Sunday Trade: Barry Ween

The Adventures of Barry Ween Boy Genius: Monkey Tales
Written and drawn by Judd Winick

Before the sad Green Arrow run and the constantly degenerating Outsiders run, before the Green Lantern run even, Judd Winick wrote stuff that I still enjoy. That being the foul-mouthed stories of Barry Ween, secret super-genius. In this volume talks to a mystic giant gorilla, brain wipes his would-be girlfriend, kills many aliens and nairs a big foot. Oh and catches a plague monkey and saves North America...

This is the Winick that got me interested in reading his Green Arrow and Outsiders. Of course all that got me was ham-fisted social commentary and piss poor characterization. Still, his early work like Barry Ween or Frumpy the Clown is worth tracking down and picking up...

Aces & Eights

And this week we actually begin playing. Our players are all traveling on a train passing thru the Sequoyah Nation to the town of Lazarus. A train which is turned back by a blown bridge. This is of course a setup by a band of Chinese bandits. Also a reason to field test the unfamiliar combat system. Guns in A&8s is resolved using a d20 attack roll, modified by a draw from a standard card deck and then referenced to a hit location overlay on a target profile. Sounds complicated (and it is) but once you get into the groove of it, it runs pretty smooth. Using a sawed-off I'd found my broke ex-farm boy, Robert Joseph McCoy, managed to do some evil damage on one bandit as he tried to climb in a train window. Shotguns are EVIIIIIL in this setting. The session ended after Jeff's Texas ex-cattleman shot one of the bandits lurking in the coal car, causing him to drop his lit stick of dynomite. Boom baby. Two hours of play time for three players to take down six or seven bandits. Pretty decent for a combat system none of us were that familiar with...