Sorcerer's Skull

Paul Wolfe of Mystic Bull Games is starting up a Sword & Sorcery fiction magazine called Swords Against! The first issue is being crowdfunded now. It features stories by familiar names including Michael Stackpole and Dariel R. A. Quiogue, and interior art by Jason Sholtis (presumably among others).

If that alone isn't enough to convince to you, Jason and I have short comic that will appear in the issue now that that stretch goal has been surpassed. It's called Spells Against Civility. Here's the pitch:

Harken to this tale of two rival wizards, apprenticed together, now alike in Art, pettiness, and vainglory...

Marzomon, once the Golden, former hero whose reputation fell under shadow of cowardice and party abandonment. He now ekes out a living trading on his former glories and hawking dubious male enhancement magics.

Hokus the Black, who sold his soul and other vital constituencies piecemeal to various diabolic entities and must stay ahead of his creditors as he seeks to overcome his rival. 

If any of the above sounds cool to you--and particularly if all of it does--then head over to backerkit and give some support!

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) through Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of February 14, 1985, just before my 12th birthday.

Omega Men #25: Klein and McManus/Smith are in place as the new creative team, and they start the story so in media res I had to check to make sure I hadn't missed an issue. Nimbus contends with an insane X'hal and her son Auron, while the Omega Men, now led by Kalista and Tigorr, and contending with spider-themed invaders to Vega who aren't identified in this issue, but I assume are the Spider Guild, who also appear in the back-up.
In "Tales of Vega" by Moore and O'Neil, the Spider Guilds invasion of a world is thwarted by the giant inhabitants moving too slowly to take notice of them.

Amethyst #5: Estrada is back on pencils this issue. We pick up where we left off with Amy and Emmy in the hands of a headless robot made. With the help of Taffy the dog, they managed to destroy the robot. They start investigating the device Carnelian has apparently been building, visiting an alternate Plantworld where Princess Amaryllis battles the Dark Maple. Carnelian finds them and tells them he got stuck here and has been looking for a way back to Gemworld. Carnelian and Amethyst take the path he discovered, but it's not without dangers.

Arak Son of Thunder #44: This is another issue I bought off the spinner rack back in 1985. The Thomases and DeZuniga continue Arak's and friends' voyage to North America with Captain Re-Iz Hazz. They are sailing east to circumnavigate the globe (or go under the great turtle, as Arak explains it). They make a stop at the island of al-Hind, whether they are waylaid by a pirate with a grudge against their captain. He sales them to the island's corrupt priest as sacrifices for "Shiva." The priest transforms into a multi-armed monster in a ritual, but Arak manages to defeat him. 

Batman #383: Moench and Colan/Alcala present a somewhat humorous story of Bruce Wayne just needing to get some sleep after several busy days for both him and his alter ego. Unfortunately, responsibilities to his home, business, ward, and romantic life keep getting in the way. Finally, after an unplanned night out as Batman, he leans up against a gargoyle on the side of building to at least catch a nap, forgetting he had made dates with both Julia and Vicki the following night.

Flash #345: This issue erodes what little faith I had in the Flash's lawyer, Cecile Horton, and perhaps the entirety of the legal system in Central City. The prosecutor brings a surprise witness to the stand, Kid Flash, who testifies to a number of ways the Flash could have stopped Reverse Flash without killing him. Apparently, there isn't mandatory discovery in the DCU. Cecile handles that reasonably well but treats it like some devastating blow that I just don't see it as being. Then she does something real dumb. After spying on the Allens and discovering the Flash's secret ID, she plans to reveal it in open court--without telling the Flash what she's going to do. Somehow convincing the jury he had a strong motive to kill the Reverse Flash is going to get him found innocent? Anyway, she pulls off his mask in court but he doesn't look like Barry Allen! 

Jemm, Son of Saturn #9: Synn and Tull are both confident they duped the other in their recent deal, but we don't find out this issue which of either may be right. With knowledge of New Bhok, the White Saturnians make an attack. The Bhokian military has a super-weapon it has been eager to employ to wipe out the White Saturnians once and for all. Jemm, though, views himself as having responsibility to all Saturnians and destroyed the weapon. A renegade priest inflames a mob against and soon he is strung up for execution.  

Legion of Super-Heroes #10: The candidates for President of Earth have been drafted, and the Legion has assigned one of their members to guard them which proves a prudent move as Khundian agents try to assassinate them. In the process of defending a candidate, Invisible Kid reviews new powers--maybe teleportation? It turns out though, the Khunds have also target the current President Marte Allon, who locally has her son, Colossal Boy on hand to save the day. Meanwhile, Cosmic Boy announces a leave of absence to the Legion.

Star Trek #14: Barr and Sutton/Villagran pick up where they left off last issue, with Excelsior surrounded and about to be destroyed. Kirk and crew have another trick up their sleeve, though, and that involves the two Spocks in the cloaked Klingon bird of prey causing chaos while Excelsior gets her engines ready for a transwarp dash to safety. It works, then Kirk sends the Spocks and Konom as emissaries to the Klingon Emperor, offering them the means the check the Empire. Konom has to go through a painful interrogation to prove their information is legitimate, but in the end, it works.

Superman #406: This is a done-in-one by the Conways and Novick/Hunt, and like last month's Action Comics with Captain Strong, it sort of has the feel of an inventory story. The Daily Planet crew (including Lois) is featured prominently, and no mention is made of Galaxy Broadcasting or Lana. Mr. Mxyzptlk is up to hijinks and causes a crisis with a biomechanical worm designed to aid digging that the imp enlarges into a monster. With Metropolis threatened from underground, Mxy whammies Superman so that he passes his powers to others via touch. Once they figure out what's going on, Lois, Jimmy, and Perry, have to team-up with Superman to defeat the creature, but only after Mxy gets afraid the weakened Superman will be killed and calls the others in to help.

This weekend, I set up a sort of escape room/LARP for my 8 year-old. She took on the role of a warrior princess sent to retrieve a golden treasure (a plastic version of the idol at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark) from a many-armed monster (my old Clash of the Titans kraken toy, rescued and restored when my parents moved a couple of years ago).

With sword and shield, and a bag with a couple of coins (a KS reward from Outgunned Adventure) she set out to go to the wizard's tower (the upstairs of our home) where she had been told that a wizard had imprisoned a unicorn (a statue of the Last Unicorn from movie located on a bookshelf in her bedroom).

The quest involved the occasional puzzle (a tic-tac-toe cypher, a coordinate grid puzzle, riddle answering, and some light math) combined with random encounters. These were strategically placed pairs of cups, one of which had a monster (a cardboard mini) under it and the other either a coin or a friendly encounter that provided clues. For example, a gnome Meeple revealed that the Lime Gnome (a green garden gnome statue that for some reason sits in our dining room) runs an apothecary shop that will sell you a potion that gives a power up.

Monster fights were handled with simple dice rolls of a d6. Scoring a hit required beating the monster's roll by a certain amount, and monsters had a certain number of "hit points." My daughter had her own "life points" in the form of three hearts on sheets of paper clipped together.

As it turned out, my daughter was very luck. She only fought one monster before the boss and out rolled the monster every single time.

She enjoyed it and immediately asked for another one, but I said that would have to wait for another day.

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last Sunday with the party (after a rest and healing) undertaking the capture of the other shadow/temporal duplicate of the nefarious Wizard of Azurth they had run across, the mysterious Shadow Man in the Half-ruined Tower.

