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Jolly Blackburn’s Knights of the Dinner Table #191 Shipping Next Week

Jolly Blackburn’s Knights of the Dinner Table #191 Shipping Next Week

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kodt-191Time to remind all you people that you should be reading Knights of the Dinner Table.

Why? Because it’s one of the best comics on the market. And for gamers it’s a lot more than that — it’s one of the finest magazines out there, packed with articles, reviews, and ads for the best new games.

Knights of the Dinner Table follows the misadventures of a group of misfits from Muncie, Indiana, whose love of gaming routinely trumps normal social conventions, and occasionally even their sense of self preservation. If you’re a Black Gate reader you’re already familiar with the Knights: the Java Joint strip in the back of every issue draws from the same cast of characters. Knights of the Dinner Table: The Java Joint, collecting the complete Black Gate strips, is now available in print and PDF.

You can try KODT for free online with the weekly Knights of the Dinner Table web comic. The current “Celebrity Hack” strip, featuring Seinfeld characters playing Hackmaster, is more than worth the trip.

In addition to a great cover by artist George Vrbanic, spoofing the original Unearthed Arcana art by Jeff Easley, issue 191 features 8 complete comic strips, plus feature articles including “Siftings of a Hoarder’s Lair: An inventory of things found in a Kobold’s Lair,” by Barbara Blackburn. This issue’s GameMaster’s Workshop looks at Bait and Tackle: Adventure Hooks on the Fly, Denizens of Tellene: Shazahn Ghanim, and Gaming the Movies covers the film Outpost.

All that plus regular columns Tales from the Table, Web Scryer: the Best of the RPG Web, and reviews of Masque of the Red Death, The Drifter’s Escape, The Tempus novels, Ugg-Tect, Flapjacks & Sasquatches, and Decktet. See this complete list of contents here

Knights of the Dinner Table is published monthly by Kenzer & Company. Issues are 64 pages, black & white, and priced at $5.99. It gets my highest recommendation.

A Circle of Cats by Charles de Lint and Charles Vess

A Circle of Cats by Charles de Lint and Charles Vess

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a-circle-of-catsIt’s always a pleasure when two creators I admire collaborate. Case in point: A Circle of Cats, a Charles de Lint short story gorgeously illustrated by Charles Vess.

Although it’s very short (48 pages, at least half of which is full-color artwork), A Circle of Cats is a complete and satisfying tale. It tells the story of Lillian, a 12-year-old orphan who lives on the edge of a vast and very old wood with her aunt. One day, after all her chores are done, Lillian chases a deer into a part of the woods she’s never explored before. Falling asleep at the foot of a great gnarled tree, she disturbs a snake that strikes her three times.

As she lays dying, a circle of cats forms around her, for Lillian has found their ancient gathering place. The cats decide to intervene, and when Lillian awakens, she finds herself in the body of a kitten.

What Lillian finds as she explores the woods as a cat, and the strange creatures she meets, form the bulk of the tale. But as night arrives and her elderly aunt begins a desperate search deeper and deeper into the woods for her, Lillian’s efforts to find a way to return to human form become more determined. Ultimately, she learns that getting what she wants will require help from friends she didn’t know she had, and an unusual sacrifice.

Fans of de Lint and Vess’s earlier collaboration, the massive illustrated fantasy Seven Wild Sisters (Subterranean Press, May 2002), will find both the setting and some of the characters familiar, including Aunt Lillian, The Apple Tree Man, and The Father of Cats. De Lint and Vess also collaborated on Medicine Road (Tachyon Publications, June 2009), featuring the further adventures of the red-haired Dillard twins, Laurel and Bess, from Seven Wild Sisters.

While it is primarily intended for young readers, A Circle of Cats is still a fine introduction to Charles de Lint’s fiction, as it has all the hallmarks of his work, including fascinating characters, magical settings, and a story richly suffused in myth. Vess, the artist behind The Book of Ballads and three books with Neil Gaiman (Instructions, Blueberry Girl, and the illustrated version of Stardust), delivers his usual excellent artwork.

A Circle of Cats was published in hardcover by Viking Juvenile in June, 2003. It is 48 pages in full color, with a cover price of $16.99.

Dave Sim Announces He’s Ending Glamourpuss And Leaving Comics

Dave Sim Announces He’s Ending Glamourpuss And Leaving Comics

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glamourpuss-21Well, this is troubling.

I stumbled on a report at The Comic Reporter this week that Cerebus creator Dave Sim — at one time my favorite comic writer and artist — has announced that he’s ending his latest ongoing title glamourpuss and giving up on the medium entirely.

