kate

System: RuneQuest
Vintage: Late 1970s
Genre: Fantasy
Latest Edition: 6th, 2012
Complexity: Medium High. Character Creation especially so.
Lethality: High. PCs can die easily if they aren’t careful.
Rolls with: Two 10-sided percentile dice

Note: Most of my experience with RQ has been with a slightly homebrewed version of its 3rd edition.

Why You Should Play It:

If you’ve ever played an Elder Scrolls game and made 87 leather bracers to level up your leatherworking skill, then you might just owe a debt of gratitude to RuneQuest. RuneQuest, a venerable game system often set in the world of Glorantha, is the ancestor of many other games, most notably Call of Cthulhu. Unlike other games of its time, RuneQuest eschewed classes and levels for a heavily skill focused approach. In fact, there can be a skill for almost everything in RuneQuest, from Demonic Horticulture to Shoemaking for Gnomes of Discerning Taste. You “level up” by successfully rolling under or equal to your percentage chance to perform the skill. The more you succeed in a skill, the more chances you have to become better at it. This organic approach to character growth is really fun to see over the course of a campaign and just isn’t possible in a class/level based system. The combat system is fairly sophisticated, with fatigue as a trackable resource, attack and defense skills for individual weapons, rules for martial arts, and situational skills like “called shot”, “positioning”, and “off-hand fighting”. The magic rules vary from edition to edition but generally there are rules for Divine Magic, Spirit Magic, Sorcery, and of course, Rune Magic. Spells work in a manner similar to skills, but require magic points to work, as well as a mastery of several magic skills that effect the range, power, and duration of the caster’s spell.

There have been several editions of the game, each with its own twist on the core mechanics of the original, so I won’t go into deep detail. RuneQuest would be a great game for you if you’re looking for something with technical depth and you don’t mind a little bit of complexity. As a player, it can feel very much like a pen and paper version of Skyrim, and if that doesn’t sell you on it I don’t know what will.

Learn more about RuneQuest in general here, and you can buy its latest edition here.

Update: Here’s an in depth review of the latest edition from RPG.net.

“Can we have a logo with colors that aren’t in pride flags? I mean, nothing against you, because I know that you’re gay, but I don’t want people to think this is a “Gay is our main product” logo, you know?”

Johnny Ra, a fellow Groove Bricks reader, sent me a link to perhaps one of the coolest LEGO related websites ever. If you have ever wondered how many LEGO bricks you would need to build your how, then this website is your answer.

Designed by BudgetDirect, this site allows you to punch in the size of your house, the number of rooms and floors, and get an approximation of how many LEGO bricks you’d need to build it. For example, if you have a 200m² house with 4 rooms and 2 floors, it would take you 34,435,010 bricks, over 171 weeks to build, and nearly $1,721,751 USD to build it.

This is a great tool for any LEGO enthusiast out there. I’m pretty sure many of you will enjoy to punch in your numbers and see if it’s possible or not to build your house out of LEGO.

You are welcome to share your thoughts on the comments below!

Visit Website

The post Find Out How Many LEGO Bricks You Need To Build Your House appeared first on Groove Bricks.

allaboutmanga:

ballingreyjoy:

dorkly:

Every Nerd’s Greatest Nightmare

[By Magnolia Porter]

gwello remember my horrid forum rp oc

Ahh, that really takes me back to the good old days.

Tumblr, you give us such gifts. When user nottonyharrison created a poster suggesting that Matt Fraction’s run of Hawkeye be turned into a television series, it led to an opening scene by interestinggin that is such utter perfection, we are crushed to know that it’s not being greenlit this instant.

Want Clint Barton’s story—as told by (the best Hawkeye) Kate Bishop? Oh, you do. Trust us, you do.

[Read more]

 

Here is the opener in all its glory:

EXT. MANHATTAN - DAY

Devastation. POLICE and CITIZENS milling amongst the wreckage of the street. Lying on top of a car, clearly having fallen from a great height, a MAN, eyes closed, possibly dead.

CLINT (VO)
[big intake of breath]
Okay. This looks bad.

And we go into REWIND. The MAN flies upwards, flailing wildly, a bow rising up into his hand, finally crashing back through a reassembling window about SIXTY STORIES UP. PAUSE on the fist of an AIM AGENT just inches from his face.

CLINT (VO) (CONT)
You cowboy around with the Avengers some.

BACK IN REAL TIME, the fist hits him square in the jaw. As he turns back to smack the agent with his BOW, we get our first proper look at him - HAWKEYE himself, CLINT BARTON. Blonde, muscular, probably already somewhat battered; big heart and no common sense.

