Year: 2012

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Blog D&D

Banners & Battlemaps – BannersontheCheap.com Review

Vinyl BannersI’ve hit the Big Time! Companies are sending me Free Stuff in return for my phenomenal influence in the blogosphere! Well… one company anyway. BannersontheCheap.com

You see BannersontheCheap.com are trying to get into a rather niche market: printing custom battle maps for gamers. I’ve been using a basic grid-printed vinyl battlemap for years in my role-play games. In addition to this I’ve also got quite a collection of paper maps which can be quite flimsy – they wear and rip particularly along the folds. Vinyl is much studier so could be handy for maps which you refer to again and again, not to mention you can make non-permanent notes on them with wet-wipe pens. Basically this seemed like a really good idea.

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Blog Epic Fail Related News & Announcements

Epic Fail will be at MKomix Comics Fair

I will be exhibiting with Epic Fail at MKomix this Thursday! If you are close to Milton Keynes you should come and check it out. Details at the MKomix website: www.MKomix.blogspot.com

Thursday 19July / 6-9pm / Free

Experience the creatively thriving small-press comic scene at MKomix Comic Fair, in the striking surroundings of MK Gallery’s Pushwagner exhibition.

This is an opportunity to see a wide range of comics representing diverse genres, for all ages, both as displays and some available for sale. Be surprised by the quality of comics, from the handmade to limited editions of just a few hundred.

www.MKomix.blogspot.com
Twitter @MKComicFair

Categories
Blog Movie Reviews Movies/Film

Movie Review: Gamerz

Gamerz Movie PosterGamerz (spelt with a ‘Z’ to distinguish it from the -much better- The Gamers) is a Scottish indie movie about fantasy role-play gaming (RPGs). I was particularly enthusiastic to see this movie because it’s a British production and I am a British gamer. However it wasn’t what I expected because it isn’t really about gaming, it is a character piece about disparate people from different backgrounds being brought together and the relationships/conflicts which occur between them. The game is a vehicle to bring the characters together.

Gamerz follows Ralph, an extremely isolated young nerd whose parents died in a car crash. He is bullied and downtrodden so escapes into his imagination, creating his own fantasy world in which he is in complete control. When he starts University he takes over the role-play society and becomes Game Master, running an adventure campaign using his own setting and his own rules. The players hang on his every word. Ralph falls for the society’s only female gamer, Marlyn, a sexy Goth who, unfortunately, is as mad as a box of frogs. Also one of the bullys from Ralph’s neighbourhood – the drug-dealing, car-jacking Lennie – wants in on the role-playing action. He, too, is attracted to Marlyn, and soon things start to spin out of Ralph’s control. Will his house of cards come tumbling down?

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Blog Lifestyle

Hedingham Castle

Hedingham Castle is a classic Norman Box Fort located in Essex, England. I was lucky to visit it on a bright, sunny day with little rain (surprising as it has barely stopped raining all summer with the highest amount of of rainfall in June since records began). As readers of the comic will already know I am using Hedingham Castle as the basis for Kasper’s Castle in the comic. I think having convincing backgrounds gives the story a grounding in realism perhaps making it a bit more believable. I think this is quite important in a story with magic and other outlandish (and sometimes ridiculous) elements. And since Hedingham Castle really isn’t that far away I couldn’t not go!

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Categories
Art Blog Comic Art

Gryphon flying over Kasper’s Castle

Amuletts mounted on her Gryphon flying over Kasper’s Castle. I have tons of fun drawing this Gryphon so it was naturally one of the things I wanted to put into the WAGON webcomic battle deck. I could have done anything for the background but I decided I’d make it actually relevant! Looks cool anyhow, like they are flying really high.

The Gryphon does not have a name by the way so if anyone would like to suggest a name for it feel free. (Male or female or anything in between is fine since it’s not a *real* Gryphon, it’s a magical construct, so it probably doesn’t have a physical gender).

Categories
Blog Funny/Cool

Honesty Fail

epic fail - honesty fail
I saw this whilst visiting the Buckinghamshire County Museum. Obviously asking people to try on jewellery then return it was too much to ask. Epic Fail? I guess that depends on how expensive the jewellery was!