Part of the reason I find it troubling is that I’ve never even heard of glamourpuss. How could Dave Sim publish 26 issues of a comic without me knowing about it? I’d heard about his successful Kickstarter campaign back in June, which raised nearly $64,000 to create a special audio/visual digital edition of the Cerebus graphic novel High Society. I also knew he had experimented with an anthology titled Cerebus Archive and a web program called Cerebus TV… but how did he slip glamourpuss past me?

According to what I can find online, glamourpuss was both a parody of 60s fashion magazines and a history of photorealism in comics, masquerading as a surreal super-heroine comic. One of its most talked-about features was an ongoing storyline about the day comic artist Alex Raymond died, The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond. The art samples published online looked stunning. You can view page samples and purchase of most of the back issues at the excellent comiXpress site.

But the real news was Sim’s bleak editorial in the latest issue:

Yes: this IS the last issue of glamourpuss… As soon as I saw the sales on the first issue – 16,000 – I knew that the title and my career were doomed. Because of the sheer volume of material published in the direct market, retailers need to order the highest numbers on the first issue and then start cutting drastically – on average: 50% per issue thereafter. 16,000 down to 8,000 down to 4,000 down to 2,000 and… oblivion…

In a final attempt to keep going, I re-jigged glamourpuss with [sister title] zootanapuss, using both the idea of a variant cover as zootanapuss No. 1 and double shipping each issue… It actually worked. Sales did go up on No. 25… but only by 34 copies over No. 24. I had arrived at my career end point…

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It’s Halloween Already with Graphic Classic’s Halloween Classics

It’s Halloween Already with Graphic Classic’s Halloween Classics

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halloween-classics2Goth Chick gets all excited as we approach the Halloween season every year, decorating the Black Gate offices in black ribbons and plastic tombstones. If we left it up to her, Halloween decorations would be up between Labor Day and Christmas Eve.

But she’s not the only one. Plenty of publishers offer up exciting books around Halloween, and I never really get tired of them. Last week, I received word that Graphic Classics (whom we last wrote about back in July) have released a new comic anthology collecting five scary stories in the tradition of EC Comics, presented by your horrible host Nerwin the Docent:

Eureka Productions is pleased to announce the release of Halloween Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 23, the newest volume in the Graphic Classics series of comics adaptations of great literature.

Halloween Classics presents five scary tales for the holiday, each with an EC Comics-style introduction by famed horror author Mort Castle. Featured are Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Arthur Conan Doyle’s mummy tale “Lot No. 249,” Mark Twain’s “A Curious Dream,” and H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air.” Plus, a comics adaptation of the great silent film, “The Cabinet of Dr. Calligari,” illustrated by Matt Howarth, with a terrifying cover by Simon Gane.

Halloween Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 23 is edited by Tom Pomplun, and published September 2012 by Eureka Productions. It is 144 pages in full color oversize paperback, priced at $15.00.

Get more details at the Eureka Productions website.

Helen Killer

Helen Killer

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helen-killerYou know the prologue. Contracting an illness (possibly scarlet fever or meningitis) at the age of nineteen months, Helen Adams Keller survived, but was left both deaf and blind. Keller’s parents would eventually contact Anne Sullivan, herself blind, to tutor their daughter (who, at the age of six, still had not grasped the concept of words representing things).  By pressing her hand into the girl’s palm, Sullivan was able to teach the girl to read sign language through touch.  After that breakthrough, Helen Keller went on to write twelve books, meet thirteen U.S. Presidents, help found the American Civil Liberties Union, and introduce the Akita breed of dog to the United States.

Wow.

So when Andrew Kreisberg decided to write about the further adventures of Helen Keller, he had his work cut out for him, since Keller’s real life adventures would certainly put any fiction to shame. What he opted for is a crazy mash-up of Daredevil and steampunk that somehow manages to remain consistently respectful to the real-life men and women upon whom the characters are based.  The basic premise is that Alexander Graham Bell (who in real life had indirectly referred the Kellers to Anne Sullivan in the first place) has developed a pair of miracle eyeglasses called an omnicle.  When Keller wears the omnicle, the device hotwires through her dead nerve endings and allows her to both see and hear. Further, the omnicle allows her to see into the auras of those around her, revealing their spiritual purity or corruption. Unfortunately, the omnicle also reconnects her with the long-supressed rage she felt when living in quiet darkness.  This rage manifests as increased agility, accelerated healing, and a desire to kill. Of course, someone has the idea of hiring Helen Keller as a federal agent to protect the life of President William McKinley. Things go wrong.