CLINT is holding his own against the AIM AGENTS, in a fight that seems to be mostly punching.

CLINT (VO) (CONT)
Guys got, what, armor. Magic. Super-powers. Super-strength. Shrink-dust. Grow-rays. Magic.

KATE (VO)
You said magic.

CLINT (VO) (CONT)
I know I said magic. It was emphatic.

It’s gonna give you a bit of a complex.
These guys are superheroes.
I’m a carnie with a bit of stick and string from the Paleolithic era.

A huge BLAST OF ENERGY smacks CLINT straight in the chest and he flies backwards, shattering the window, and plummeting. Flailing wildly.

CLINT (VO) (CONT)
So when I tell you ‘this looks bad’?

CLINT slams into the ground, hitting the roof of the car, unconscious.

CLINT (VO) (CONT)
I promise you it feels worse.

KATE (VO)
Hold up. Hooooooold up.

Freeze.

That is not what you told me, bossman.

CLINT (VO)
Katie, would you please -

KATE (VO)
Why is it that whenever it’s time to tell the story to other people you’re suddenly cool and badass and oooh-emphatic? Why is it just me who gets to hear about your incredible screwups?

CLINT (VO)
I didn’t screw up.

KATE (VO)
You fell off the roof from like two feet up.

REWIND AGAIN - Clint flies upwards once more, wildly flailing until the AIM AGENT has a fist at his face, but now we’re on top of a THREE STORY BUILDING in DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN.

KATE (VO)
And it wasn’t fifty bad guys, it was fifteen.

AIM AGENTS disappear, leaving only a handful.

KATE (VO.)
And I’m pretty sure Spider-Man was there.

SPIDER-MAN appears in the background.

CLINT (VO)
He was not.

KATE (VO)
He was.

CLINT (VO)
I don’t need a kid to -

KATE (VO)
It was all over Twitter, Hawkdude, just get over it. The AIM dude punched you in the face -

Which is exactly what happens as we come back to REAL TIME.

- and you fell over and landed on Spidey and he knocked you over and you fell off the roof of a hipster deli.

And CLINT trips over SPIDER-MAN in the middle of the battle and plummets from the rooftop -

CLINT
[yelling]
Oh, SHI-

- to land on the now familiar car below, thankfully unconscious once more. POLICE cars pull up around him as the battle draws to a close.

The camera pulls up, over the BROOKLYN skyline of brownstones and docks and MANHATTAN in the distance, and we see our title:

HAWKEYE

and as if it has been drawn on by pen, suddenly someone adds in:

HAWKEYE(s)

CLINT (VO)
I don’t remember asking for your input, Hawkeye.

KATE (VO)
[cheerfully]
You’re welcome, Hawkeye.

OPENING CREDITS

*grabby hands* We have show now? Make show? Give show? This is about as coherent as we get when we’re this excited, please, someone help us out.

For real, Marvel, you are missing out on the chance to create one of the best action-comedy tv series of the 21st century. We want our Netflix marathon. Hire this very capable person to write you a pilot.

Although a few months ago Christopher Nolan was rumored to be bringing Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One to the big screen, Deadline reports that Steven Spielberg has attached himself to the adaptation!

It’s very fitting, considering that Spielberg has a lot more ’80s experience, having helmed some of our favorite movies from that era: E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (All of which are mentioned in the book!)

The man knows his stuff, which is what we’ll need to see in a production that must combine a bleak, dystopian future characterized by overpopulation and the virtual-reality OASIS, and the nostalgia of War Games, Joust, and other ’80s classics.

[Read more]

Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Alphas) has adapted the screenplay from Cline’s novel. Working on Ready Player One with Warner Bros will also mark Spielberg’s return after 14 years; his last film with them was A.I. Artificial Intelligence in 2001. Greg Silverman, President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, said in a statement,

We are thrilled to welcome Steven back to Warner Bros. We had an historic series of collaborations in the 1980s and 1990s and have wanted to bring him back for years.

The studio has not yet set a release date. Spielberg is just beginning to shoot his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG, so Ready Player One is expected to be his next project.

In the meantime, Cline is super-excited.

The forty-three-year-old British animation studio is being honored with a major exhibit in Paris.

How exactly did Disney pull off its first animated foray into Marvel territory?

GKIDS will launch the film in New York City and Los Angeles in August.

C.H. Greenblatt, creator of the animated series "Chowder," is back with a new series, "Harvey Beaks," that premieres this Sunday on Nickelodeon.

If there’s still a ninja-shaped hole in your heart where the recently climaxing Naruto used to be, perhaps we can interest you in some sci-fi cyberpunk ninjas?

