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The Trillion Dollar Kid # 1 ** Created by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, and Francis Manapul** Writers: Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi Artist: Stefano Simeone Letterer: Rob Leigh…

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Cannabis-curious adult readers exploring legal online dispensaries face a market that has grown meaningfully across recent years. Online mail-order operators in legal Canadian and US-state jurisdictions now offer a wider…

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For Aussie players who like pokies with a bit of bite, Wolf Winner Casino puts Wolf Winner near the front of the pack with a welcome offer of up to…

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Title: Space Ghost # 11 (Vol. 2) Publisher: Dynamite Comics Writer: David Pepose Artist: Jonathan Lau Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse Letterer: Taylor Esposito Cover: Francesco Mattina Variant Covers: Jae Lee, Michael…

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LOS ANGELES, CA – Monday, May 11th – Comic book icon and Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld is thrilled to announce the “Summer of Youngblood,” a season-long celebration marking the…

The post ROB LIEFELD ANNOUNCES “SUMMER OF YOUNGBLOOD”: YOUNGBLOOD #100 TO FEATURE COVERS BY MARK SILVESTRI AND ROBERT KIRKMAN; BADROCK RETURNS IN SOLO TITLE appeared first on First Comics News.

Faceless Howl is an adventure from Kabuki Kaiser for the rules lite, dark Sword & Sorcery system Many Sought Adventure, but is easily useable with any D&Dish system with a bit of work and a lot of other systems as well given it isn't a rules heavy adventure.  I received a review copy of the pdf. I don't do a lot of reviews here, but previous publications from Kaiser have received praise from quarters I trust so I wanted to check it out.

The adventure involves "malign entities of pure oblivion" known as the Faceless who are devourers of information and have been drawn to an ancient repository. Not only is this bad for said repository, but it's also bad for the townsfolk of the neighboring of Bec de Corbin ("Raven's Beak") who have their identities and knowledge eaten by the Faceless, turning them (eventually) into Howlers. Complicating matters (if they were already complicated enough) are the Ragshadows, who are subterranean evil, fairy-tale-ish goblin sort of creatures who opportunistically operate alongside the Faceless to steal physical physical valuables.

That's the set up. The adventure is broken into two parts not counting getting the PCs involved: the village and figuring out what's going on, then a crawl through the repository. There's a clock to ensure the situation escalates. The presentation is fairly terse with prose that is informal, generally evocative and occasionally staccato delivery.

It's style and the overall graphic design place it in the tradition of things like Mörk Borg and the sort of NSR/OSR stuff you find on itch. Like those sorts of publications, it values brevity but supplies you with random tables and other necessary tools, and atmosphere, but expects the GM to bring it to life. Beyond aesthetic, this isn't standard, D&D fantasy either, so people looking for that find not find it's weird, horror sort of approach to their taste. 

For me, though, Faceless Howl, is the sort of adventure I tend to look for when I don't have any other particular thing in mind. It isn't particularly combat heavy, and its atmosphere and bit of mystery is the sort of thing that intrigues my players. Its brevity would make it easier to reskin to make it fit whatever setting I'm running at the moment.

If that sort of stuff sounds appealing to you, you should check it out. It's available on drivethu.

I've been plugging away at the Army Ants Companion (a living document you can access at any time) for the Army Ants RPG, and I've made a few tweaks to the game. One tweak I've made is in regards to soaking damage; I had borrowed the 'save for half damage' mechanic that is embedded into the heart of my little D+D design hangups. I've swapped that out for rolling Reflex to soak damage from grenades and areas of effect. This opens me up for a variety of other attack types, linking each type to a trait. For example, sensory damage now gets soaked by Spirit, and poisons/toxins get soaked by Body. Mental attacks get soaked by Mind. I like the variety of play options that this opens up.
I also think I've settled on a 'look' for the Army Ants. I'd been giving them heavier grays in their uniforms, but this Phil design feels a little lighter and more attuned with how I want the look to carry. 

