yellow) Sharp QT12 cassette player. This may have been my second favourite possession in those days. In the other hand? Well, lets just say this poster is proof for anyone who doubted this post (specifically the third-last paragraph).

But, as much as you’ll guffaw at the photo with me in it, the true gem for me is the lower of the two photos. Here we see a very rare example of my artistic skills of the day! On the dresser and back of the door you can see four pictures that I drew. The one partially cut off is an Alphaville picture, possibly the cover of Forever Young. The other three show my renditions of the following…

The white dragon from Caverns Of The Snow Witch:

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The cover of Afternoons In Utopia, done in a very minimalistic style:

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And a ‘Mezzodaemon’ from Fiend Folio:

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If you look very closely, you can also see gamebooks in the little bookshelf in the lower left (under a statue of Mary)!

I love this photo. All the same sorts of things I rave on about now are right there – 25 years ago. I just love that I was drawing massive drawings of monsters from gamebooks and sticking them on my wall.

Next time I see some college nerd strutting his stuff, I can say with confidence “Let me tell you kid, I was drawing mezzodaemons even before you were born!” πŸ™‚

NYCC Day Four

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Day four at NYCC looked a bit like this:

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And a bit like this:

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Sunday, the last day of the con, is the shortest. It’s also kids day. This means a greater density of attendees right from the opening time. Yep, it’s madness.

So what did we see and do yesterday? Well we bought stuff (alas no Gundam), went to a panel (Viz), spent some time in ‘artists alley’ (I chatted with two MTG artists and got a basic land signed!) and basically made ourselves even more tired!

The train trip home, much later in the day, was a peaceful and relaxing merciful release from the relentlessness that is 4 days of NYCC. But you can bet we’ll be back next year!

Here’s the Sunday cosplay highlights:

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NYCC Day Three

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

The cell signal’s a bit slow here at the hotel, so I didn’t go back to read last years comic con post. But I reckon if I did then Saturday would have included mention of the same thing we encountered today: the crowds!

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It was like half of the otaku in America was at NYCC today, and we were in the thick of it!

We started early by sitting in the front seats of a Moyoco Anno panel. She’s the creator of several manga series I’ve enjoyed, including Happy Mania and Flowers & Bees. She was reserved, amusing and very polite, as she discussed (via a translator) her career and influences.

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One particularly funny moment during the panel happened during the audience Q&A. Here’s a photo:

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He even tried to ask his question with the mask on!

We saw a great many other ‘celebrities’ today, including Tom ‘Draco Malfoy’ Felton, Burt Ward, Adam West, Blair Butler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Booker T, Brutus Beefcake, the Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Joel Hodgson, Nicholas ‘Zander’ Brandon, Tera Patrick, Lou Ferrigno and this lovely girl:

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Sadly AW, I couldn’t get her autograph since the tickets had sold out in advance πŸ™

Conventions like this are about seeing creators and celebrities, about playing games or seeing movies in advance, about meeting other fans and seeing cosplayers, but also (and importantly), about buying stuff! And believe me when I say a large portion of the shows many halls are dedicated to vendors selling all manner of things. What sorts of stuff do we buy at NYCC?

Well, for starters, figurines:

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Clothing (such as bathrobes):

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Wigs (of any colour):

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Art (paintings, posters, prints):

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Curiosities (most of the ‘steampunk’ variety):

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Toys (including collectible ones):

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Stuffed animals (such as Monster Hunter themed):

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And model kits:

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Today’s vast crowds also included even more cosplayers, and sadly the human density made it tricky to get photos of most of them. But, as with the previous entries, three highlights from those I saw today:

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The last one was a tree person from last years Doctor Who Christmas special. The middle one gets points for originality with her ewok costume. And the girl on top? Well I’m not sure who she is dressed as, but she was tall!

Tomorrow is the last day. We’ve spent hundreds so far (including many Christmas gifts for the usual suspects), but there’s still cash burning a hole in my wallet! Will I cave and spend $100 on a Gundam kit?!? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? πŸ™‚