With a new anime set to start streaming on April 16, the people behind Ninja Slayer want everyone to release their inner warrior, and they’ve got some shiny new merchandise to help you get in the mood. And if you happen to have lost your entire family to a ninja turf war recently, you too can become a ninja slayer! Find out how after the jump.

What began as a “translated” Twitter novel has blossomed into eight published novels, three manga adaptations and a new animated series set to stream on video site Niconico next month. People all around the world are catching the Ninja Slayer fever. A bunch of new merchandise is being sold to celebrate the anime’s release, and the standout winner is definitely the snazzy Ninja Slayer T-shirt.

Using the same color as the main character Kenji Fujikido, this T-shirt will proudly show off your love for Ninja Slayer. It even has “ninsatsu” (忍殺) conveniently placed on the back. But that’s not all, using these simple step-by-step instructions, you can turn into the infamous Ninja Slayer yourself!

▼ From tee to ninja hood in seconds!

We know what you’re thinking: “T-shirt ninja? What are you doing back?” But it’s not “just” a T-shirt ninja, it’s a T-shirt ninja slayer! When you use this shirt, the “ninja slayer” kanji characters are proudly displayed on the front. Now all your enemies will know what sort of nefarious business you are there to conduct.

For those unfamiliar with the title, Ninja Slayer is a cyberpunk sci-fi story set in Neo Saitama. In a time where rival clans are fighting a huge war, one salaryman’s family is killed. Seeking revenge, the main character is possessed by a mysterious ninja whose hatred of the ninja syncs up well with Kenji’s thirst for revenge. Together they vow to kill all the ninjas as the ninja slayer.

Ninja Slayer is supposedly written by two Americans, Bradley Bond and Philip Ninj@ Morzez, but apparently that is a story made up by the “translators” to help sell their novels. No original English version of Ninja Slayer exists, yet, so it is probably safe to say the authors are Honda Yu and Sugi Leika. All this confusion only adds to the intrigue surrounding the title. You’ll be able to tune into the first episode streaming on Niconico on April 16.

Until then, ninja vanish!

Source: Net Lab
Top Image: YouTube (ebtvjp)
Images: Ebten

Origin: Ninja Slayer wants to turn you into ninjas – 12 step process, no training required    
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Despite working a boring office job and having lived in Tokyo for long enough that not even schoolgirl uniforms, random cosplayers or the neon wash of Kabukicho really give me pause anymore, there are still moments when I look around at all the futuristic bizarreness and think, Is this real life? Or am I living in the dystopian anime world of Akira?

Maybe it’s the abnormally tall buildings, the dingy arcades that look like they’re right out of that early Akira scene. Maybe it’s the male hosts with their impeccable dress and gravity-defying hair, or the life-size, moving Gundam of Odaiba. Or maybe it’s because every once in a while a vehicle like this new electric motorcycle will come roaring down the street like its giving chase to an escaped Replicant or something.

This is the appropriately sci-fi looking zecOO from Znug Design, and it can apparently reach a top speed of around 75 mph; not fast by motorcycle standards, but when you’re straddling the two enormous wheels of a crotch rocket this cool, speed somehow doesn’t matter as much. Besides, 75 mph is plenty fast enough to make you fear for your life on the taxi-packed streets of Tokyo.

One of only a handful of electric motorcycles that break from classic motorcycle design, the zecOO’s aesthetic is pretty clearly inspired – at least in part – by Japan’s future-fantasy pop cultural works. It sits low to the ground and features a bizarre-looking hub-center steering system that more resembles tank controls than a standard cycle’s handlebars. It runs on a lithium battery and falls into the 250cc range, meaning it fits into Japan’s chu-gata category of motorcycle and can be operated with a standard license in spite of its ferocious appearance.

The only drawback is the price tag, which sits at a cool 8,880,000 yen (about US$70,000). We’re pretty sure the events of Akira will have long since become a reality by the time we save up that much scratch.

Source: Gizmodo Japan
Photos: Official homepage

Origin: Awesome new electric motorcycle looks like something out of “Akira”‘s Neo Tokyo
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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There’s a popular Japanese TV show whose protagonist, a wandering gourmet with a healthy appetite, often finds himself looking over a restaurant menu while trying to make an agonizing decision about which of two tempting entrees to order. Often, he resolves the crisis by following the advice encapsulated by his catchphrase, “When you can’t decide which to eat, have both.”

That also seems to be the philosophy behind Nissin Foods’ newest product: instant ramen with fried chicken.