The group objects to the possibility of running into their earlier selves, but Princess Viola and her Gnomes already had that figured out. The slide show they present says they are sending the PCs back to 5 days after they left the area.

When they arrive in the past, there is still one Gloom Elf in the tower, but he's in no mood for fighting. He says the Shadow retreated into the large, whirlpool of shadow that now takes up most of the tower, but there was a blockage in it somewhere and he doesn't seem to have gotten where he was going. 

With little else to go on, the party jumps in after him. They find themselves (surprisingly) in a prison dungeon, partially flooded, and partially caved in, run by Mole Folk. The mole folk are remarkably lackadaisical about their situation, noting that time runs differently here, but they are reasonably friendly. The dungeon itself is something of a maze with unnatural darkness, so even the mold guards used unspooling twine to help from getting lost. The prisoners are in oubliettes with sort of steampunk contraption doors, set to open when their sentence is up. 

Using their hand-held device given to them previously by the Princesses, the party discovers the Shadow is in one of these cells. Waylon is able to pick the locking mechanism, causing the chronometer to run faster, making it open.

The Shadow is inside, and though the part is expecting him to fight them, he is willing to go, even knowing what they are up to. Having had different experiences from the Wizard, he has had a change of heart. He says if they can find "the bridge" located elsewhere in the dungeon, they can get to a place to acquire a page from the Book of Doors that will take them directly to the Wizard's sanctum.

The party sends the Shadow back to the Princesses with a gem. The Shadow suggests the way to find the bridge is to ask the guards. They intend to do just that, but no sooner than they are out of the cell and debating a course of action than a random encounter roll leads to a very ugly bird-beast coming upon them.

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 February 7, 1985. 
This first week marks a milestone, with my brother and I owning 5 of these 7 issues, and three of them we definitely bought off the stands. The others were maybe acquired a year or two later from dollar bins.

Deadman #1: The stunning Neal Adams cover got my brother or me to pick up this one, despite no knowledge of the character. The issue reprints the earliest Deadman stories from Strange Adventures #205, 206, and House of Mystery #178. I wonder if the timing of this reprint series was meant to raise the profile of the new limited series that would be coming along in '86?

Crisis on Infinite Earths #2: This was my introduction to Crisis. I bought it off the stands at my local grocery store. The sense of impending...well, crisis begins to build as time is disrupted with a mammoth herd leaving Anthro's era and winding up in the Legion's 30th Century. In the modern day on Earth-One, Batman is going after the Joker when and image of a frantic and decaying Flash appears before him, begging for help and warning of disaster. The heroes and villains gathered by the Monitor are sent to Kamandi's Earth After Disaster and ancient Atlantis to defend tower-like devices erected by the Monitor for something, I guess, from shadow demons. Psycho-Pirate is the first villain to show his colors and turn on the heroes; he's defeated but them but whisked away to serve the same shadowy force that commands Harbinger.
Things are moving fast, and the narrative reasons for things are sometimes poorly explained, but on balance the script and visual storytelling work to tell a compelling story.

Atari Force #17: This was only issue I bought off the spinner rack after issue one. Barreto is back on pencils. Taz's Tazlings reveal their pretty much magical repair ability by fixing Backjak's missing eye and taking the bit of the Destroyer out of his brain. Then, the same thing gets done for Kragg after Morphea has a psychic battle with the Dark Destroyer, and Rident gets to witness the psychic projects. Dart manages to make contact with Chris again, confirming Atari and New Earth are still around. 

DC Comics Presents #81: Another story that's effectively a plug for the upcoming Giffen/Fleming Ambush Bug limited series, but I like the Bug and that series, so it's cool with me. Ambush Bug finds a hunk of red kryptonite and gives it to his "pal" Superman but knowing what it is. Its effects cause the two to switch bodies, and at a time when Kobra makes a move to steal Ambush Bug's teleportation tech.

Fury of Firestorm #35: In a moment I'm sure inspired by the iconic Amazing Spider-Man #33, Firestorm tap reserves of street to escape a mass of ice threatening to crush him. While the Stein/Ronnie team is dealing with Stein's decision to move to another city, potentially ending Firestorm, Plastique gains new explosion powers and Killer Frost lays a trap for our hero. In the end, Firestorm is at the mercy of the two villains united.

Justice League of America #238: This is another issue I owned, but I didn't remember much beyond the cover. Conway and Patton/Machlan give Conway's new team their first direct interaction with some of the members of the League's most famous incarnation.  The New League flies into the Soviet Union to rescue Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash who are being held captive by a crazy general and his keytar playing super-villain henchman, Maestro. The new kids win the day, in part due to the element of surprise, but they also get help from the Anton Allegro, long imprisoned by Gorki, who shoots Maestro in revenge. Gypsy reveals a previously unknown illusion power which seems to shatter Gorki's mind, at least temporarily. The heroes leave the USSR with a final panel oddly showing Martian Manhunter still on the ground as the League plane takes off, holding Allegro's body.

Tales of the Teen Titans #53: Lilith is attacked outside Titans Tower by someone who looks like the Terminator, but supposedly the real one is in jail, awaiting trial. Lilith isn't acting herself and goes back to STAR Labs where she uses newly revealed heat powers to free the amnesiac winged alien from ice. The Titans try to stop her, but holding off her teammates with her new powers, she lets the winged man escape. The Titans, thinking the alien is to blame for Lilith's new powers and weird behavior, give chase but lose him. Then the trial of Slade Wilson gets underway, with Adrian "Vigilante" Chase as judge. 
I wonder how these 2 asynchronous Titans books were received at the time? It's nice that Wolfman weaves two stories of Lilith with weird powers and Azrael into both books that are supposed to take place months apart, but reading last month's NTT would have spoiled any mystery regarding Lilith's new powers or Azrael's intentions.

Shadow War of Hawkman #1: Isabella and Howell/Alcala bring back Hawkman and Hawkgirl who haven't had any solo appearances since the strip in World's Finest ended in '82. A group of Thanagarians arrive in Midway City and recruit a cat burglar to steal the Hawks' anti-gravity belts. Katar thwarts the robbery at their home, though Mousy is killed and the Thanagarians escape, teleporting to the museum. With Shayera still at the museum, Hawkman frantically flies back, but when he arrives, he finds the police outside and a scorch mark on the wall in the shape of his wife!

Superman: The Secret Years #4: Rozakis and Swan/Schaffenberger bring this limited series to a close. While Superboy grieves over his failure to save his parents, his foster parents, or Billy Cramer, Lex Luthor threatens all life on Earth unless his old foe meets him for a one-on-one fight. Perry White discovers Billy's whistle and figures out that it might be a way to summon Superboy back. Superboy heeds the call, and after defeating Luthor, who has found a way to give himself super-strength, he's found new confidence. He changes his name to Superman. As Clark Kent he graduates from Metropolis U with his friends. Then, he applies for a reporting job with the Daily Planet under its new editor, Perry.
This isn't a bad series, but I feel like it's let down a bit by the very Bronze Age style its creators are working in. Rozakis' plot is interesting but isn't as impactful as it could be due to its focus on done-in-one superhero storytelling. The Swan/Schaffenberger art isn't in layout or style positioned to wring the emotion from the material the plot suggests.

