lurkerwithout: (Book on bed)
October
Short Fiction: Michael Swanwick's Pyramid of Krakow, Yoon Ha Lee's Variations on an Apple, John Chu's Hold-Time Violations, Malka Older's Tear Tracks, Maria Dahvana Headley's Some Gods of El Paso & Seanan McGuire's the Way Home & Velveteen vs. a Disturbing Number of Crows

New Reads:
Marion G. Harmon's Ronin Games (supers in Japan fighting ghosts and gangsters and kaiju)
Emma Bull's Falcon
Elizabeth Bear's Steles of the Sky (finishing up the Eternal Sky trilogy)
Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis' 1635: Parcel of Rogues (back to England and Scottland and the outlaw Oliver Cromwell)
David Weber's Hell's Fondations Quiver
Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy
Lois McMaster Bujold's Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen (romantic life of the widowed Cordelia Vorksogion)
Steven Gould's Exo (the uses of personal teleportation in furthering the Earth's space programs)
K.B. Spangler's Greek Key (FINALLY KOALA)

Rereads:
Roger Zelazny/Jane Lindskold's Lord Demon

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Kevin Eastman/Tom Waitz/Mateus Santolouco's TMNT: Monsters, Misfits and Madmen: vol. 9
Eric Stephenson/Simon Gane/Jordie Bellaire's They're Not Like Us: Black Holes for the Young: vol.1

Total: 13

November
Short Fiction: Marissa K. Lingren's Point of Origin & Jenna Helland's the Freedom of Navid Leahy

New Reads:
Drew Hayes' Split the Party (more with D&D NPCs turned adventurers)
Sherwood Smith's Rondo Allegro (Austen-ish romance in the Napoleonic war era)
Patrick Weekes' the Paladin Con (I swear this trilogy could have been the D&D campaign John Rogers ran on the set of Leverage)
Amy Plum's After the End (sort of post Apoc psychic YA romance)
Chris A. Jackson's Pirate's Honor (I just recently spotted that there is a sequel to this Pathfinder novel about a pirate and his snake-lady girlfriend)
Jim Butcher's the Aeronauts' Windlass
S.J. Delos' So Not a Hero
A.M. Dellamonica's Indigo Springs
Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice (takes a bit to get going, but once it starts..wow)
Martha Wells' Between Worlds
Cherie Priest's Maplecroft (the further adventures of Lizzie Borden, CoC Investigator)

Rereads:
John DeChancie's Castle Perilous (this was one of those books where I couldn't remember anything about it, but with a couple pages everything came rushing back)
Martha Wells's the Death of the Necromancer (and ditto for this one)

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Dwayne McDuffie/Various artists' Damage Control: Complete Collection (McDuffie, gone too soon)
Jim Zub/Steve Cummings/Ludwig Olimba/Marshall Dillon's Wayward: String Theory: vol.1 & Wayward: Ties That Bind: vol.2
E.K. Weaver's the Less Than Epic Adventures of T.J. and Amal
One Yusuke Murata (John Werry translation)  One-Punch Man vol.1 (cute but didn't manage to really catch hold with me)

Total: 19

December
Short fiction: Kim Stanley Robinson's Oral Agreement, Michael Swanwick's the Phantom in the Maze, Brian Stavely's the Log Goblin & Sean McGuire's Fiber & Velveteen vs. Trick or Treat

New Reads: Sherwood Smith & Rachel Marija Brown's Stranger & Hostage (Bestest Gamma World campaign)
Kate Elliot's Court of Fives
Gail Carriger's Manners & Mutiny (explosively finishing up her Finishing School series)
K.J. Parker's the Folding Knife
Brandon Sanderson's Shadows of Self (more Mist-world Western adventure)
Harry Connolly's Bad Little Girls Die Horrible Deaths (collection of short fiction, including a couple 20 Palaces related works)
Chuck Wendig's Zer0es (like if CSI: Cyber or Skorpion weren't total garbage)
R.J. Ross' Super Girls (more Cape High popcorn)
Jennifer Brozek's (ed)  Human Tales (idea is of fairy tales/urban fantasy stories being told by the monsters.  Nominally with humans as the villains.  Some good stuff in it)
Joel Burdick's No Master Plan Here
Holly Black's Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Rereads:
Andre Norton's the Crystal Gryphon (I scooped up a bunch of classic Norton during some e-sale last year)

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Josh Ulrich's Newman vol.1 (webcomic collection the roommate picked up.  Cute and funny modern fantasy)
John Ostander/Keith Giffen/Various others' Suicide Squad: the Nightshade Odessy: vol.2

Total: 16
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Astro City # 27: Writer Kurt Busiek, artist Joe Infunari, lettering John Roshell & Jimmy Betancourt of Comicraft & color artist Alex Sinclair.  A guest artist for the origin story of American Chibi.  And the story does have the chibi-ized Honor Guard shown on the cover.