Instant ramen may not be gourmet, but it’s almost always tasty. With all the literal science involved in a cup of noodles, it’s pretty hard to completely screw up the flavor, and you can generally be assured that you’ll come away with something that leaves your taste buds happy and your stomach full.

You can say a lot of the same things about fried chicken, which tastes good 99 times out of a hundred, plus has a similarly trustworthy probability of satisfying your hunger. But should you often find yourself in a quandary trying to decide between the two tempting foodstuffs, the easy answer is coming on April 6 with the release of Nissin’s Cup Noodle King Karaage.

The new item is part of the company’s popular King line of instant noodles, which contains 1.7 times more noodles than the regular size (because really, once you start adding fried chicken to instant ramen, it seems kind of contradictory to worry about the calorie count). Aside from karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken), you’ll also find scrambled egg, black pepper, and red bell pepper, and soy sauce-based broth inside the jumbo-sized cup. The whole thing is priced at just 230 yen (US$1.90), making the newest King noodle offering budget-friendly enough even for non-royalty.

And if for some reason this double punch still isn’t enough to fill you up, you can always follow it up with a bowl of French fry soba for dessert.

Source: Nissin
Top image: Nissin
Insert image: Nissin (2)

Origin: Fried chicken teams up with instant ramen in this cup of noodles fit for a king
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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The past few years have been an interesting time for fan conventions, as organizers have to confront social issues that they may not have considered in years past. Conventions including Heroes Con and Emerald City Comic Con have taken a head-on approach to harassment and gender discrimination. DragonCon wisely cut ties with a founder in the wake of a child molestatiion case. And the list goes on.

But many of those have been cases of conventions dealing with direct internal challenges. This week, Gen Con, the largest tabletop gaming convention in North America, took the fight to the state government of Indiana, threatening to leave the Hoosier State if Gov. Mick Pence signs into law a bill that would facilitate discrimination against gay people.

Continue reading…

People have been asking me about prints and sketches at ECCC. All the old prints will be there, as well as this new Persona print. And you’ll be able to commission 6x8 character sketches (like the ones above) at the table until the list fills up. I’ll be with the others at tables N10-N12. See y’all there!

-Jake

literal-ghost:

carnotaurus-sassytrei:

jamesofgoo:

itstimeforcomics:

its time for the tantrum hole

I laughed so hard at tantrum hole that I literally - in real life - choked on my own saliva.

Holy fuck.

ssoja:

Some concept for my new comic book project “Bergère Guerrière” (shepherdess warrior) in collaboration with Jonathan Garnier :)

The story is about shepherdess warrior,  giant wolf, witches, and …epic fight !

Nearly two dozen major corporations, including Walmart, Nordstrom, and Safeway, are bankrolling a quiet, multistate lobbying effort to make it harder for workers hurt on the job to access lost wages and medical care—the benefits collectively known as workers' compensation.

The companies have financed a lobbying group, the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers' Compensation (ARAWC), that has already helped write legislation in one state, Tennessee. Richard Evans, the group's executive director, told an insurance journal in November that the corporations ultimately want to change workers' comp laws in all 50 states. Lowe's, Macy's, Kohl's, Sysco Food Services, and several insurance companies are also part of the year-old effort.

Laws mandating workers' comp arose at the turn of the 20th century as a bargain between employees and employers: If a worker suffered an injury on the job, the employer would pay his medical bills and part of his wages while he recovered. In exchange, the worker gave up his right to sue for negligence.

ARAWC's mission is to pass laws allowing private employers to opt out of the traditional workers' compensation plans that almost every state requires businesses to carry. Employers that opt out would still be compelled to purchase workers' comp plans. But they would be allowed to write their own rules governing when, for how long, and for which reasons an injured employee can access medical benefits and wages.

Continue Reading »

Over loud objections from Indiana business leaders, GOP Gov. Mike Pence signed a bill into law Thursday that protects business owners who refuse service to gay and lesbian customers on religious grounds. Organizers of mass events in Indianapolis, including the NCAA's Final Four, immediately decried the law as discriminatory, and suggested that the bill might cause the state to lose out on future business.

The law allows Indianans who are sued for discrimination to cite their religious beliefs as a defense. It applies to a broad range of situations. An employer who refused to hire Jewish employees could cite his religious beliefs as a defense against discrimination lawsuits. So could a landlord who refused to rent to Muslims, or a business that refused to serve atheists.

At a news conference that followed the private signing, Pence explaining he signed the bill "because I support the freedom of religion for every Hoosier of every faith…Today, many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action." He cited the University of Notre Dame's fight to prevent its employees from accessing birth control as an example.