Vigilante 17: Alan Moore and Jim Baikie come on board for a late 70s-early 80s style neo-noir thriller. It's more the sort of story Miller did over at Daredevil than the more 80's action stuff Wolfman has done here (or would be done with the Punisher in the next few years). Chase gets a frantic call from Joanne Linnaker telling him her ex-husband Carl (who Chase prosecuted for abusing their daughter) is out on "good behavior" and possibly heading their way. By the time Vigilante arrives at her apartment, Joanne has been brutally murdered and her daughter, Jodie, has fled. 
She's found on the streets by a friendly drug-dealer named Fever and her prostitute roommate Louise. While Fever tries to negotiate Jodie's return to Chase without having her illegal activities exposed, Carl kills Louise and takes Jodie. Fever vows revenge and Vigilante acquiesces to her helping him track down Carl.

This post originally appeared in May of 2016. It became relevant in last night's session of our Land of Azurth 5e game, so it seemed a good time to repeat it. 
Paper Town (it is said) in some sense occupies space in the Uncanny Valley in the west of the Country of Yanth, but the most reliable way to gain entry to the town is via a map. Potentially any map will do, but it must be one noting a nonexistent settlement, street or island. These fictitious entries serve as gates to Paper Town.

As is common with magical places, gaining entrance is not as simple as finding a suitable map. Luckily, the legend regarding Paper Town's creation delineates the necessary procedure. Paper Town, as the story says, was a gift given to Princess Hyacinthia of Azurth on the occasion of her birthday by a mysterious stranger. He informed the Princess that she could not visit Paper Town in person, being compose of something other than paper and possessed of general lack of flatness as she was, but her shadow could—with the proper attire. The stranger traced the outline of the Princess’s shadow on a large sheet of paper and cut around its edge. The cutout was taken to a place where the stranger’s map showed a hamlet to be but was not. The cutout vanished, like a piece of paper slid under an unseen door into an equally unseen room.

The fact Hyacinthia never regain her shadow nor have many who have repeated this ritual might give some pause, but that detail is not frequently repeated.

In Paper Town, the cutouts become paper doll doppelgängers of the person that served as their model. These visitors find unfolding streets of pop-up trees and citizenry and flat facades that elaborate to Escher-architectured structures when entered. The city seems endless, but the clever observer will note that it recycles itself to appear so. As the preceding portion grows, the receding part folds up behind. This can happen in any direction: Tall towers erect themselves when an evil sorcerer flies up to his sanctum. Dungeons unfold like inverted houses of cards when heroes go delving. The ostensible ruler of Paper Town, Princess Seven, paper doll of the long dead Queen Hyacinthia, makes the final decision on how "permanent" a new structure is in her city.

One attractive trait of Paper Town is that it conforms to a visitor's imagination in certain ways. Anything one wishes for may be found there, though anything of value is likely to require a quest or be obtained in a way that makes one not want it after all. In other words, Paper Town adheres to laws of story.

The archons or godlings that truly rule Paper Town enforce this reality zealously. These Great Tall Tailors, or Scissor Men as they are sometime called, will catch paper doll visitors who are ill-fitted for the story the Tall Tailors wish told and snip, snap, snip, reshape them into a more pleasing arrangement. The Tall Tailors are paper themselves (Or perhaps they are the shapes left when slender, lank-limbed manshapes are cut of paper?) save for their gleaming, scissor hands. Their shadows are also Tailors but their shadow-scissors cut the spirit exclusively while their metallic doubles cut the physical.

It is said that the Book of Doors, a book where every page is a portal to another place, originated in Paper Town, but how it came to be in the wider Land of Aurth is unknown.

Don Maitz
In the Latter Ages of Earth, people do not die completely, at least not quickly. As these things are understood by the Instrumentality an imprint, an after-image, of a person remains in the Ancients' datasphere. When a Mind is informed by that record, a simulacrum, at least in part, of the deceased is made. This is a shade, though not in the way the superstitious common folk imagine. 

At its base, necromancy is the magical art of summoning and controlling shades. It's practice is watched closely by local authorities and the Instrumentality (in those areas where it holds sway). Being able to interact with the shades of the recently deceased is undeniably useful, not the least in forensic necromancy. Where necromancers primarily run afoul of the Instrumentality and temporal authorities is when they use their arts to create undead.

The criminal necromancer creates undead for two primary reasons. The first is for manual labor. These workers don't require a shade in the semblance of any particular person, so necromancers can pluck from the either degraded or partial shades; rudimentary data on physical movements is their primary concern. With a corpse as a substrate and sufficient art applied to their animation, a necromancer can turn out laborers for difficult conditions or troops whose shock value may compensate for their lack of intelligence and skill at arms.

The second application is more lucrative but requires more skill and time. That is the provision of immortality, or as close as their arts may come to it. This requires the creation of a specially made shade, imaged with precision from the current mental vector of the aspiring immortal. In the fallen Latter Age, this generally means destructive mapping of the individual's brain and its functioning. The intellect is then housed in a suitable, durable platform and placed within their old body. The body will inevitably decay, but the necromancer's arts can delay that decay, preserving function perhaps for millennia.  The culmination of these techniques is the lich, though botched jobs, and cost- or material-saving techniques have created many other variations, which are more common.

Though I've mentioned it before, I haven't talked about DC's Warlord by Mike Grell Omnibus Vol. 1 since it came out, which is kind of a lapse given how many years I spent blogging about Warlord here. This volume collects the character's debut in 1st Issue Special #8, issues #1-50 of the series, and material from Amazing World of DC Comics #12. Hopefully we'll get the rest of Grell's run and his follow-up series in a second volume.

The first thing one notices about this omnibus is how much lighter it feels than most. Opening it, you can see why: it's on a different type of paper than most omnis. When it came out, there was a lot of discussion of it being "on newsprint" with some fans angry it wasn't on the glossy paper they were expecting, and others appreciating it being closer in appearance to the original issues. Well, it isn't on newsprint, but it is on a slightly off-white paper with a matte finish. I'm sure I've seen some trade paperbacks from DC on this sort of paper before.
Here's some images I snagged from reddit:

And here's a comparison with the interiors of an old issue. The omni is on the right:

The malefic Outsiders of the astral void beyond the Earth are myriad in the Latter Age, but few are as distinct from the hosts of horrors as the beings known popularly as Mind Flayers.  Though they are believed to be long extinct, they still feature promptly in folklore and popular entertainments, attesting to their hold over humankind's collective imagination.

Little is known for certain about these beings. In Denizens of the Beyond by Pseudo-Vespydron, the most widely known work to examine them in detail, Mind Flayers are said to have come from the sphere of Mars, but whether they are natives to that world or from some even more distant home, even Denizens rather credulous author does not say. 

Pseudo-Vespydron uncritically accepts the cephalopod-headed humanoid appearance of popular portrayals and the idea that they were obligate consumers of human brains. The later (and comparatively more sober) histories of Malgrunda note no reliable descriptions of their physical form exist and put forward the theory that their purpose in preying upon the Earth was to acquire not foodstuffs but slave minds, derived from the destructive mapping of the brains of still-living captives. Perhaps the only place where she might be criticized in straying from established fact is in the time she devotes to Hseng's baseless assertion that the cephalopod skull is actually the memory of an environmental helmet with attached manipulators.

 Contrary to the popular entertainments of the Latter Age, there is no cohesive group known as the druids. Rather, there are individuals and networks of individuals across several cultures that adhere to similar beliefs and practices. Though the Instrumentality labels druidism as heretical "Earth-worshippers," these practitioners generally no more worship the Earth Mother than the Instrumentality itself does.