Art by Guy Wurley
The ramshackle boomtown called Salvage by its inhabitants and the Scrapyard by outsiders is built amid the fallen combatants of an ancient battle. The colossi are named for their color. Red Knight lies on its back, reaching for a sword that is out of reach. Blue Knight fell forward. Its weapon is long gone, but one hand is raised. The plains have made half-hearted attempts to reclaim the giants, and the knives of time have marked them, but they remain, tempting those interested in making a quick fortune or simply curious about their enigma. The colossi are unusual treasure troves, or above ground mines, made as they are from rare materials and magitechnologies unreproducible in the current age. 
All the prospectors, adventurers, scholars, and thieves looking to claim their own piece of the colossi, and the merchants, dealers, entertainers, and bandits looking to get rich off them, crowd into haphazard buildings constructed along and amid the fallen giants. It's a dangerous place. There is no law in Salvage and plenty of desperate characters. Guns are more common that elsewhere given the relative abundance of both artificers and the raw magitech materials.
The danger isn't just from the inhabitants. There are caustic fluids, poison gases, and other environmental hazards to be sure, but also the colossi are not as dead as they appear. They haven't moved in ages, but not all of their internal parts have been stilled like their limbs. Component constructs, perhaps something like immune system elements, sometimes react violently to scavengers crawling through a colossus's insides. Some grow independent and feral and prowl outside the bodies as if their look for prey or raw materials to affect repairs.

I have especially fond memories of Lois Lane’s brief career as Elastic Lass. In Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane 23 (Feb. 1961), the intrepid reporter decides she needs an edge…

The post JUST IMAGINE! February 1961: The Flexible Feats of Lois Lane appeared first on First Comics News.

That guy Joshua Williamson gets around! He’s writing the current Iron Man ongoing for Marvel, and he’s adding a new Legion of Super Heroes comic to his DC work very…

The post WAYNE’S WORLDS: The Legion Returns! appeared first on First Comics News.

The latest Gamdom promo code is “GAMBLE100”, designed to give new players an immediate advantage from the moment they join. By activating this code during registration, you can secure 15%…

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Over the weekend at MagicCon: Las Vegas, some exciting news on upcoming sets was announced! MagicCon took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, from Friday, May 1, through May…

The post Magic: The Gathering – MagicCon: Las Vegas ’26 Preview Panel Recap appeared first on First Comics News.

The 8th issue of the Stalwart Phile is now posted. It focuses on the Null Zone, presenting a few creatures who come from it. As you can see, I've done some housekeeping here on ye old blog. I've also done some updates to the Doc Stalwart Comic Database, and added a bit to the Resources tab for Stalwart '85. 

KING DRACULA #4 OF 4 AVAILABLE 05.13.26 With Dracula sacrificed, the Vampire God rises, wreaking mayhem wherever it touches. And the Vampire Lords who helped bring it to life realize…

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Robert Edward “Ted” Turner, the bold media pioneer who reshaped television and gave professional wrestling one of its most influential platforms, has passed away at the age of 88. While…

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MARY JANE: FACE IT, TIGER #1, a special anniversary one-shot with stories by J.M. DeMatteis, Ann Nocenti, J. Michael Staczynski, Ashley Allen, Phil Noto, Alina Erofeeva, Andrea Broccardo and Luigi…

The post MARY JANE: FACE IT, TIGER #1 CELEBRATES THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARY JANE WATSON AND SETS THE STAGE FOR HER NEXT ERA! appeared first on First Comics News.

The Green Hornet was clearly popular in 1938 — so much so that DC Comics offered two comic book pastiches of the radio superhero. An urbanized, updated version of the…

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My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were on stands in the week of May 9, 1985. 

Warlord Annual #4: This was the first Warlord Annual I bought off the stands, because it has a map of Skartaris in it, which will appear again in Who's Who. I reviewed this issue here.

Atari Force #20: Baron and Bareto/Villagran give the Martin Champion and by extension the rest of the Atari Force their day in court on New Earth. Thanks to Morphea and Targg the court gets a good look at the malevolence of the Destroyer through his psychic residue. Though they are exonerated, there are still powerful forces in New Earth society arrayed against them, so Champion and friends choose to use a device to jump to a new universe to see what else is out there. There's also another humorous Hukka story by Fleming/Giffen/Kesel.
Helfer tells us in the editorial that Atari Force isn't getting canceled because of sales (it's a middling seller) but because it was decided this was the right ending for the characters. I have to say, I'm a little skeptical. I buy it's middle of the pack on sales, but it is a licensed book. Surely a middling wholly DC owned book would be better for the company than having a publishing slot taken up by a licensed book? I do think, though, that the creative teams they've put on the book couldn't figure out anything more to do with the characters. Conway's later issues and Baron's entire run have mostly relied on them being on the ship but not encountering much interesting. No "strange new worlds and civilizations" here. The only mystery is why they didn't have anyone would better ideas, particularly when they were giving the book great artists?