Pence may have signed the bill as a way to better position himself for a run in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries. Last year, facing opposition from Democrats and state business leaders, and intense media scrutiny, Pence and conservative Republicans abandoned a bill that would have banned same-sex marriage in Indiana. But the bill Pence signed Thursday drew much less organized opposition and press.

Pence disputed the idea that this latest bill allowed discrimination. "If I thought it legalized discrimination in any way in Indiana, I would have vetoed it," he said.

Lawmakers have introduced bills permitting businesses to discriminate against LGBT individuals in almost two dozen states this year. They are part of a wave of anti-LGBT bills that has crested as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on whether same-sex marriage should be legal throughout the county. The decision will likely come down in June.

After Pence signed the bill, Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player before he retired last year, sounded off on Twitter:

.@GovPenceIN, is it going to be legal for someone to discriminate against me & others when we come to the #FinalFour? http://t.co/uBlKbIf8YK

— Jason Collins (@jasoncollins98) March 23, 2015

Seems like everyone had the same great idea at the same time: with comic-cons proliferating, and nerdlebrities making a circuit out of it, wouldn’t this be fine fodder for a realityish TV show/webisode of some kind? And wouldn’t actors who had starred in TV shows that had insanely fanatic fanbases but who didn’t get much airtime outside of that be the perfect  people to do it?

It seems both Firefly’s Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion and Supernatural’s Rob Benedict and Richard Speight, Jr had the same idea. And both have turned to Indiegogo to bring these ideas to fruition.

The Tudyk/Fillion effort launched first. It’s called Con Man and it’s already a go, with $2,386,241 raised, a bit more than the $425,000 they were going for. This is a scripted adventure about nerdlebrities who go to cons starring…nerdlebrities who go to cons.

Wray Nerely (Alan Tudyk-Me!) was a co-star on Spectrum, a sci-fi series which was canceled -Too Soon- yet became a cult classic. Wray’s good friend, Jack Moore (Nathan Fillion) starred in the series and has gone on to become a major movie star. While Jack enjoys the life of an A-lister, Wray tours the sci-fi circuit as a guest of conventions, comic book stores, and lots of pop culture events.  The show will feature all the weird and crazy things that happen to Wray along the way to these events.

Galaxy Quest without the galaxy, then. Okay maybe a little Galaxy.

In an interview with EW, the pair expanded on the idea::

Fillion and Tudyk are hoping to raise $425,000 to finance the show’s first three 10 minute-long episodes. But Tudyk says that he has written 10 scripts in all so far and that at least one later show will indeed see both actors back on a spaceship. “There’s a lost episode of Spectrum that gets released within the show,” he says. “That’s done in a funny way—but there are actual scenes of me flying a spaceship and Nathan captaining.”

Guest stars will include more Firefly alumni, Sean Maher and Gina Torres, and othr nerdlebirty royalty including Amy Acker , Seth Green, Felicia Day, and director James Gunn. Easy to see why this has raised so much money. The initial budget was for three 10-minute shorts, but I guess there will be more than that.

Meanwhile, the Supernatural effort is more of a “reality-based” show set within the world of Supernatural fandom. It too was once called “Con Man” but now it’s called Kings of Con and here’s the pitch:

$100,000 will cover production costs for the first three to five episodes, and Benedict says 10 have already been “roughly written and mapped out,” with a 10-minute teaser/pilot previously filmed. According to Benedict, “Our idea is that every episode will be a new city that we’re in — or rather, the suburb outside of that city where our hotel is! We’ve shot in our actual conventions too, so you’ll get a POV of the view from the stage during karaoke, and a bird’s-eye view of the merchandise room, the lines, the crowds, the energy… in a utopian world, we want to continue to capture all that in each episode.”

 

This effort has already raised $57,000 of the $100,000 requested..in fact it raised about $7k while I was writing this post, so I think this will hit its target as well. It only launched yesterday and they are aware of the rival show:

While Benedict and Speight acknowledge that the concept sounds similar to another crowdfunded comedy series inspired by two genre actors’ convention experiences (Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion’s “Con Man”), their series has been in development for over a year, and is wholly inspired by their “real life exploits within this ‘Supernatural’ convention world — with our own creative, fictional spin,” Benedict tells Variety. “While it is nowhere near reality TV, it will be shot naturalistic and play on our relationship with each other and others through scripted and semi-scripted dialogue. Rich and I have developed quite a rapport over these few years, and quite a unique, combustable and comical relationship. We’ve been to the front lines, so to speak, and have been in the thick of it, all around the world, together. Really, this show is about Rob and Rich, and the conventions will serve as a unique backdrop for that quirky relationship.”