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Art of the Genre: Joe Kubert [1926-2012]

Art of the Genre: Joe Kubert [1926-2012]

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Joe Kubert, comic icon and teacher, passed away August 12th 2012
Joe Kubert, comic icon and teacher, passed away August 12th 2012
When I think of Joe Kubert, I think of Sgt. Rock, of comic books and of incredible pencils, but first and foremost I think of an inspirational teacher. Most of the time, artists influence the marketplace and world with their art alone, students of their style learning from observing images, but now and again a great artist also becomes a teacher, and for this their lives, and our world, will be forever changed.

So it was for Joe Kurbert, comic icon, and master of his art. Joe’s school, and all the ‘Kubies,’ as his graduates were called, helped define nearly two generations of art since its inception in 1976. Notable names such as Dave Dorman, Tim Truman, and countless others have studied under this master, and because of that, his rank among the all time greats increases tenfold.

Two of his children, sons Adam and Andy, have gone on to follow in their father’s footsteps as well, now respected comic artists in their own right.

His art, so inspiring to all fans, had a subtle quality that somehow managed to be both hard and soft. Emotion was etched into each line, and the movement found in his figures always had a realism I found astonishing when reading gritty war stories from his formative, post WWII, years in the industry.

He was another outstanding member of ‘The Greatest Generation,’ and the principles for which he lived his life, and the kindness and generosity for which he was known, are a shining example to others who I hope will eventually follow in his footsteps.

To this, beyond talented and incredible father, artist, husband, and teacher, I raise a glass. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy, as well as his teachings, will continue. And for that, the world of art will be forever enriched.

Enjoying Vintage Comics with The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics

Enjoying Vintage Comics with The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics

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toon-treasure-of-classic-childrens-comics2One of the great things about the 21st Century? Cheap comic reprints (I know, that’s top of your list too, right?)

Seriously. When I was growing up, if you wanted to know what happened in Amazing Spider-Man #65, you had to find someone five years older than you and pester the hell outta them until they told you. As comic archival systems went, it was crude and had little to recommend it.

Not today. Now you have an embarrassment of choices. Want the color reprints of Amazing Spider-Man? The cheap black-and-white? Hardcover or paperback? Digital or paper? Paper or plastic? Bah. All these choices make me grumpy. I miss nagging all the teenagers in my neighborhood. Yelling at them to get off my lawn isn’t the same.

And here’s the other thing. If you want to read premium reprints of superhero, sci-fi, or horror comics from the 50s through the 90s, life is grand. Just browse the graphic novel section at Barnes & Noble or Amazon and you’ll see what I mean — the choices are staggering. Marvel, DC, Gold Key, Charlton, EC… they’re all there, and in quantity.

But if you’re interested in children’s comics from the same era? Good luck.

There are a few intrepid publishers bucking the trend. Fantagraphics has one of the most ambitious publishing ventures in the history of comics with The Complete Peanuts, collecting all 17,897 daily and Sunday strips by Charles M. Schulz (18 hardcover volumes, so far). And let’s not forget Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips by Walt Kelly, or the extensive Disney comics of Carl Barks — especially his Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge — published by Gladstone and Boom! Studios over the years.

But these publishing projects assume you’re already a dedicated fan, and willing to shell out $30 (or more) per book for archival quality hardcovers. What if you just want to sample some of the best from the golden age of kid’s comics? For that, I heartily recommend Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly’s wonderful volume, The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics.

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Graphic Classics Half-Price Sale

Graphic Classics Half-Price Sale

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horror-classics-graphic-classics-10-2I’ve been collecting Eureka Press’ Graphic Classics for over ten years, ever since we received a review copy of Volume 1: Edgar Allan Poe, in 2001 (back when they were Rosebud Graphic Classics, a spin-off of Rosebud magazine). Tom Pomplun, longtime Art Director for Rosebud, started up Eureka Press that year to produce high quality comics anthologies, and in the last decade he’s published nearly two dozen volumes, including several that have gone through multiple editions.

A typical issue of Graphic Classics is 144 densely-packed black & white pages, containing loving adaptions of classic stories by some of the best talents in comics — including Rick Geary, Gahan Wilson, Richard Sala, Mark A. Nelson, Alex Nino, Skip Williamson, Richard Corben, Hunt Emerson, and many others. Matt Howarth’s 22-page rendition of “The Shadow Out of Time” in Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft may be the finest comics adaptation I’ve ever read, period. It captured the chilling mood of that piece perfectly.

