Observations of the Fox

  In the late 1990s, I had a few friends who were writing up their own comics, and I was helping out with some layouts and some illustration work. I don't remember the specific date of this notebook, but it has a few ideas that I was having around the turn of the millenium. About the time I moved house from the outer western suburbs of Sydney to the inner western suburbs.   It was around this time that I was at the peak of my comic collecting, mostly focusing on independent stuff, like "Shi" (from Crusade), "Kabuki" (from Calibre Comics then Image), "The Crow" (which was from Kitchen Sink Press, if I remember correctly). Lots of stories that explore personal identity, a bit of action, some supernatural elements... often borderlining on the "Bad Girl" genre.  The bits that I remember of this story involved a character of mysterious and unknown origin waking up in a hospital or asylum. She has flashbacks or glimpses of something else happening ...

I think I need to write a comic-form RPG again. I tried it a while ago with one of my iterations of Walkabout, but it was getting a bit confusing because there were a lot of elements of the game that still weren't quite right. The current project, Familiar, feels like it might be a good fit for this idea... that might be next year's big concept.

I've been sharing my progress with the mini-comics I've been writing and illustrating for "The Law", and a few people have started commenting on how much their enjoying the comics, and whether they might end up relating to a larger comic series. Honestly, at this stage I'm not sure. I'm happy writing four page comics, and maybe expanding those to six or eight pages... and themes or elements from those comics will crossover between the sequences that I'm producing, but this project isn't about the comic book, the comics are being written to support the game. The current comic is one of those four page sequences, that will get a couple of extra pages scattered through the book it's presented in. It relates to a mysterious object that needs to be identified. A follow up pair of pages for this comic will go into rule explanations about identifying things, and making things. It includes two of the characters who will probably make ...

Just thought I'd share the process I've been going through for this introductory comic. Step 1. I use artist mannequins to get the poses right. Using a desk lamp or two to get some interesting lighting effects, or in the case of the bottom photo, to set the lighting for an explosion. Once I've taken a few photos in a sequence, I combine them into a page layout. Step 2. With the poses right and the page laid out, I cheat a bit here and use my computer monitor as a light box. Using a light weight paper over the screen, I trace the basic shapes of the figures, and the various bounding boxes that build up the page. This tracing is done at roughly 150% of the final image size, this is done for two reasons... the first means I can often add a bit more detail in the illustrations, the second means any mistakes that I make in the image will be reduced in the final image and less noticeable. I've added text here in the traditional comic onomatopoeia, using Photosho...

After working on the Ettin Con map fairly solidly for a week or more, it's nice to get back to my own project.  I've had feedback, I've made changes... and now I've generated a few proof copies of the game. Which mght hopefully sell on Saturday at EttinCon, so that I can pay to put some petrol in my car.  I'm pretty happy with the way these have printed, now it's just a case of using the guillotine to get them to the right size, and using the oversized stapler to assemble them (probably not in that order).

I'm one of those people who is very picky when it comes to the comic collection. A lot of comics are read once, then carefully bagged and boarded before storing on shelves or in boxes. This is not due to a belief that the comics are worth a fortune, more aboit respecting stuff that has value to me after too many instances where my stuff has been damaged or thrown away. I figure that if it looks respected, or valuable, then other people around me might treat those things the same way. I guess it has worked to some extent, because a few friends have given me their comic collections to be stored in the same way, knowing that even if their comics aren't worth a lot on the resale market, at least they'll be in good condition if they ever want them back (rather than damaged by housemates in share houses, or lost in transit between multiple accommodations). So, while I'm developing a game that's basically set in a certain comic universe, using a size and page c...

I've been reading through a few Judge Dredd comics... some of the classics... some more recent stuff... the "Judgement on Gotham" Batman crossovers... the "America" story arc... ...in light of current politics (and given that a lot of these stories were written over 20 years ago), the satire is viciously delicious. Given that I've been reading these comics for detail research regarding my "Arcology Tower" project, almost everything fits in with what I've done and my memories of the overall structure have generally reflected the oeuvre. A few things I'm finding interesting are the finer points... certain character calling knives "stanleys", even to the point of having "laser stanleys" that might be used for cutting into flesh for scarification purposes...the strange cults and gangs who often have names that allude to groups in our world... mysterious relics and arcne technologies that might link this world to other un...