Power Up #3: Written by Kate Leth & illustrated by Matt Cummings.  And now that everyone is all together of course a super-villain shows up, ranting about how they don't deserve their magic powers.  Who is a griffon who shouldn't be so disdainful of someone being a fish.
Adventure Time #44: Written by Chritopher Hastings, pencils by Zachary Sterling, inks by Phil Murphy, colors by Maarta Laihoi & letters by Steve Wands.  Thus ends the alliance of the King of Ooo and some bears, as well as the spy career of Finn & Jake.  And thus comes to be the Bear Princess.  Bonus story of Jake reading to his kids gy Colin Andersen.

TMNT: Casey & April #4: Story by Mariko Tamaki, art by Irene Koh, colors by Brittany Peer & letters by Chris Mowry & Shawn Lee.  Casey and April meet with a pair of Immortal Spirits to get cryptic advice, creepy warnings and general non-straightfoward standard Immortal Spirit stuff.
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Knights of the Dinner Table #221: Jolly Blackburn EIC & creator.  Gary Jackson is still a petty dick.
Astro City #24: Writer Kurt Busiek, artist Brent Eric Anderson.  One of Jack-in-the-box's rogues is an evil snowglobe named Snowglobe.  Even in an issue about a talking gorilla ex-soldier who wants to just be a rock and roll drummer thats just splendid.
Prez #1: Writer Mark Russell, penciller Ben Caldwell, inker Mark Morales, colorist Jeremy Lawson & letterer Travis Lanham
Secret Six #3: Writer Gail Simone, artist Dale Eaglesham, colors Jason Wright & letters Travis Lanham.  That fucking bottom half ad annoys me more in every DC issue I see it in.
Giant Days #4: Written by John Allison, illustrated by Lissa Treiman, colors by Whitney Cogar, letters by Jim Cambell.  Daisy's 18th birthday!
Lumberjanes #15: Written by Noelle Stevenson & Shannon Watters, illustrated by Brooke Allen, colors by Maarta Laiho & letters by Aubrey Aiese.
Stumptown #6: Written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Justin Greenwood, colored by Ryan HIll & letterd by Crank! Hard-core coffee nerds and their crazy expensive civet poop beans!
Groo Friends & Foes #6: by Sergio Aragones, wordsmith Mark Evanier, colorist Tom Luth & letterer Stan Sakai.  This time around its the Sage and his wisdom about bridge tolls.
Dark Horse Presents #11: by various and sundry.  Standout here is a John Arcudi written Abe Sapien short.
Southern Bastards #9: Jason Aaron writer, Jason Latour art & color & Jared K. Fletcher letters.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Casey & April #1: Story by Mariko Tamaki, art by Iren Koh, colors by Paul Reinwand & letters by Shawn Lee.  Oh hey, new version of the Rat King.
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
The Wicked & the Divine #10: written by Kieron Gillen, art by Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matthew Wilson & letters by Clayton Cowles.
Samurai Jack #19: written by Jim Zub, art by Christine Larsen & letters by Deron Bennett.  Ah, its talking dog acheologists.  Whos a good boy then?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutanimals #3: written by Paul Allor, art by Andy Kuhn, colors by Nick Filardi & letters by Shawn Lee.  Mondo Gecko & Slash vs. the prisoner transport train.
The Unbeatble Squirrel Girl #5: written by Ryan North, art by Erica Henderson, colors by Rico Renzi & Erica Henderson & letters by VC's Clayton Cowles.  Squirrel Grrrl 2099.  Squirrel. Grrrl.  2099.  Yeeeeeeeesss.
Rocket Raccoon #11: written by Skottie Young, art by Jake Parker, colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu & letters by Jeff Eckleberry
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Man that is a big stack of comics.  And thats even with missing like four of them.  Starting with the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.  With the boys ending up joining a crew of conditional pirates to fight some bad pirates.  Bad pirates who have anarchronistic speed boats and laser pistols...

Samurai Jack pays a return visit to his friend Soule the Seer, who has an idea for a mystic ritual centered on Jack's ancestral blade that could return him to his home time.  But first giant scorpions and devil dogs...

