Where oh where has Summer gone?

Oh where oh where can it be?

By Alex Ness

For the love of God, it is September already. I wave farewell to thee summer 2004, you were but a speck in the eye of the continuum time. I had high hopes for you, but you did not stay forever.

From ARCHAIA ARTESIA AFIRE TPB
Mature readers, color

By Mark Smylie

Artesia, self proclaimed Queen, warrior and sorcerer faces in this reprint volume the many aspects of power. And, in addition, she faces consequences of her acquisition of power in its many forms, political, spiritual, magical and love. She is a queen, warrior, lover and leader.

Mark Smylie’s brilliant saga is epic in proportion, but more importantly to me it is a realization of a true mature work. While erotic, it is never purulent. While violent, never sickly so. While vast in terms of scope, it never fails to realize the smallest aspects of the character. Mature labels generally point out a book that lingers in foul language, senseless sex or sexual activity or violence done for a thrill more than anything. But Smylie’s story broke the boundaries without being anything but real. True maturity as a label should never shock, as characters within such a book behave and exist as they would in reality.

This collection is a special book, and I would recommend it to RPGers and others who design their adventures. The extras found only here make the reader more knowledgeable, and for the RPGers more able to construct a campaign using this setting. I highly recommend this.

From IDEA+DESIGN WORKS

UNDERWORLD TPB
By Kris Oprisko, Danny McBride, Nick Postic and Nick Marinkovich

This recollects the love story between two children of the darkness and the eons of time and struggle between two races. This book demonstrates that, whatever the legal issues surrounding this film and future sequels, there is immense power within the story here. Werewolves face Vampires in a sort tribal conflict, or race war. The children of the Dark meet and compete over territory and the potential victims among the human race. This book adapts the story of the movie UNDERWORLD and that movie's screenwriters, Danny McBride, with Kris Oprisko, scripted this movie adaptation. Along with the adaptation is the prequel series which is a work that explains the issues of the race war, and creates a context for the struggle from a historical perspective. There are no extras but the product is wonderful and if this is in a genre you enjoy I recommend it.

I like IDW. I like them a lot. They produce works that I might on first blush wonder at, but almost always convince me in the end by the quality of their product and the aggressively unique stable of talent they have gathered. What results is a library of work that is at the least good, but more likely, even if out of your taste range, strikingly new. This solid work on a product of a different medium shows that IDW is going to present its case on its own terms, with a great house style and a great deal of class.



FINAL THOUGHTS
Thanks to Archaia and IDW. And special thanks to Tim Truman for a variety of things.

Alexander Ness
The Land Of Frost
Box 142
Rockford MN 55373-0142

Alexander @ popthought.com

ONLINE ARCHIVES:
My Work on Pop Thought
My Work on Robin Goodfellow
My Work on SlushFactory


“PRESS ON. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. “ US President Calvin Coolidge

Look up just about any comics The Comics Database is a very useful tool, and I recommend it. I also recommend donating to it as a means of recording all that we collect.

Weather where I live

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