This is a time consuming process... All laying the groundwork for the Familiar game.  On the positive side, it's meditative.

Yes, it's a bit of a "click-baity" title, but it's something I've been thinking about lately, and this whole " White Male Gamers as Terrorists " thing has fed into that (The article and the issues around it have been addressed by Wyrd ). The problem is that I've seen a lot of people point the blame at Wyrd, but have seen far worse offences and atrocities commited by Games Workshop. I'm not saying that the volunteer representatives  of Wyrd (or employees, depending on whom you ask) get a free pass because Games Workshop does it worse. As a graduate of Social and Cultural analysis with a minor in sociolingustics, I know that communications can be important, and that messagess can vary depending on the context of the speaker, and the implied context of the listener. I've tried to make a neutral comment regarding the experiences of my wife and I in regard to similar issues, and people latch onto the neutrally-intended "female" which I...

I'm totally looking forward to this... Especially after "Daredevil" It's feeding into a desire to run a superhero game in the near future.

For those who've been keeping track of my projects, the short form young adult graphic novel "The Scavenger's Tale" has been completed. As soon as I get close to a decent internet connection, it will be uploaded and available for sale through the OneBookShelf websites (drivethruRPG/Comics/etc.) If I get enough interest in this project, I'll set up a crowdfunding campaign to get some printed copies happening as well.

I'm trying a new way to present a roleplaying game. If you've been a regular reader of the blog, you'll already know about this. One book will be the basic rules, one book will be an in-game artefact explaining the world from the perspective of the characters and survivors within it, the third book will be an explanatory comic (containing a description of how to set up a game, all the play examples, and clarifications to the basic rules). I've finally put together the majority of the preparatory sketches, and the first pages of the explanatory comic are starting to come together.  The ongoing series of pages will be posted at a new blog. walkaboutrpg.blogspot.com If you're interested, head over there and have a look. If you're on G+, join up with the Walkabout RPG group to gain additional insight into the development of the system. There won't be many more posts about Walkabout here, I'm generally hoping to keep it as a separate entity...

I'm so relieved, after years of working on it, my graphic novel is finally coming together. I've now completed a beta draft of the first issue...and here are the first few pages. If you're interested in reading it (before I send it off for submission to various pubishers), I'll try to send across a pdf of the first issue. Anyway, here's the first few pages...

I just spent a fascinating week away from the outside world. Separating my thought patterns from previous cycles, discovering new thought patterns, illustrating my long standing comic project, reassessing priorities, gathering insights. One day I might share a bit more about my experiences, once I get the chance to process them properly.

I've just about finished my "Little Game Chef" entry, those who are familiar with my work will be able to pick it instantly. Then it's a break from my own games. Avalon seems to be fairly professional in their dealings with freelancers. I've submitted an outline for my booklet "How to make a GREAT dungeon", and they seem happy enough with it that they're already interested in offering me some more work. But for my own stuff, it's back to my Quincunx graphic novel, the source of inspiration driving the RPG I've been working on for the past few years. I've had the outline of my story for quite some time, there are notes going back to 2006, and a preliminary version dating back to meeting David Mack during his visit to Sydney Supanova in 2002 (Quincunx began as a homage to Kabuki, a story within that world focusing on one of the other operatives...but then I decided to take the story for my own and introduce some of the other elements I wa...

Over the past couple of months I've been to Supanova and I've been to GenCon Oz . I had intended to go to both of these conventions with some kind of product that I could use sell. Or at least attend the conventions with a product that would showcase my thoughts and ideas. In this regard, GenCon Oz was far more successful. But on the other hand, I did meet someone at Supanova who thought my artwork showed talent. So I'm going to start working on a few new ideas that could be used in a comic. In this regard I've had a few ideas that might have a bit of potential. The problem I'm having now is that some of the ideas are much better suited to a roleplaying game where the players can interactively explore the ideas within their own group of friends. Other ideas seem better suited to a more linear storytelling format, and hence would work better as a comic. Most of the ideas fit between these two options, and quite a few ideas seem to vary between the options depending ...