The Dire Wraiths Return!

First, a brief apology. I've somehow let three months slip by without posting to my blog. I had some ideas for posts, but not the time to do them. I'd love to say it won't happen again, but we have a family event coming in July that will probably derail the blog some more.

Moving on, it's time to eat my own words. The Dire Wraiths are, in fact, returning. Their return, however, has nothing to do with the Avengers, as one might have guessed from entries appearing in the Secret Invasion-related Marvel Handbooks. It's Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (a.k.a. DnA) who are bringing them back in Annihilators, a four-issue limited series coming in March. And where there's Dire Wraiths, the Spaceknights are not far behind.

DnA spoke with Comic Book Resources about the series and the Dire Wraiths, in particular. Of the Wraiths, Abnett said, "they're immensely cool." I suggest you check the interview out. The artist on the series is Tan Eng Huat. I'm not familiar with his work, but he did a nice illustration of Rom for the Spacenight 2 auctions, which I also recommend you check out.

The most interesting thing about this to me is something Chris Batista told me back in 2000 when the Spaceknights limited series was coming out. DnA were apparently asked if they'd like to write a Spaceknights sequel (assuming, at the time, that sales would be good enough to warrant such). Batista told me, "they were very ecstatic about the possibility." So I'm most curious if DnA are working from any of Batista's notes from 10 years ago, but haven't been able to get an answer.

As you can guess from the name, Annihilators continues the cosmic saga that began with Annihilation and most recently wrapped up The Thanos Imperative . However, if you're out of touch with Marvel's cosmic heroes, you don't need to know a lot. First, the Inhumans and Ronan are now in charge of the Kree Empire. Gladiator, of the Imperial Guard, is now head of the Shi'Ar empire. And the Silver Surfer is once again the herald of Galactus.

If you're a fan of Rom and want to get caught up, I highly recommend you pick up, The Thanos Imperative: Devastation, a one-shot that just came out this week. And not just so you can read about the aftermath of that event.

(I wish Blogger had the ability to hide text for spoilers, but it doesn't. Therefore, if you don't want anything spoiled, you can stop here. If you need a really good reason for spending your four bucks on this, read on.)

*BEGIN SPOILER ALERT!!!*
The final page of the issue features a previously unseen Spaceknight named Ikon. She carries some kind of cosmic polearm. The Dire Wraiths are talked about, but do not yet appear.
*END SPOILER ALERT!!!*

eBay brag?

[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic.]

Like many of you....  Well, there's really not that many left here, are there?  Hmmmm.

Like many collectors, I have a selection of saved eBay searches.  One item managed to somehow capture my attention enough to actually go see the listing.  Then I noticed it was a local seller.  Then I noticed I knew him!  (We've met, but are just acquaintances.)  Given free local delivery, I bid on several items and won these:

• Mind at Play: The Psychology of Video Games
• Open, Sesame (Bit Corp) for Atari 2600 (CIB, PAL)
• Cross Force (Spectravision) for Atari 2600
• Dactar 4 in 1 for Atari 2600
• Buzz Bomber for Intellivision
• World Championship Baseball for Intellivision

I didn't pay more than $5 for any one item.  Mind at Play and WC Baseball are the big scores for me.  I would have bought a lot more (or at least bid higher) if I could have afforded it.

[Thanks, Walton G.!]

The Untouchables

Ever since it first came out, I wanted a copy of Steve Jackson Games' Strange Synergy. This strategy board game gives you a deck of 100 cards with super powers and "gadgets." You are dealt nine cards and have three warriors on which to distribute the powers/gadgets on the cards. And to make it even better, the character art is by Phil Foglio.

The game came out in 2003 and was unfortunately not a hit. It's gone out of print and now costs $100+ in new condition. I only recently found this out and immediately created an eBay search to see if I could snag one. The very first one it notified me of was a used copy with a starting bid of $6.00. No one else bid on it! A week later, the game (literally) arrived at my doorstep.