Categories
Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Callous Comics Interview – Part 2

The Callous Comics Interview with Carlo Jose San Juan (MD) continues…

Click here if you have yet to read the Callous Comics Interview – Part 1

Q6: How did you first get into making Comics?

A6: I used to spend the long, lonely summer days by drawing comics in empty notebooks. I used to read a lot of Archie books and newspaper funnies and those taught me the basic fundamentals of comic-drawing and story flow. Then one day, on a whim, I applied to be an artist for my high school newspaper and drew comic strips there. That was my first taste of having my work published. I also joined my University’s student paper and started Callous comics in 1996. I brought the series with me to my medical school newspaper and continued Callous there, albeit revamped.

Q7: How do you juggle being a Doctor and a Cartoonist?

Q7: It’s all about time management. I collectively put in around 2-4 hours a day working on the comic. But those hours are squeezed into my daily life as a physician, father, and husband at various times of the day. Pretty much a “do whatever I can whenever I can” state as I wouldn’t know ahead of time when I’d be able to work on the comic. So it was important for me to streamline my process as well as to keep my comic production necessities mobile.

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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Callous Comics Interview – Part 1

Webcomic creator Carlo Jose San Juan takes the hot seat to answer questions about Callous Comics and his new sci-fi webcomic M.O.U.S.E.

Q1: What is ‘Callous‘ the comic strip about?

A1: Wow, over the years that has become a loaded question! Ha ha!

Callous ComicsPrimarily, “Callous” is about the life and times of Dr. Rianne Nicah, a struggling new physician, who also happens to have a Guardian Duck named Cal Duck. Throughout the years of studying and training to become a Family Practice with Obstetrics specialist, she never really got to discover herself as a person and the world around her. Cal showed up to help guide her to become the best person she could be by opening her eyes to everything she ignored within herself, the medical field, and the world we live in.

That’s all well and good but there is a catch. Cal isn’t invisible. It’s also his first time to become a Guardian Duck so he is often accompanied by his on-the-job mentors, Mallard Duck, Decoy Duck, and Ling Duck, who all have the ability to pop in and out of our world to guide Cal. In the effort to maintain as normal a life as she could, Rianne has requested that the ducks remain within her home to which they reluctantly agreed. Nevertheless, she has gained good friends in her otherworldly housemates.

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Blog Lifestyle

Nuts in June

So my camping/cycling holiday didn’t go exactly to plan… it turns out my tent is not waterproof, or at least not waterproof enough. It’s perfectly fine in good weather and can take a light shower but it cannot take torrential rain, which is what we got on Saturday night and continued all throughout the Sunday. So I woke up at around midnight with water splashing on my face to discover the tent had filled up with water and basically become a pond! In the middle of the countryside it was pitch black and there were no houses for miles.

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Blog Lifestyle

Lovely Jubilee Holiday

It’s the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend tomorrow which means an extra-long bank holiday so I’m taking the opportunity to go on holiday and see Hedingham Castle in Essex. Hedingham Castle is the one which Kasper’s Castle in the comic is based on so I intend to take lots of photos for reference! There’s also a Knights of England Jousting Event going on Sunday & Monday with – you guessed it – jousting as well as have-a-go archery (I will have a go!), a craft fair, food fair and other awesome stuff I’m sure.

I’m going to make this a travelling holiday and go on my bicycle. The train route to Hedingham is involves going through the centre of London and I expect it will be crazy busy with Jubilee celebrations. I don’t travel well in vehicles, especially in crowded places (I get panic attacks) and it would take a long time. The route is much shorter across country and I can take my time and enjoy the scenery.

From my starting point on Oxford I’ll be going through Thame, Aylesbury, Whipsnade (cool Zoo here), Kimpton, Stanstead Mountfitchet (there’s a Castle there too!) until I eventually arrive at Castle Hedingham. I’ve not got to rush so it should be a nice, leisurely ride and I’ll be able to visit some of the local attractions along the way! I just hope the weather is good! (If it’s not I’ll find the nearest public transport and get on it).

I don’t have a fancy iPad or Android, so I’ll be uploading the photos from my adventures when I get back.