Marko and Alana's marriage hits some rocky shoals in Saga, Prince Robot has a meeting with King Robot and Dengo the Robot Revolutionary looks into making use of the illegitimate theater...

The Wicked & the Divine introduces the triple-Goddess of the Morrigan/Badb/Gentle Annie to go with Lord of Darkness, Baphomet...

Malcolm Dragon continues to be a mutated more Savage Dragon as he cleans house on the Vicious Circle.  Plus a back-up story of Vanguard and Friends in Spaaaaaaace...

Tomas and his fellow surviving anti-alien friends discover the secret to making their anti-alien gun work in the Saviors.  You just have to be high when you shoot an alien shapeshifter with it...

Brubaker & Phillips latest noir comic is the Fade Out, a late 40s decadent Hollywoodland story...

Two weeks and two issues of Knights of the Dinner Table.  They must have rushed one out so they wouldn't get knocked behind schedule by GenCon like normal.  Mostly still focusing on the Sword of Death & Destruction in-party conflict at the Knight's table.  But that looks to be spreading out and affecting the other groups.  Mostly because of the betting on the outcome and attempts to handicap said outcome...

Dark Horse Presents launches again with a new format and new #1 issue.  The price drops down to $4.99 but the page count drops to 56 pages as well.  Of course part of that launch is a new Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot short, as well as starting a new arc of Resident Alien...

And in addition to the regular Conan the Avenger where Conan hunts for a dangerous witch and has a falling out with his Princess boss/lover; there is also Groo vs. Conan where the pair meet for the first time and team-up to hunt the marauding swordsman known as Groo...

Adventure Time has Marceline and Bubblegum get driver's licenses and introduces the psychic danger of the Mnemonoid.  And Adventure Time: Banana Guard Academy has academy commandant Captain Banana Guard looking to force all those non-banana recruits to quit, since he can't just kick them out.  So its kind of like the first Police Academy movie but without a guy who makes funny sound fx just with his mouth...

And finally I didn't realize until just now that the Bee & Puppycat comic is an anthology featuring various writers and artists.  Don't know how I missed that for three issues...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Two weeks of comics and three of them Conan comics.  Van Lente's Conan the Avenger where young-ish Conan continues to try and replace heart-ache and loss with blood-shed and cheap sex.  Then old man Conan finishes his tale of when middle-aged Conan retook his kingdom and married his second great love in King Conan.  And finally the match-up demanded by all begins with the first issue of Groo Vs. Conan.  With Aragones joined by Thomas Yeates, who I'm guessing does the non-cartoony Conan bits...

I like Fejzula's art on Veil.  The story doesn't really hold up as well sadly.  Especially when compared to Fatale, which has its big finale issue.  And traps are sprung and lives are ended and happy endings are in short supply...

Also up, more of Burbaker's burned spy Velvet where, among other moments, we see what moment led to her being moved to an administration position...

Prophet sort of finishes up with plenty of future weirdness and alien nightmare monsters.  And what looks to be the two "good" John Prophets joining forces for the upcoming Prophet Earth War mini-series...

Saga gives us a rampaging janitor, a drugged out actress, a pet walrus monster and Prince Robot learning of the murder of his wife and birth of his son...

Malcolm Dragon is held prisoner by the Freaks of the Danger Zone neighborhood in Savage Dragon.  While Dart II sends her Vicious Circle goons out hunting for him...

With Wonder Woman captured by the First Born, its all out war between his forces and the residents, old and new, divine and mortal, of Paradise Island...

Tom Taylor continues his quest for the Grail in the Unwritten: Apocalypse, gaining headway by playing with the story tropes for the setting.  While Pullman throws some obstacles in his way from differing story concepts...

Dead Boy Detectives has Crystal forcing Charles to meet with his living half-sister and learn more of his family...

Amidst all the fun of violent smugglers and pacifist Harkonen refugees, the Alien Legion's Force: Nomad see the return of Jugger Grimrod's ol' "pal" Pike.  Which is to say one of the many people with a grudge and a gun...

The dread Aku devises a new plan to put an end to Samurai Jack. Direct invasion of his brain in order to destroy his memories!

And finally more Turtles in Time: TMNT.  Currently, for given values of currently, the turtle brothers are in Feudal Japan.  Specifically at the moment of their (and their father's) previous incarnations.  Almost worth it alone for Mikey's joy at getting to hug his mom...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
New New Warriors with some Avengers attacking like jerks.  I don't like the current interpretation of Captain America as Commander Jerkass.  This is one case where I'd very much like to see the character move back towards the version in the film MCU...