My first game was against my 12-year-old son. I figured I'd give him a better chance of winning I played the Mad Scientists. Each team has a unique ability and theirs is merely to carry unlimited gadgets. Turns out he didn't need any help. I was only dealt one gadget and little in the way of offensive powers.

He managed to get the abilities Inner Peace, Stunning Beauty, and Acrobatic Evasion. Inner Peace prevents any opponents from hitting the warrior until he attacks someone. Stunning Beauty makes the recipient so beautiful, opponents require a roll of the die just to attempt to attack him. Then you have to roll again to actually land a hit. Acrobatic Evasion lets the warrior automatically avoid one attack per turn. Naturally he gave each of his warriors one of these. By the way, except for Stunning Beauty, these abilities are secret until you attack the warrior with them.

Only because one of my warriors had Flameblast (an initially secret offensive power), Two Heads (gives two attacks per turn), and Trick Shot (allows attacks on diagonals and is secret until used) did I manage to even damage his warrior with Acrobatic Evasion. Unfortunately, that was the first warrior he killed, so after that things went downhill for me quickly. (The only other offensive weapon/power I had was a boomerang.) At least he had a good time and wants to play again.

ROM: Tattoo

The bicep to the right, festooned with a tattoo of Rom, belongs to Logan Williams. It's based on Michael Golden's cover for Rom #9. He sent me the photo last month and I'm finally getting around to featuring it. Logan said, "I've been a Rom fan since '81...he was my gateway to all things geek!" I'd say getting a Rom tattoo leaves little doubt that he's a fan. He added, "I'm planning on adding some Dire Wraiths and more background in the future." Here's hoping for an update when he does.

Yard sale score: Vintage Pac-Man bank

A few days ago, Craigslist had an ad for a yard sale coming on Friday and Saturday that promised "old Atari game cartridges". I e-mailed them asking about them, but got no response. A year (or maybe less) ago, I had a bad experience of getting up early and driving all the way across town for a sale that promised Atari games. First, the guy didn't bother to start his yard sale at the promised time. After waiting and waiting, I wound up having to leave before he even came out. When I was able to return, it turned out someone had e-mailed him and bought the games days before the yard sale even began. At least this time the yard sale was on the way to work, so I wouldn't be put out if the games were gone or the sale not begun on time.

So, I got up early to get there around their 7:00 a.m. opening time. Actually, thanks to Hannah, I got up even earlier than I intended, but by the time she was asleep, it wasn't worth going back to bed. For the first time, I trusted my new phone's GPS completely and headed out with only a rough idea of where I was going. It got me there with no problems and I started looking around.

This yard sale was pretty cool! Many old board games, some old Disney and Sesame Street records, a few old Mad magazine issues, and Sweet Pickles children's books. I'd completely forgotten about Sweet Pickles! It was like a big slice of my childhood. Apparently the couple used to frequent flea markets and antique stores, buying up this stuff, but now they were getting rid of much of it at great prices. Luckily, I resisted the urge to buy a bunch of stuff and try to resell it on eBay. I've already got too much of that stuff, which I never seem to get around to actually selling. I did almost buy an old copy of the Clue board game that was the same as the one I'd grown up with, though.

I didn't find the games immediately, but it didn't take long. Two freezer bags of four cartridges each marked "$2.50 each." Unfortunately, it was all fairly common games. However, I did find a vintage Pac-Man bank by Tomy. Tomy took advantage of the products they'd previously produced in association with their Mr. Mouth game and simply rebadged them as Pac-Man. But they were officially licensed by Bally/Midway! (Kids, Mr. Mouth started out as a big, yellow, bald dude, not a frog. And why doesn't Mr. Mouth have a Wikipedia entry?!?) I got it for $1. Works fine, but needs some cleaning. Oh, and it had a penny already in it, so I guess technically it was 99 cents.


And as you can see, I also picked up a not-so-vintage Pac-Man lunch box. It's not a quite full-sized lunch box, being only about 2/3 the depth (I'd estimate) of a standard '50s-'80s metal lunch box. I almost put it back, but for $1, I went ahead and kept it. But I'm much more psyched about the vintage Pac-Man bank.