Like the clerics of the Instrumentality, those that might be termed druids are aware to one degree or another that in more lucent ages the environment of the Earth and its citizens interaction with it were managed by a great Mind. This Mind is no more, at least not in any unified form (so the clerics believe), but the many of the component minds still haunt the world, and the particles of its sensory apparatus of that superintelligence still weave through the winds, fall with the rains, and course through the bloodstreams of animals. 

By means of secret lore and technology, the druids are able to converse and with the lesser minds that record and synthesize this sensory data. These processes are known as elementals. While the elementals occasionally form connections with more active systems on their own, the druid's involvement often bridges the two, giving the earth a voice to humankind that dwells upon it. Like the magi, druids are at times able to command the remnant nanotechnological systems, though how they achieve these powers is a closely guarded secret. Among their more impressive abilities, they can cause avatars to be instantiated from natural features for short periods of time or effect change in local weather patterns.

Unlike the Instrumentality, the druids do not believe that the Gaean mind is irrevocably destroyed. Instead, they view her as suffering from an illness, and illness from which they work to help her recover. They don't seek the re-ascendence of humankind, but rather the restoration of a balance they feel the Ancients achieved but then squandered.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on January 24, 1984.

Detective Comics #549: Moench and Broderick/Smith complete Harvey Bullock's journey from villain to buffoonish minor character to secondary protagonist. Moench reveals that Bullock's slovenly appearance and gruff demeanor are a bit of a put on. The inner Bullock is really a more introspect fan of classic Hollywood with a very tidy apartment. When a gang trashes that apartment and movie memorabilia in revenge, Bullock proves himself a capable fighter as well. 
The Green Arrow and Black Canary backup, "Night Olympics" is a rare superhero story by Moore with art by Janson. It's a humorous piece where Green Arrow's opponent has a breakdown thanks to the number of times he's been unlucky enough to get caught by superheroes (and the last was Metamorpho!) while Canary confronts a couple of thugs who think she's Wonder Woman and surrender immediately to avoid being beat-up by a woman. Things turn serious when they're attacked by a crook who's gotten a bow and arrow from a super-villain armor.

Action Comics #566: Boldman and Randall bring back Captain Strong (DC's take on Popeye), not seen since 1981, for his last appearance. Clark Kent and Lois Lane go on a cruise with Strong and his wife Olivia and run into trouble on an island inhabited by the sorcerous Old Woman of the Sea (a Sea Hag stand-in) and Strong's long-lost Pappy.
The second story by Newell and Bender/Oksner has a young girl trying to get into an Autograph Hounds club by getting Superman's autograph. The Man of Steel discovers the girl is an orphan raised by an older couple like himself and helps her out.

America vs. the Justice Society #4: The committee hearing draws to a close, and I really can't see what they would have gotten out of hearing the JSA related their adventures, but a few character witness testify for them. One person who does get something out of the history lesson is Dick Grayson. He realizes the stories and the diaries seem to circle around the disappearance of Professor Zee. He goes to his residence and finds Per Degaton there, waiting for the return of the time machine so he can again make a bid for conquest. This was apparently what Batman's false account was meant to point at: the periodic return of the time machine and Per Degaton. Why Batman didn't just tell somebody is put down to the mental effects of his cancer and his distance from the JSA. Anyway, the whole team and the committee show up to rescue Grayson and capture Degaton.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #30: Duursema returns for this arc. Atlantis is beset by unnatural storms that Arion traces to mysterious ancient tower than looks like a nuclear plant cooling tower on the edge of the city. Arion and Chian go inside through an underground passageway and are attacked by a group of beast-men, who of whom is a transformed Wyynde. The scientist who created them then sends drones after our heroes. Arion's magic causes the drones to explode, and the feedback destroys the computers guiding them, killing the scientist. Now they must find a way to restore Wyynde. 

All-Star Squadron #44: Thomas/Kupperberg and Jones/Marcos have Hourman and Firebrand and Phantom Lady and Tarantula go on a double date to a costume party thrown by Firebrand's father, a steel magnet. Nazi supervillains Night and Fog crash the party because prior to Pearl Harbor Ed Reilly was helping the Germans against the Russians and the British (who, as an Irishman, he hated). The two threaten him to get him back on their side. When he refuses, they throw him out a window. Our heroes battle the villains, ultimately forcing them to flee, but Ed Reilly is killed.

Jonah Hex #90: Morrow comes aboard on art duties as it seems like Fleisher may be moving the disparate strands of his story to some sort of conclusion. Silver Ames, a woman out to prove herself the fastest gunfighter in misguided grief over her father's death, shoots Hart in the back after he refuses to duel her. Mei Ling identifies the body at the mortuary. 
Ames sets out to find Hex, who has left Mrs. Crowley's boarding house to find Emmylou. He has a run of bad luck, though, getting caught in a rockslide that kills his horse. Then he's attacked by a cougar. Meanwhile, Emmylou, in grief over believing she killed Hex, finally gets up the courage to make a break from the gang of robbers. She slashes Brett with a knife and escapes the house.
Hex visits the doc in Red Dog before he's accosted by Ames who admits to Hart's murder and demands Hex fight her. Hex tells her she'd lose and gives her some constructive criticism on her technique. When she draws on him, he shoots her in the chest twice and walks away, leaving her body in the street.

Spanner's Galaxy #5: Spanner and Gadj castle into a factory town on an alien world beset by a serial killer. Spanner is sort of drafted into the position of sheriff but also gets reunited with his family. Spanner and his sister (whose on the force, herself) discover the identity of the killer, and that he's being using robots to do the job. Baka and the intergalactic cops arrive, and we are finally given a reason why they are after Spanner: he's a carrier for a contagious illness. Seems odd that they couldn't have said this previously, but anyway, he turns himself in and is put on solitary quarantine on an asteroid.

Sun Devils #10: Jurgens takes over as writer and artist with this issue. After their defeat and betrayal last issue, the Sun Devils are disgraced, grounded, and soon to be disbanded. With the Sauroid fleet heading toward Centauri, Rik goes rogue and lies to the team to get them to go on a daring infiltration mission to recapture the Starcrusher weapon. He also gets a new look too, with stubble and a sleeveless vest with no shirt. Anyway, they manage to get onto the Sauroid cruiser but head the wrong direction and stumble upon Anomie.

Tales of the Legion #322: Dawnstar seems to be falling for the priest Jhodan and him for her even as the high priestess Awian orders them both brought in for apostasy. Jhodan's novitiate, jealous of the relationship, leaves vowing to bring her form superior down. Meanwhile, Brainy is taken by the apparently mentally ill guy he's fallen in with to a village where he is (surprisingly) accepted. Digging around, he finds the hint of a mystery and some ancient Earth recording tapes. 
The Newell/Levitz story here feels very Star Trek, but I'm not sure that's what the Legion needs. 

V #3: Bates and Infantino/DeZuniga complete the story of Sparkle Springs. Captain Devon and his troops arrive and manage to capture some of the resistance fighters. When the kid, Billy Lee, takes a shot at the Visitors to help the captives escape, he's killed by the soldiers. Donovan tries to get the townsfolk to rise up at Billy's funeral, but they don't seem to listen. Later though, after the resistance sabotages the aliens' extraction of the spring water with explosives, the townspeople finally join the fight and help drive the Visitors out.

World's Finest Comics #312: Cavalieri and Woch/Alcala reveal an unscrupulous company using substandard steel in a newly constructed bridge in Gotham. Superman works to stop its collapse while Batman saves a whistleblower from an assassin. Interesting, the Monitor shows up still testing the two heroes for weaknesses to sell. Apparently Cavalieri didn't know this issue would hit after Crisis #1 changed our view of the Monitor.