Thanks to a friendly undead sorceror-king, King Conan gets the magic gemstone of McGuffin and heads back to his kingdom.  To gather a big ol' army for a royal ass-kicking..

Non-royal Conan the Avenger parts ways with his new witchfinder friend in order to take a job guarding a sexy arrogant princess.  Plus a nice speech from his dad in a flashback that a GM for old-school D&D can explain why barbarians won't adventure with wizards.  Because fuck wizards, thats why...

The Unwritten: Apocalypse has Tommy and his friends and family begin their quest for the Grail.  And Marionette lady and Ol' Man Killer make plans together...

Wonder Woman's eldest half-sibling, the Firstborn, continues to be a big violent, sulky baby even after conquering Olympus and Hades and I think the Ocean as well.  Next up, the Garden of Life.  Seriously, hes such an emo whiner...

Decided to get the singles for the new TMNT: Turtles in Time mini-series.  Mostly 'cause the first issue is done by Ross Campbell who draws an awesome Ninja Turtle and some great dinosaurs and brain aliens as well...

Aku's latest attack on Samurai Jack involves a gravity manipulating spherical robot.  You can guess how it works out...

In Adventure Time, PB explains to her people why they're all ghosts now.  And then Finn & Jake figure out how to defeat ghosts with ghosts thru the power of cooperation...

So it turns out the missing Prince Robot of Saga has been at the intergalatic whore house of Sextillion.  Which may be for the best as the social order in the Robot kingdom looks to be due for some shaking up...

Man, that is a lot of deaths in Invincible as Robot makes his play for global domination.  And I'm not talking nameless background people.  Like named, secondary characters.  Seriously when making plans, a sign they're stupid and wrong should be "How many of my closest friends will I have to murder?"

Malcolm Dragon continues in his father's footsteps of getting attacked by super-goons and then getting yelled at for the people caught in the spillover in Savage Dragon.  Plus his girlfriend's parents are still pushing her to date some nice Chinese boy...

Fatale closes in on its finale, with magic sex rituals and more revelations about Jo's past.  Awful, terrible revelations...

The Wicked & the Divine is a new series from Kieron GIllen and Jamie McKelvie.  The set-up here is that every 90 years, groups of "gods" reincarnate and hang around for several years, incarnated as teen-agers apparently...

And finally a new Alien Legion series from Chuck Dixon, Larry Stroman and Carl Potts.  Stroman's pencils look a lot tighter and more focused than the last thing I saw him do (probably a random issue of X-Factor).  Anyway, something Harkilon civil war something something refugees something.  All that matters as the Legionnaires of Nomad will be at the forefront wading hip-deep in the muck and blood before long.  I was dissapointed not to see the 'icks, who I'm pretty sure survived the last AL mini...
lurkerwithout: (Mal's pretty hat  Angie creator)
Broke out the ol' Palladium books to test out running a  TMNT/After the Bomb Australia campaign.  Mostly as something for off-weeks from the Pathfinder game.  Right now, only have two players in the roommate and Frazier.  Both decided to try out random rolled characters, at least to test things out, but liked the test characters enough to keep going with them.  And both got Aboriginal Hunter as their background...

Brendan has a Thorny Devil with psychic crystal powers, while Frazier is Komodo Dragon with dual-wielding stone axes.  The SDC was not quite as hampering as I remember from whenever I last played non MegaDamage Palladium.  And the ability to do parries, dodges and what not as went smoother than I recalled.  Basically knocked some of the rust loose by running them thru a couple random encounters as they walked to the town where my campaign concept will start out.  First against a giant wolf spider, then a trio of bandits...

One thing that is still a negative for Palladium, is that the books are not super well laid out for tracking down rules and clarifications.  And the After the Bomb books are a bit lighter on the background fluff then I would like.  Also I'm probably going to still add in exploding damage dice, at least for crossbows and firearms.  And I'm probably going to have the players take Occupation Character Classes to flesh out their character abilities and to give them more to gain as they level...
lurkerwithout: (Cat Jedi)
One of the things that makes TMNT and Other Strangeness (and many Palladium games) wonderful and frustrating are all the random tables. Everything from your background to your animal species is rolled up on a table. Sure you could just pick, but where is the fun in that? If you did that you’d never find out that chickens can see ultraviolet, and create a mutant rooster gambler who marks his cards with UV paint.

From a discussion of the Transdimensional TMNT rpg supplement at Tor.com...

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