These are not the first efforts in the “nerdlebrity goes to a con” genre. The trailblazer in this regard is Mark Hamill’s Comic Book: The Movie in which he portrays Donald Swan, a documentary filmmaker who goes to Comic-Con and meets a lot of weird people. Made in 2004, this features the state of the art autograph circuit of the day, such as Stan Lee, Chase Masterson, Bruce Campbell and Kevin Smith in cameos.

Then there was Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con IV: A Fan’s Hope, the 2012 actual documentary about people who go to Comic-Con. Actually, I think Bruce Campbell also made a short film about fans and fandom, but no one has ever seen it.

Huh well whaddaya know.

I have my own idea for a movie set at a comic-con, but it’s so explosive that I can’t even talk about it here. I’ll just give you the elevator pitch: Clue + Comic-Con. Interested parties can contact my agent.

In some exciting news to close out this Tuesday, it was announced via The Hollywood Reporter that Legendary Television and producer Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man franchise) have acquired the rights to Greg Rucka and Michael Lark‘s Eisner nominated Image series, Lazarus. The studio will be aiming to produce a new drama based on the popular dystopian series.

For those unfamilar, Lazarus centers on 16 familes that rule over all society in a futuristic world. Each family is protected by a genetically engineered being called a Lazarus, with one of these warriors, named Forever, acting as the central character of the series.

This won’t be the first Rucka property to get the live action treatment, as his series, Whiteout, was adapted into a film starring Kate Beckinsale. Additionally, Queen and Country is still in development, and is slated to star Ellen Page. Even some of their story elements from Rucka and Lark’s collaboration with Ed Brubaker, Gotham Central, wound up in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight.

Rucka will script the pilot and will executive produce along with Lark and Tolmach.

Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company, Inc. sold Lazarus on behalf of lit agent David Hale Smith of Inkwell Management. Rucka and Lark are represented by Stone, Meyer.

I imagine the speculator market on those Lazarus back issues is about to run pretty wild.

A Kickstarter is a little like having a baby in only 31 days, You put all your efforts into the birth, but then what happens to the baby? Well now we’ll get to see the kids grow up and go to school. Kickstarter is enabling creators to showcase more of what happens to projects after the initial funding ends with a new “Spotlight” feature that launches today. All creators with funded projects will now be able to manage the page to present a view of their work, with huge graphics, an inviting look, an attractive new timeline feature that can share the creator’s story at a glance, and links that can go anywhere—so buy buttons and links to ongoing projects can be added.

And for those who like to see how the project got made, the original Kickstarter page will still be archived in a tab called “Story.”

Since Kickstarter ages are often top search results, this is a good way to promote the finished project and later developments and direct buyers to a place to purchase related projects.

For instance here’s how the old pages looked:

And how they’ll look now:

 

As you can see it’s a huge improvement and a perfect showcase for further interaction and sales. For comics people where Kickstarter pages are already a hub of activity, this can effectively become a storefront. Kickstarter has a very creator-oriented philosophy and this is a strong indication of how they’re implementing that going forward.

 

And here’s a video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7KLTEWL8S4

Via Entertainment Weekly, here’s your first look at Jesse Eisenberg with a clean shaven dome for his role as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Director Zack Snyder shared a few words on Eisenberg in the role:

He’s not any of the Lexes that you’ve seen, that’s for sure, other than him being a captain of industry and one person to the world and another person to himself. And bald, of course. Our Lex is disarming and he’s not fake. He says what he believes and he says what’s on his mind. If you can unravel the string and decipher what he means, it’s all there.

More importantly, this tips me off to the idea that we’ll be seeing a trailer very soon, as they had been keeping Eisenberg’s head under wraps (literally) for months. Now that this cat is out of the bag, those WonderCon trailer debut rumors don’t seem so unfounded.

Filed under: Editorials, Humor

We haven’t even gotten to Marvel’s latest big event picture, but Marvel is already getting their house in order for the next one.

While we knew for certain that Joss Whedon was bowing out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Age of Ultron, we only had rumors to go on regarding his successor(s). Now, according to Devin over at Badass Digest, Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo have closed a deal that will see them go behind the camera for both parts of Avengers: Infinity War, as had been rumored for some time.

The report also states that Marvel is looking to enlist Captain America screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (the duo that was also behind Agent Carter) to script both parts of the Avengers three-quel.

It looks pretty likely that Captain America: Civil War, which has been bantied about the studio as “Avengers 2.5″ will be the key lead-in to Infinity War and the one can’t miss film of Marvel’s Phase 3.

Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2 will be shot back to back in 2016 and 2017, with an anticipated May 2018 and 2019 release respectively.