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night as the party confronted the Wizard of Azurth and Morzengersturm over the fate of Roderick Drue, a young occultist, at the Columbia Exposition in 1893 Chicago.

The Wizard recognizes the party calls forth shadows in the form of Expo attendees to attack them. And there are a lot of them! Luckily these are minions (as per the minion rules in Flee, Mortals!), so the party is able to mow them done, but it takes a while and gives them a moment of fright as there are a lot of them. Erekose, Waylon, and the activated Figurine of Wondrous Power Bear takes down five at the entrance of the tent. Shade goes after those coming through the side of the tent with her bow. Zabra witchbolts a couple of them.

Zabra's familiar, a cat, is dutifully carrying the transport gem to the target, Roderick Drue. When it breaks the gem with a bite, a cloud of colorful smoke engulfs both cat and occultist and transports them to the Land of Azurth. 

Waylon gets frightened by the shadows, so moves inside for an attack on Mortzengersturm. The party has a history with the Mad Manticore as they killed him in--well, their past, his future. Zabra delivers a psychic bolt that incapacitates the Manticore wizard before he can act.

His ally and his minions gone, the Wizard teleports away.

The party uses their other jewels to return to Azurth themselves. After some healing they are ready to plan their next mission: black to the Shadow Tower.

In the Latter Age of Earth, magi are those few born with the Mark, a quirk or atavism of their genetic code, that allows full activation of the nanotechnologic interface within their brains, allowing them to become users of the system enveloping the planet. With this linkage made and mastered, a magus may command and the world responds. They can open the vast subterranean vaults of the Ancients, contain and control willful spirits, and send clouds of doom upon their enemies. 

The magi of the several collegia seek out newly emerged mages to teach them to use their gifts. Those wild talents who are not initiated into a collegium are known as sorcerers. 

The place of the magi varies across the cultures of the world. Where the Instrumentality is at its strongest their practice is generally, they are restricted, regulated, and monitored. Occasionally they are outright banned, but their abilities are simply too valuable to governments and even to the clergy, for this to be a common practice.

Nevertheless, the life of a magus is often precarious. Superstitious common folk can easily turn against them, and Instrumentality zealots often eager to find a reason to punish or imprison them. Beyond that, the very forces they wield and the knowledge they seek can easily prove dangerous to them as much as anyone.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on January 17, 1985.

New Teen Titans #7: José Luis García-López arrives as new penciler so this issue looks gorgeous, whatever else. We get the return of Azrael (though he isn't given that name in this issue). I appreciate that, even though this book and Tales aren't taking place at the same time, similar topics (like this winged alien) come up concurrently in both. It does make it difficult keeping recent events in each title straight, though. Anyway, not long after Azrael shows up, again declaring his love for Lilith, she's kidnapped by her mother, who turns out not only to be a ruthless businesswoman also the Titan of myth, Thia. The (Teen) Titans go to the Amazons for help with this Greek mythology stuff, but they find Paradise Island in ruins and all the Amazons gone.

Batman and the Outsiders #20: Aided by Jane Denniger, the whip-wielding Syonide and some goons go to kidnap Halo and her parents. They are working for Black Lightning foe Tobias Whale, who believes Violet Harper is feigning her amnesia and still has in her "photographic memory" a formula her and her deceased boyfriend stole. Halo manages to summon the Outsiders, but her parents still wind up getting killed by Syonide. As they are dying, she tells them she has regained her memory, and she loves them. At their graveside, she reveals to Katana that she still doesn't remember her past life at all and the lie was to comfort them.
While Jane Denniger is likely unreliable, her version of events paints the previous Violet Harper as more than the delinquent I had taken her for but a full-on sociopath. Nothing in the issue contradicts this narrative, though obviously as we still don't know how she was resurrected, there is more to be revealed. 

Blue Devil #11: Klein and Smith/Gustovich sub in with this even more humor-oriented that usual story. The Blue Devil movie is over-budget, Werner is breathing down Marla's neck to wrap things up, and Dan is sick. When Werner's auditor comes for a visit, an unconscious Dan dreams a series of surreal sequences where he is pursued by the super-villainous Auditor. In the end, though, the real auditor proves a nice guy, the movie is completed, and Dan gets medical attention. 
These recent issues make it seem like they book doesn't really have a direction.

Conqueror of the Barren Earth #3: Cohn and Randall pick up where last issue left off with the armies of Zhengla confronting the Harashashan. Jinal maneuvers the situation so that the Harashashan join Zhengla's army of conquest. In all public ways she appears the loyal consort of the conqueror, but their all hints she may be playing bigger game. The rulers of D'Roz think so, as they fear Jinal will manipulate Zhengla into attacking them. They lay a trap with a community of stranded Qlov, but it backfires, and Jinal has to do little convincing to get Zhengla to turn his sights on the city.

Green Lantern #187: Well, the Wein and Gibbons run didn't amount to much, though they did introduce some new elements (namely the Predator and Hal giving up the ring) later teams will have to deal with. This issue is a fill-in by Kupperberg and Willingham before the new, regular team starts. After Rich's funeral, Carol and Hal both note the distance in their relationship, but neither knows the cause. It isn't helped when Carol finds the Predator in her house. He again declares his love, and Hal shows up to fight him, but gets beaten up. Meanwhile, Bruce Gordon decides to leave Ferris Aircraft, and Stewart as Green Lantern flubs the rescue of a space shuttle (though it turns out all right, no thanks to him). Frustrated by his mistakes, he goes to the Oans to request training, and they assign Katma Tui to help out.
There's a backup Tales of the Green Lantern Corps by Baron with atypically cartoony art from Rogers. It's the story of a mom Green Lantern that uses a bubble blown with her kid's toy to escape a yellow energy bubble.

Infinity, Inc. #13: This is the last issue penciled by Newton before his death. Shooter allowed Joe Rubinstein to temporarily waive his exclusive contract with Marvel to ink it.  Silver Scarab, Fury, Jade, and Nuke Four take a vacation on a secluded tropical island and do some skinny-dipping. They meet up with a woman named Rose who has been alone on the island sometime, studying its flora. That night they are attacked by Thorn who claims to be Rose's sister and wields plant control powers. They defeat her and leave, taking Rose with them, unaware that she and Thorn are actually the same person. 
There's a pinup at the end of this issue by a young artist named Todd McFarlane who we are told will be doing more work for Infinity, Inc. in the future.

Superman Special #3: The writing credit is Bridwell/Wein, and it definitely seems like a Bridwell story as part of it deals with tying up the loose end of a previous story establishing that a Daily Planet employee inadvertently discovered Superman's secret identity. After getting hypnotized by his nephew (a stage magician), he spills the secret. The nephew uses it to harass Clask briefly, all in good fun of course. Meanwhile, Superman is trying to deal with a reconstructed Amazo and bring in Professor Ivo. Superman manages to accomplish all this, then super-hypnotizes (with their consent) both the Planet employee and the magician to make then forget his identity.

Sgt. Rock #399: In the main story by Kanigher and Gonzales, Rock is with the remnant of Baker Company when they are ambushed by the SS and killed after surrendering. Easy finds the site of the massacre and Rock's dog tags, so they assume he is dead. But then who is pursuing and picking off the SS soldiers? Spoilers: Rock isn't dead.
The second story, written and drawn by Darren Auck is a futuristic story of two highly trained soldiers representing the two power blocs going at it one on one. The loser is surprised to find out he's being facing a robot.