Eureka has just announced a limited-time half-price sale on their entire line of in-stock GRAPHIC CLASSICS. The sale runs August 1 through August 14, 2012, and applies only to direct sales through their website. A partial list of titles in the sale include:

  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: EDGAR ALLAN POE – $12.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE — $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: H.P. LOVECRAFT  —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: JACK LONDON  —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: AMBROSE BIERCE  —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: BRAM STOKER  —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON  —  b&w / $12.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • HORROR CLASSICS: Graphic Classics Vol 10  —  $9.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • ADVENTURE CLASSICS: Graphic Classics Vol 12  —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GRAPHIC CLASSICS: RAFAEL SABATINI   —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • GOTHIC CLASSICS: Graphic Classics Vol 14   —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • FANTASY CLASSICS: Graphic Classics Vol 15  —  $11.95 retail / ON SALE $5
  • SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS: Graphic Classics Vol 17  —  color / $17.95 retail / ON SALE $7.50
  • POE’S TALES OF MYSTERY: Graphic Classics Vol 21  —  color / $17.95 retail / ON SALE $7.50

Note that some volumes are in low supply, and there is a $10 minimum purchase.

Mage: The Hero Defined

Mage: The Hero Defined

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mage-iiMatt Wagner began writing and illustrating the first Mage series in 1984 at the age of twenty-two.  At the time, he was a relatively unknown creator struggling both to find his voice and make a place for himself in the comics industry.  His subsequent work on Grendel and Sandman Mystery Theatre had garnered many awards and critical acclaim; but in interviews there was always the obligatory question of “When are you going back to Mage?”

When the second volume of Mage began in 1997, Mr. Wagner had earned a (deserved) reputation as both an illustrator and storyteller.  The main character of the series, Kevin Matchstick, had also been working hard in the intervening years, earning his own reputation.  The similarities between Wagner and Matchstick are both obvious and entirely intentional, to the point where Wagner has referred to Mage as a sort of mythologized autobiography.  So we can read this volume as both an examination on how mythic tropes exist in our everyday lives and as a fantasy-dressed account of Wagner’s ups and downs in the comic industry.

When I originally read this book, I was twenty-three (essentially the author’s age when the first book was published) and a lot of it was lost on me.  I identified a lot more with the jaded young man of the first volume than with the more practical and down-to-earth middle-aged man in volume two.  Fifteen years later (oops, guess I just gave away my age there), the second volume seems much richer to me.  This is the story of a hero growing up, learning that being good involves more than simply opposing evil.  It also carries some veiled criticism of the superhero genre (specifically, why most superheroes are perpetually locked in their mid- to late twenties).  The series ends with Kevin Matchstick committing an act of maturity that most superheroes would never dare (unless it was a dream or an imaginary story or eventually ret-conned).

The first book concerned Kevin refusing to acknowledge his own potential to change the world.  His friends were mostly there to inspire him (sometimes by dragging him kicking and screaming to his destiny).  In some ways, it was a young man’s fantasy, with everyone around Kevin telling him about his greatness and obligation.

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Art of the Genre: The Art of Calvin and Hobbes

Art of the Genre: The Art of Calvin and Hobbes

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18I’m on vacation, but I just can’t seem to take a break from writing about something art related, even though I’m technically ‘off duty.’ Currently, I’m on my first leg, the dreaded trip from L.A. to Vinalhaven Maine, a small island off the coast of the mainland.

Now that is a journey! Up at 3 AM, on a plane at LAX at 6:30 AM, a layover in Chicago at noon, then on to Manchester, New Hampshire, at 5 PM, then into a rental car for a 4 hour drive up the coast to Rockland, Maine, where I get a room at an inn to await the 7 AM ferry to the island the next day…

Yeah, it was kind of rough, but once entrenched in a cabin overlooking the Atlantic with a bit of wifi and no phone service, relaxation can be had. So I now sit on the porch, watching the 15 foot tides roll in and think about one of the more brilliant moments of the trip thus far.

Yesterday, as my six-year old son, Ash, looked through the various books stowed in the cabin’s bookshelves he pulled forth a tattered copy of The Essential Calvin & Hobbes. It had been many years since I’d read one of these Bill Waterson classics, but as I saw him pull the book out, I was filled with a feeling of nostalgia.

My son, as it turns out, is the same age as Calvin, and is a single child, although instead of a pet tiger he has a plethora of plush Pokemon at his service. Nonetheless, he’s now reading fervently, has a bit of a precocious streak, and instantly fell in love with the book that is admittedly almost too large for him to read.

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