MoCCA Fest has just announced its programming. With the festival of indie itself is set  for April 11-12th at a new venue, the Center 520, programming will be held a short walk away at the High Line Hotel at 180 Tenth Avenue and 20th Street.  Curated by Bill Kartalopoulos, the schedule includes several tie-ins to the current Alt-Weekly Comic shows up at the SOI, as well as three ticketed events, with Scott McCloud Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Raina Telgemeier. Tickets are free with MoCCA admission but you need to sign up at the SOI website now to reserve a space.

While the line-up of panelists is impressive, including the three above superstars and also Rebecca Mock, Annie Goetzinger,  Kim Deitch, Julia Wertz and many more; Kartalopoulos has lined up an equally erudite slate of panel moderators, drawn from NYC’s greater cultural world: MoMA curator Laura Hoptman; avant-garde poet and Ubuweb founder Kenneth Goldsmith; curator and Saul Steinberg Foundation managing director Patterson Sims; Hyperallergic senior editor Jillian Steinhauer; New York Times art director Alexandra Zsigmond, and more.

All in all, state of the comics art and as usual the problem is finding time to buy all the new comics while still attending all the great programming.

Here’s the complete line-up:

 

It’s come to our attention that Batman: The Brave and the Bold will be leaving Netflix streaming on March 30.

Outrageous!

If you’re a Netflix-binge pro, you might be able to finish off the 3 seasons of this underrated show in the week left (and really, it’s more like 2.5 seasons, with season 3 being only a partial order). But if you’re not able to move that fast, we’ve pulled together a list of the best episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold so that you can catch the highlights before this one drops out of your queue.

Season 1

Episode 3, Evil Under the Sea: It doesn’t get better on this show than Aquaman, and his debut episode is the perfect place to start. Aquaman episodes are consistently hilarious, and this one is no different – Batman foils a plot from Black Manta to conquer Atlantis, while Aquaman remains oblivious.

Episode 8, Fall of the Blue Beetle: This episode focuses on Blue Beetles, both the present incarnation of Jaime Reyes and his predecessor, Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. It’s interesting to see Batman struggle to accept Jaime as a replacement for Ted.

Episode 9, Journey to the Center of the Bat: When Batman is stricken with disease by Chemo, the Atom and Aquaman shrink and fight the disease within Batman’s body. Aquaman befriends and rides a lymphocyte he names “platelet” – need we say more?

Episode 12, Deep Cover for Batman: Batman takes the place of Owlman on a parallel Earth, turning to a parallel world version of his usual villains and finding them as allies.

Episode 13, Deep Cover for Owlman: While Batman is off pretending to be Owlman on a parallel Earth, it turns out that Owlman has been posing as Batman and has gone on a crime spree. The flip side to the previous episode, Batman returns to find himself considered a villain and hunted by his usual allies.

Episode 15, Trials of the Demon: Batman time travels to 19th century London to help Jason Blood, who’s been framed for crimes committed by Jim Craddock. The twist to this one is that the two “World’s Greatest Detectives” join forces when Sherlock Holmes and Watson assist in the investigation. As long as you can handle Etrigan rhyming, this one’s a winner.

Episode 17, Menace of the Conqueror Caveman: Booster Gold episodes are usually great for much of the same reason Aquaman ones are: Batman plays the straight man to a humorous, egotistical sidekick.

Episode 19, Legends of the Dark Mite: Bat-Mite is the Q to Batman’s Picard, and his fifth dimensional powers allow him to express his fandom in painful ways. Bat-Mite is a recurring character on the series and plays a heavy role in the finale, so this character’s intro is worth watching.

Episode 25, Mayhem of the Music Meister: Featuring Neil Patrick Harris as the Music Meister, this is a musical episode and easily one of the best of the series.

 Season 2

Episode 2, Long Arm of the Law: Plastic Man tries to keep his home life stable by taking Baby Plas to the museum,  only to be attacked by Kite Man. Batman tries to assist, but this episode sees Plastic Man’s past deeds catch up with him and threaten his family and wife, Ramona.

Episode 4, Aquaman’s Outrageous Adventure: Aquaman serves as the POV character here, and the episode centers on Aquaman’s boredom with his family vacation and secret attempts to escape and help battle evil during breaks. Again, Aquaman = the best.

Episode 9, The Super-Batman of Planet X: Batman travels through a wormhole and ends up in a distant planet called Zur-En-Arrh, where he goes to “Gothtropolis” and meets the Batman of this world. This is a sort of Superman-Batman mash-up, because Batman has super powers on this planet. The best part of this episode is that it stars Kevin Conroy as the voice of the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Double Batman! (there’s also the always great Clancy Brown and Dana Delany).