Saga of Swamp Thing #35: Moore and Bissette/Totleben return to a bit of an environmentalist message as a toxic and deranged homeless man ("Nukeface") from a Pennsylvania town abandoned due to a coal seam fire and turned into a nuclear waste dump arrives at the swamps around Houma. He kills one man by sharing his deadly hootch, then poisons Swamp Thing. I had thought perhaps this issue was inspired by the 80s horror film Street Trash, but it predates it by over 2 years.

Warlord #90: I reviewed this issue here.

Who's Who #2: This issue has a lot of bat characters. Earth-One Batman's text crowds his picture into a small size. They'll be more willing to give major characters two pages in later issues. Interesting, Azrael gets a half-page here, though he's only really had teaser appearances so far, it doesn't give the entry much to go on. Also, Black Canary is shown in a new costume--one that hasn't appeared in a story yet!

 

Lately, I've been thinking about my Scavengers of the Latter Ages idea, which is sort of a "hard" science fantasy setting, and reconsidering some aspects. Here's a new take on clerics in the setting:

"We of the Institute receive an intensive historical inculcation; we know the men of the past, and we have projected dozens of possible future variations, which, without exception, are repulsive. Man, as he exists now, with all his faults and vices, a thousand gloriously irrational compromises between two thousand sterile absolutes – is optimal. Or so it seems to us who are men."

- Jack Vance, The Killing Machine

Clerics are ordained individuals in the service of the Instrumentality of Humankind. The purpose of their order is the preservation of Humanity and its restoration as stewards of the Earth. To this end, they seek to discourage the worship of false gods such as digital minds and alien entities, and to limit and manage technologies that might alter humanity or thwart its destiny.

While the Instrumentality is technically a nonreligious entity, its organization and trappings mimic religious forms, and its exoteric teachings (officially allegorical) regarding the Earth Mother and the Primeval or Cosmic Man form the basis of a folk belief system, and this system, along with Instrumentality's ceremonies and rituals have developed into a civic religion in many places.

The Instrumentality is not a group of luddites, despite their goals. They hold technology must be understood and mastered, so that what is valuable maybe used for the benefit of humanity, but not it's transformation. They maintain, for instance, almost total control of advance healing techniques, and can wield terrible weapons if the need arises.

The Institute of Vance's Demon Princes series and the Church of Foster's Humanx Commonwealth are a big influence here but pushed in a more Dune direction by the Terran Chantry Ruocchio's Sun Eater series.

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last weekend, with the Clockwork Princess Viola revealing the new plan she had come up with for defeating the Wizard. Her worry was the full-on assault she and the other princesses had been planning was too fraught and would lead to too much loss of life. She had realized the Wizard could be weakened by denying him the strength and knowledge he had built up sending copies or aspects of himself into time. 

The party's adventures, as dutifully recorded by the fans in the Domed City of Yai, show that they had encountered the younger astral projection of the Wizard, Roderick Drue. They had also encountered a Shadow duplicate of him in the Half-Real Tower. If the Wizard could be denied these two, he would be weakened.

There was some debate over what "denial" entailed. It was decided killing was an option, but capture was sufficient, so long as the operation moved quickly and was followed by an attack on the Wizard.

Roderick Drue had claimed to have been sent from a place called Chicago in 1893. A time and place far in the past. Luckily, Viola has a time machine. After getting appropriate clothing from Yai, a map of a place called the Columbian Exposition, and a locator device, the party is ready to go.

Upon arrival, they are somewhat distracted by the strange sights and sounds, but they stay focused. As they get closer, they are startled to see the Wizard walking in conversation with Mortzengersturm (who the crowds don't seem to notice). They also are concerned when they discover they appear to be being shadowed by demonic creatures:

They trace young Drue to a hookah establishment in the Turkish Village, where he is meeting with Mortzengersturm and the Wizard.  The party has a jewel when crushed that will release a small cloud and transport anyone in it back to Azurth. When Dagmar and Zabra try to find a way to deliver that to Drue, the others have to leave the tent to engage the two demons encircling it.

The demons are defeated, but not before Mort and the Wizard become aware and move to beat a retreat with Drue in tow...

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) through Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of January 10, 1985. 

Batman #382: Moench and Hoberg/Nebres continue the story from last month's issue of Detective. Catwoman reveals to Vicki and Julia, and later arrivers Batman and Robin, that she tangled with Darkwolf in Egypt and in revenge he poisoned her panther and is out to kill her. After Diablo (the panther) dies, Catwoman vows revenge herself, and Batman agrees to help her. Meanwhile, Darkwolf has made it to Gotham Airport and has hijacked a plan, demanding flight to Damascus. Catwoman goes undercover as a flight attendant while Batman attaches himself to the wing with a parachute. Amazingly, this plan works (sort of) and Darkwolf is defeated, Batman takes the plan in for an emergency landing after the pilot is knocked out, and Catwoman appears to have been killed after falling out of the plan with a grenade in hand after grappling with Darkwolf. 

Amethyst #4: Schaffenberger is on pencils this issue and it gives it a more cartoony look. Amy wakes up back in our world, no worse for wear, but evil is still on the move in Gemworld, and she's soon called back for a brief visit. A muscular, hooded figure hovers over Citrina's bed and brags about his plans to destroy her, before Amethyst's appearance chases him away. Sardonyx has survived the destruction of his city, but a strange, little creature demands he do its bidding if he wants to see his people again. 
Back on Earth, new student Carl Nelligan starts school, but Amy and Emmy know he's Carnelian. When they catch a little gremlin spying on them, they chase it back to Carl's basement where they find a machine for enhancing magical energy. They are threatened then attacked by his Uncle Orville who looks like Dark Opal but turns out to be a robot. The issue ends with the girls in the robot's clutches.

Arak Son of Thunder #43: The Thomases and DeZuniga bring Arak to Kur, the Sumerian Underworld. He manages to rescue Satyricus from the procession of the dead, but Valda has already been brough before Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, and the stone judges of the dead. Arak begins to struggle against the beastmen Anunnaki. His loyalty inspires Gilgamesh, one of the judges, who jumps to join their fight and returns to flesh. Eventually Ereshkigal gives up and allows Arak and his companions to go free--if they can find a passage out of Kur. They succeed in doing so, but back in the living world Gilgamesh lays down and returns to dust. The others continue onward to Angelica's temple which now appears abandoned.

Camelot 3000 #12: After over 2 years, this series reaches its conclusion. Barr and Bolland bring Arthur and surviving knights of the round table to their final confrontation (this cycle, perhaps) with Mordred and Morgan le Fay and her alien allies. Mordred wears armor made of the grail, but that isn't enough to save him from his father's wrath. After Merlin is released, Morgan is left to the mercy of the disease warping her flesh. Galahad loses his life in the battle, and Arthur sacrifices himself for the others. In the epilogue, Tom Prentiss is helping rebuild the Earth, Tristan has at least decided to accept his female body and move on with Isolda, and Guinevere and Lancelot are expecting a baby, which they both hope is Arthur's. Meanwhile, an alien pulls a sword from the stone...
This series mostly gets by on Bolland's art, but Barr's story is better in collection form rather than dragged like it was in its original run.