Crisis on Infinite Earths #5: Wolfman and Perez/Ordway open with the Antimatter a bit confused. He thought he destroyed Earth-One and Two, but he hasn't gotten the victory he should have gotten. He lets Psycho-Pirate play the Flash while he investigates. Earth-One and Two have sort of merged and different eras in time are bleeding over. Harbinger and Alexander Luthor assemble a group of heroes to explain what is happening: the Monitor gave his life to power a transfer of the Earths to a netherverse to hide them from his Adversary, but now they now are trying to occupy the same space which will destroy them anyway. The only choice is to re-integrate them as a single universe as it was in the beginning.
We get a lot of cameos, and Travis Morgan, the Warlord, even gets some dialogue. 
The Adversary adapts to these developments, though. He takes control of Red Tornado (In a limited series on sale now! Or then, I mean.) and transforms the android for his own purposes. Flash briefly breaks free of the Psycho-Pirate, and we get a glimpse of the shadowy Adversary's face, and he names himself as the Monitor, though he doesn't look like the Monitor we have seen.

Fury of Firestorm #38: Conway and Kayanan/Akin/Garvey have Stein arriving at Vandermeer University in Pittsburgh to start a new position only to find the campus afraid and under siege due to mysterious and vicious killings of facility members. Stein is in danger of becoming the next victim as he is attacked by the Weasel in his apartment. The Weasel keeps ranting about once he kills Stein, he'll be out of danger. Ronnie is out for a date with Doreen where Cliff accuses him of cheating, thanks to his uncharacteristically good grade on a test, when he is summoned to form Firestorm.
Thanks to poor vision and bumbling, both Stein and Raymond are captured by the Weasel and put in a deathtrap with molten steel about to pour on them.

Jonni Thunder #4: Thomases and Giordano bring this detective story/superhero hybrid to a conclusion. First, Jonni has a confrontation with "Slim" Chance which she only wins by wielding the power of the Thunderbolt without the idol. Then after some uncertainty and romantic tension with Harrison Trump, the rival PI, they are ambushed by Red Nails and her crew. Luckily, Jonni has now figured out that the power is in her, not the statue, which gives her the element of surprising, keeping them alive along enough for Detective Sanchez to swoop in with the police. The series ends with a hope for more Jonni Thunder adventures. We'll see how that goes.

Justice League of America #241: The Tuska/Machlan combination on art doesn't do this issue any favors, but mostly it's tough to get back into the New League after the disruptions. A conversation with Vixen prompts Aquaman to head out without telling anyone to find his estranged wife, Mera. Vibe agrees to let Steel date his daughter then gets a new less garish (slightly) costume. Then the team under J'onzz's leadership heads off to Canada where Amazo is on a rampage. J'onzz splits the party, and he and Dale are almost immediately attacked by the android.

Tales of the Teen Titans #56: Wolfman and Patton/DeCarlo bring Raven and the Fearsome Five (minus 1!) into the story. Agents of Gizmo assault STAR Labs to steal Neutron who has been brought in in a containment capsule. Raven shows up and deals with them ruthlessly, but when she realizes what she's doing, she instead uses her power to heal the patients there. Meanwhile, Gar greets Jericho and his mom at the airport to bury the hatchet, and Cyborg undergoes surgery to replace his obviously mechanical limbs with more natural looking ones. The rest of the Titans deal with an attack by the Fearsome, uh, Four, and are defeated in two engagements. The Fearsome Folks make off with a another encapsulated super-being from Tri-State Prison.

Vigilante #20: Wolfman/Kupperberg and Smith/Maygar reveal that giving up the Vigilante identity may not prove so easy for Chase. The Vigilante is still in the streets, more violent than ever, including killing a cop. Meanwhile, Chase seems like he's having a nervous breakdown as he is tormented by nightmares where he is the Vigilante committing these acts. He wonders if he might somehow have lost his mind and actually be responsible. Nightwing fights with the murderous Vigilante in the streets, but winds up getting thrown off a bridge. Later, he crawls in through Chase's window to confront him.

Mad Cave’s Speed Racer – Vol. 1 wastes no time proving it isn’t just a modern repaint of a classic property. David Pepose and Davide Tinto take the familiar iconography…

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Recently, I sat down with David Pepose to talk about Mad Cave Studios’ Speed Racer, whose 8th issue is released today. Also, the first Speed Racer trade was recently released,…

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