Episode 10, The Power of Shazam: With a title in homage to the 1990s Captain Marvel Comic, The Power of Shazam pits Captain Marvel against Black Adam and Doctor Sivana, along with Sivana’s wonderfully hilarious children.

Episode 11, Chill of the Night: This episode makes most best-of lists for this series, and has a guest star list featuring Adam West, Julie Newmar, Kevin Conroy, and Mark Hamill to boot.  When The Phantom Stranger and the Spectre make a bet on whether Bruce Wayne will kill the person who murdered his parents, Batman is guided through his painful past and comes to learn about his parents’ assassin, Joe Chill.

Episode 15, Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster: Featuring multiple incarnations of The Flash working in tandem with Batman to investigate Barry Allen’s death, this episode also guest stars John Wesley Shipp (star of the 1990s live-action The Flash) as Professor Zoom.

Episode 17, Menace of the Madniks: Recalling plot threads introduced in Season 1, this episode focuses on Booster Gold, who travels to the past to spend time with his now-deceased friend, Ted Kord (Blue Beetle). Both Batman and Booster Gold considered Ted a close friend, so their rivalry and possessiveness over his friendship was touching (and entertaining). It’s also a nice reminder that shows like this don’t have to shy away from confronting death.

Episode 18, Emperor Joker: This episode is kind of like The Edge of Tomorrow in that we get to see Batman die dozens of different ways at the hands of The Joker, who gains the powers of Bat-Mite.

Episode 19, The Criss Cross Conspiracy: One of the few problems with Batman: The Brave and the Bold is that it is primarily consumed with male characters. This episode isn’t exactly much different or particularly kind to women, unfortunately, but it’s still an amusing one – Batwoman and Batman switch bodies, and we get to see Diedrich Bader pull off some of his most comical voice acting.

Episode 21, Cry Freedom Fighters: In which Plastic Man finally gets his big heroic spotlight. Basically every Plastic Man related plot point in the series culminates here, and he gets to join his fellow Quality Comics stable-mates The Freedom Fighters, including a particularly “taken so straight it’s hilarious” version of Uncle Sam.

Episode 22, The Knights of Tomorrow: More or less, this is the Grant Morrison tribute episode, taking place in the future and giving viewers the set-up of his classic Batman and Robin run, with Dick as Batman and Damian Wayne (this time, the son of Bruce and Selina Kyle) as Robin, with even a little wink and nod to Damian’s future and one of the easter eggs of Batman #700.

Episode 23, Darkseid Descending: Set-up gloriously in the previous episode’s prelude, the oncoming threat of the hordes of Apokolips compels Batman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter to reform the Justice League…and it ends up taking a shape that’s rather familiar to fans of the Giffen/DeMatteis iteration of the team. Wonderfully epic, this could have been/maybe should have been the finale to the second season.

Episode 25, The Malicious Mr. Mind: The best possible follow-up to a Captain Marvel/Shazam episode is one that includes the entire Marvel family, Mr. Mind, and the Monster Society of Evil. While many writers have struggled to make the fairly cheesy Marvel family “relevant” for today’s audiences, The Brave and The Bold creative team embraced everything that’s weird and wonderful about the old Beck/Binder comics and this episode is their ultimate tribute.

Season 3

Episode 1, The Battle of the Superheroes: For better or worse, it’s hard not to notice the Superman shaped-hole that filled the entirety of series’ first two seasons (barring one brief flashback cameo), but with the third season’s premiere, viewers were treated to the best possible love letter to Superman’s Silver Age past. You get a giant Turtle Boy style Jimmy Olsen, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and some rather hilarious examples of “Superdickery”. Season 3 was, on the whole, not as successful as the brilliant second set of episodes before it, but this episode was a stone cold classic.

Episode 7, Sword of the Atom: Remember “Journey to the Center of the Bat” back in season 1? This is basically part 2 of that fantastic episode and once again sees Aquaman team up with (the new) Atom and shrink to microscopic size to save Batman.

Episode 9, Bold Beginnings: When Aquaman, Plastic Man, and Green Arrow get together, it’s a can’t lose combo. And sure to form, this story that details how each first met Batman not only superbly entertains, but also provides just a tiny bit of character backstory for Batman’s core three supporting cast.

Episode 13, Mitefall: Best. Finale. Ever.

Have fun!

Originally a short by Kenji Itoso that won Creative Market Tokyo 2011's top award

Nobutake Ito (Ping Pong, The Tatami Galaxy, Giovanni's Island designs) also on project