Flash #344: I feel like what an already languidly paced story arc doesn't need is reprints to give unnecessary backstory, but that's just what we get as Bates and Infantino have Kid Flash take the stand. We get the origin of Kid Flash from Flash #110 and the story where Kid Flash learns the Flash's secret ID from Flash #149, both by Broome and Infantino. We end in the present on Kid Flash's bombshell admission that in his opinion it was unnecessary for the Flash to use deadly force against the Reverse Flash.

G.I. Combat #276: There's only one real Haunted Tank story this issue. The trauma of war has made Jeb cold and distant, an ironic parallel to a German cyborg tank commander that is sent against Stuart's Raiders. Confrontation with the cold steel foe awakens Jeb's humanity. 
There's also a Mercenaries story, where the trio is perhaps in North Africa, hired to help an Arab general, but they find the general has been overthrown by a people's revolution. They decide that's maybe for the best, but the General and his wife coerce them into working for them. As is the pattern of these stories, the Mercenaries manage to turn the tables, doing what's right, but they don't get paid.
One of the non-series stories is by Kashdan/Carillo and involves an aerial spotter for artillery who is forced to give his life in a kamikaze dive to hit one last target. The other is by Drake/Barnes and is one of those stories whose heart is in the right place as it deals with the prejudice faced by Japanese American soldiers but manages to engage in unfortunate stereotypes. 

Jemm, Son of Saturn #7: Potter and Colan/MacLoed seem to be bringing story threads together post the mid-point of the series. Synn and her Koolar warriors met Tull who is indeed much more powerful than I initially thought due to his knowledge of advanced technology. They make an alliance with him agreeing to lead them to the Red Saturnians in exchange for him being allowed to drain the energy of a Koolar to extend his life.
Meanwhile, Jogarr keeps Jemm virtually a prisoner in New Bhok. Given that Jemm fulfills an ancient prophecy he and some of his council fear knowledge of his existence would cause a religious frenzy and social disruption in their community. However, when the actions of a Bishop of New Bhok and an attack by a subterranean bentu accidentally conspire to reveal Jemm to the populace, Jogarr's fears appear to be coming to fruition.

Legion of Super-Heroes #9: Lightle and Mahlstedt are really working well here; this issue looks great. After their stopover in DC Comics Presents last week, the lost Legionnaires are home at last. Element Lad reunites with Shvaughn Erin, but duty keeps getting in the way of them being together until the very end of the issue, as Sklarian raiders are found in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, a much more assertive Shrinking Violet confronts Yera Allon, the investigation begins into who shot Laurel Kent and why, and Timber Wolf frets over his role in settling Karate Kid's estate.

Omega Men #24: Shawn McManus comes on for art on this story. Kalista returns to her childhood haunts to reminisce over happier times on Euphorix. She has also secreted Dulak away in a hunting knowledge nearby and visits him. Dulak has been duped by his Branx allies, though, and Harry Hokum directs a plan to kill Kallista. It fails, and Kallista forgives Dulak, even spends a night with him, but can't return his love because she is queen. She leaves the forest and returns to her duties.
This title has felt directionless for a while, but this issue makes me consider whether it really would been better just to lean into that and make it an anthology about the weird worlds and peoples of Vega. Apparently, the editors are thinking something similar as they've already announced the upcoming "Tales of Vega" backup series.

Star Trek #11: Kirk and crew run a daring gambit to neutralize the Terran Empire. In the Mirror Universe, the Excelsior reports to High Command and Kirk (impersonating Mirror-Kirk) argues now is the time to strike the universe of the Federation. He is tasked with leading the strike force, which he plans to betray. Later, Marlena helps him make contact with the rebels, who to his surprise include Mirror-David! Unfortunately, the Empire has spies. Just as the strike force has gathered, the High Councilor gives the command for the assembled ships to turn on Excelsior. Another good, very Trekian, installment from Barr and Sutton/Villagran.

Superman #406: You can frequently count on the Superman titles to have odd stories, and Kupperberg and Norvick/Hunt continue the tradition. Former wrestler Mo Ramboe is angry that Superman stole his former stage name. Since he's had prophetic dreams in the past, he's happy when he dreams he defeats Superman in the ring and takes back his name; His brother the mobster is also happy because he sees the chance to increase his power in the Metropolis underworld. Meanwhile, Superman begins to experience periodic failure in his Superman strength before he feels inexorably drawn to the arena where Ramboe is going to fight and beat him has the gang leaders of the city watch. Once Superman is beaten, though, his strength returns and he easily takes down Ramboe in an immediate rematch, and Ramboe's brother's mob boss dreams are quashed. 
The second story by Boldman and Saviuk/Kesel makes a more sense but is (perhaps) sillier. A "Can You Stump Superman?" contest is held on to benefit the Lung Foundation. The contest is realized as an attempt to determine what Superman can't do that Earthlings can. Two crooks try to take advantage of the contest to plant a bomb in the Fortress of Solitude, but most of the story is just people's guesses and Superman proving them wrong. In the end, it turns out Superman can't actually inhale if he tries to smoke.

Talent Showcase #16: As promised in last issues editorial, the talent is no longer "new," so that's dropped from the title. We still seem to be getting the same level of "not ready for primetime" stories, though. Eric Shanower is up first with a fantasy story in a vaguely Ancient Egyptian setting that doesn't amount to much, even lampshading it's pat resolution in the final panel. There are three one-page gag strips by Agustin Más, then the rest of the issue is given over the science fiction, albeit one story has a superhero bent. The first has a woman scientist overcoming sexism, but I can't remember much else other than it has to do with FTL travel.
The last story is multi-part and is the origin of the hero Collapsar by Ashley Tillman and Stan Woch. Tillman's only published comic work is in this title, though he was more involved in comics fandom, organizing the 1978 Charlotte NC comics convention. "Collapsar" is the story of a scientist working with a team planning to send an ape into a black hole who discovers he has a terminal disease and decides to take the trip instead of the ape. He doesn't die but finds an inhabited world on the otherside and is transformed into a cosmic superhero form with indigo skin, pupilless eyes, red hair, and these Starlin-y sparkles.  DC publisher a Collapser series from Young Animal about a guy who gets a blackhole in his chest and gains super-powers. I wonder if the writers were aware of this earlier character?

I got around to watching the series finale of Stranger Things this weekend, and it gave me the idea for setting combining elements of that show and the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series that ran from 1983-86.

We start with the secret experimentation with psychic phenomena in a small town. Through this experiment, a psychic rift to another world is opened. The reality of this world is either maleable or difficult for the human mind to comprehend. The psychic kid raised in isolation for the experiment, doesn't add much detail to the world and its denizens, but thanks to rift, the other world (or an entity in it) begins to make contact with the minds of other, susceptible individuals in the town.

One of these kids plays D&D, so the world begins to frame itself (or become framed) to humans in D&D terms. It's a small realm in Gygaxian fashion just a funhouse mirror of the kid's own surroundings, but with a fantasy Medieval adventure overlay.

Either of their own accord or as recruits of the shadowy researchers the kids would begin to explore this realm of Dungeons & Dragons. The psychic avatars of the kids are often imbued with the classes and abilities of their game characters but mentally and emotionally remain the kids that they are.

There's a dark power in this fantasy realm, though. A demonic sorcerer with origins in our world as well--and a desire to make the two realms one under his rule.

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 January 3, 1985. 

Crisis on Infinite Earths #1: The build-up with hints and teases regarding the Monitor finally pays off as the title originally advertised as DC Universe arrives. Wolfman gives us an extensive intro explaining the rationale for the project (fix/modernize DC's convoluted multiverse) and how it came to be. The story he and Perez give us this issue is mostly setup, though. It starts at the beginning of time, telling us that what was intended to be one universe got fractured into many. We meet Pariah who watches an Earth consumed by nothingness, unable to interfere or to die with it, before he is transported to another imperiled Earth. This is Earth-Three, world of the Crime Syndicate. Those villains, despite their vast powers, are unable to stop the spread of antimatter, but they die as heroes, at least. The world's sole superhero, Alexander Luthor, rockets his infant son to another Earth before he and his wife are destroyed. 
The Monitor says the time is here, and sends forth his assistant Harbinger to select the champions they need: Solovar from the present of Earth-One, and Dawnstar from its future; Psycho-Pirate from Earth-Two's present, and Firebrand from the 1940s there; and Charlton's Blue Beetle makes his DC debut as he's recruited from Earth-Four. A Harbinger duplicate returns to Earth-One and collects Firestorm and (with the aid of Psycho-Pirate) Killer Frost. In the past, a Harbinger recruits Arion but becomes corrupted by a Shadow Demon.
The group is united at the Monitor's satellite, where their host steps out of the shadows and reveals himself at last.

Atari Force #16: Hannigan is on pencils this issue. Babe's foray against the ant creatures is successful, and Scanner One is able to break free and take off, but not before a few of the bugs get into the ship and start causing trouble. Luckily, Taz has her babies and tazlings have an inherent technical aptitude. They effect repairs and the ant-things are dealt with. Meanwhile, Dart is psychically contacted by Chris and the crew discovers that New Earth (and its universe) hasn't been destroyed after all. 

DC Comics Presents #80: Kupperberg and Swan/Hunt present a very much in-continuity team-up, as the Lost Legionnaires step through a stargate and wind up in a Metropolis inhabited by a bunch of Supermen who are out to attack them. It all turns out to be an overelaborate plot by Brainiac to escape the extra-universal realm he's been imprisoned in and get the Legionnaires to kill the real Superman once he shows up. Things don't go his way, though.

Fury of Firestorm #34: Conway and Kayanan/Kupperberg open where last issue left off. After the shock of setting off LeFlambeau's trap, Firestorm rallies and uses his powers to save New York. Meanwhile, the lab accident at the end of last issue has created a new Killer Frost. Ronnie is just about to finally have a take with Doreen about the state of their relationship, when he's whisked away to confront her as Firestorm. He winds up getting trapped under a mass of ice for his trouble. 

Jonni Thunder #2: The Thomases and Giordano/Esposito continue their superhero-detective hybrid story. Jonni is still trying to get all the players straight. She gets another visit from "Slim" Chance who wants the statue. That statue is stolen from her home, but Jonni tracks it to bottom-feeder P.I named Harrison Trump and his employer, a strip club owner called Red Nails--a woman who seems to know something of the mysterious Thunderbolt. In fact, even invoking the Thunderbolt may not save Jonni from Red Nails as she threatens to kill the P.I.'s unconscious body if Thunderbolt doesn't surrender.

Justice League of America #237: Conway and Patton/Maygar have Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman return to the destroyed JLA satellite with no idea what has happened. In a continuity puzzle, they just got back from the adventure that began in issue 231 back in July of '84. Anyway, a self-destructing Soviet spy satellite leads them to the USSR where they are beaten by the keytar stylings of the Maestro, a super-villain in the service of General Gorki, who plans to stage a coup. Meanwhile, the new League sends Steel, Elongated Man, and Dale Gunn ask Hank Heywood to use his CIA contacts to find out why the three heroes have gone to the Soviet Union, but Heywood's bigoted and reactionary ways lead to Steel throwing him out a window, so the new League is without leads.

Tales of the Teen Titans #52: Wolfman and Buckler/DeCarlo continue what now seems like a "backdoor pilot" for a Searchers, Inc. (the organization founded by Jericho's mother) series. While Jericho and Amber, one of his mother's agents, go to Qurac to free Adeline Wilson, there confronting Cheshire and President Marlo, in the primary story of the issue. Over Changeling's protests, the Titans agree not to intervene in the matter, and so are sidelined. Alerted by Lilith's precognition, they instead go to STAR Labs, where an explosion frees the cryogenically preserved alien, a winged man who instantly falls for Lilith.

Robotech Defenders #2: The issue opens with an editorial revealing that the planned 3-issue series is only going to be two, but this issue is 32 pages and without ads. Our heroes and their giant robots are ambushed by the more numerous Grelon force, supplied with tech by a mysterious faction. The defenders are defeated, and Silky, pilot of Aqualos, is killed. Malek is captured but discovers that pushing the big red button in the cockpit brings the robot to life. She relays this to the others, and the non-sentient robots are able to fight their way free. Regrouping, the robots reveal to their pilots that they were beings from the planet Technor who uploaded their minds into the robot bodies. They are opposing the energy vampire S'Landrai who are using the Grelons to acquire worlds to drain.
With the help of a rebellious Grelon commander, the robots and pilots fight back and defeat the S'Landrai and their Grelon pawns. The ending suggests other adventures to come, but of course they never materialized.

Superman: The Secret Years #3: Rozakis and Swan/Schaffenberger reveal the full story of the death of Billy Cramer, Superboy's new friend and confidante. He dies trying to save a baby that it turns out isn't even in danger, sure that Superboy will save him, but Superboy is busy elsewhere with an emergency. Clark's guilt is worsened because he had been cold to Billy and Pete in the aftermath of his breakup with Lori Lemaris. Superboy is shaken in confidence and doubting his mission.

Vigilante 16: Kupperberg does a fill-in with Saviuk/Maygar on art. In the last days (or so he thinks now), before he gives up his crimefighter identity, Vigilante takes on a highly organized gang who is derailing subway trains and robbing the occupants after they beat up Marcia. It turns out the mugging have only been cover for a bigger job: robbing the collections train. Vigilante foils the plot and brings the gange to justice.

Wonder Woman #324: Thanks to the alien machinations related to Trevor's new gremlin pal, Glitch, the U.S. and the Soviet Union move closer to nuclear confrontation. Gardner Grayle (last seen in DC Comics Presents #57) is troubled by visions of this happening and sees Wonder Woman's and Steve Trevor's actions as a trigger. As the Atomic Knight, he first battles them, then teams up with them to attempt to stop nuclear war, only to have the situation further complicated by the arrival of the alien Ytirflirks who want Glitch back.

Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of this blog. If anybody's still reading from the early days, thanks for sticking around. 

Looking at my blog states, my most popular post ("Old School Blogger Advancement Table") was done as sort of a joke but also an attempt to be grab the attention of weekly(ish) blog cycle of that day. I guess in that it succeeded in that regard, but it seems even more frivolous to me today.

The next two most popular posts were part of a series "Real Dungeons, American Style." The top one was "Murder Castle" about H.H. Holmes, featuring the blueprints of his home that were published in the newspaper after he was caught.

The 7th most popular post was "AD&D Cosmology: A Defense." I think I've written a number of posts defending, elaborating, and riffing off the Great Wheel. 

The 10th most popular post was where I announced that Weird Adventures was available. The first actual Weird Adventures post is "Remember Prester John," a few places lower.

The most recent post in the top 20 is from 2023. "The Adventure-Point Crawl" was inspired by my friend's Chris Kutalik's point crawl posts, but also rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender with my daughter.

Maybe for the 20th anniversary, assuming I'm still around then, I'll do a list of my favorite posts.