This blog is going away. We're having some technical problems that really aren't any one site's fault, but can't get fixed. My new blog is at

http://www.livejournal.com/~rickj

WISH 8: Maxims 2 - Eclectic Boogaloo

Pick three gaming maxims that other people wrote about and discuss how you think they have applied, or not, in your experience as a gamer. Do they make sense? Are they true or false? Maxims that simply never occurred to you are also eligible for discussion.

I only had two of all the great and true maxims posted that I could come up with something intelligent to say.

You're not heroes, you're assholes Though Michael quoted it, it started in a long D&D campaign I was in. Like so many campaigns, we were a bunch of folks tapped by destiny to save the world from Great Badness. The problem, if you could call it that, was that none of us were particularly good. Oh, the psionicist and the ranger had "good" written on their character sheets, but even they were, shall we say, flexible in their morality. (The Ranger was Drizzt, if Drizzt was played by Hunter S Thompson on some amazing acid.) When you got down to it, we were a bunch of greedy, treasure-hungry sumbitches who were saving the world, well, because we lived there. (And two characters made serious plans to evac to another plane once they found a stable gate.) What am I saying? Well, that the average D&D party isn't made up of heroes. The game isn't designed for it. It's designed for folks who loot the bodies to the last copper penny.

Everyone needs a niche That's true, but there's also the danger of overspecialization. I see this more in supers games than fantasy, but it's worth mentioning. You get the armor suit goon who is worthless outside his jammies, or the telepath who is up the creek when the Evil Overlord shows up with an army of robots. Not only should everyone have a niche, but they shouldn't suck if forced outside their niche. And a second note - if the game is going to be about a party of adventurers (or super-heroes, or spies or whatever), then everyone needs to be able to contribute to the party. This is the classic "Decker" problem - where the guy is a wiz in the Matrix, but is all thumbs outside. If your character can't come along for the ride (or is always flying solo) then maybe you need a different character.

WISH 7: Maxims

List three or more maxims/proverbs/bits of conventional wisdom/etc. that you've learned in your gaming career, and explain what they mean and how you've seen them apply in your gaming experience.

Plan A never works, so just go straight to "Get 'em!" This was never due to GM changing his plans to fit our prepared plans, but 9 times out of 10, whenever we had a complicated plan, it would fall apart upon first contact with the enemy. So, eventually, we just gave up and tried to be flexible going in. Oh, we'd occasionally do some spy-work and set of some prepared spells or whatever, but that was about it. After all, since no plan survives contact with the enemy, and since game time is limited, skip the complicated planning sessions and get to the head-booting!

Don't Be Surprised When The Players Destroy The Universe In many games, players can eventually escalate in power to the point that coming up with challenges can be difficult. I was in a homebrew space-opera game where any problem the group faced could be circumvented by one character's wealth, another character's super-intelligence or the obscene combat skills of another. Not to mention that we had a ship that was faster than anything else in known space, so if things got to be a pain, we could skip over to the other side of the galaxy and make trouble there. And let's not even talk about the TORG game I ran where the psychic who started out as "kaptain nosebleed" ended up with the mental moxie to pull large satelites out of orbit to hit people who hacked him off.

Make Sure Everyone Knows The Rules Not the dice rolling rules. (Heck, the leader of our super-team had to be told what her OCV was on a regular basis.) I mean the expectations. For instance, I played in an all-too-brief horror game using the CoC rules but not the Mythos. Well, some folks expected gritty realism, some folks expected to be able to pull of Indiana Jones-style feats, and still others refused to get on the plot train when the whistle was blowing the all-clear. I think if we all had known what the style and rules would be, it would have lasted longer, and been more fun for everyone involved.

Didn't have anything useful to say about the past couple of Game Wishes.

Something strange happened today - I didn't get comics this week. Not because I couldn't make it to the shop or anything. I just didn't have any comics coming in. (Well, one, but I didn't feel like making a special trip.) Over the past couple of years, my comics buying habits have dropped off considerably. Part of it is because our financial priorities are different now. Part of it was because a lot of the titles I read turned to crap and nothing good came out to replace them. I've also noticed that I buy more trade paperbacks these days. I'd rather wait 6-7 months and get a sturdy trade of Sojourn or Scion than a comic I have to bag, box and heft longboxes around to re-read. Thank goodness most of the publishers are adopting a "make everything a trade" policy. It's getting to the point where the titles I read are ones where I have to find out what happens next issue or they are ones that aren't big enough to make the trade collections.

WISH 4: Game Systems

Describe three systems you have gamed under: one you thought was good, one you thought was all right, and one you didn't care for. What were the good points and the bad points of each system? Did the systems support their genre? Were they complex or simple? How easy were they to GM and play? Is there a system you'd really like to try that you haven't? Which ones wouldn't you try based on reading them?

This is a hard one, because there are plenty of systems that I like to play, to GM, not so much. Prior to Jackson's birth, I was the guy who would buy tons of new games, even though all we ever played was D&D (2nd) and Champions. I was the guy buying TORG, Deadlands, Castle Falkenstein and HoL

The Good: Adventure! "Foul!" you cry. "You wrote part of it." "Feh," says IAdventure is a fast-paced pulp adventure game that does a great job of simulating the genre. The only flaws in the game are really artifacts of having to tie it to the future history set up by Aberrant and Trinity, and those are easily tossed. The "Inspiration Points" mechanic that lets players edit reality is a great touch and puts a lot of power in the hands of the players.

The Okay: Champions I have played and ran a lot of Champions. The only real problem is that it's a crunchy system. You can do just about anything, with enough points, but it takes a spreadsheet for me to make characters. I like the system a lot to play, and it's okay to GM if you've got enough prep time. The only problems arise in rules-lawyering to get that extra +1 OCV of advantage, and that a crafty player can weasel amazing tricks out of the system. (And I was a crafty one at times myself. It is unwise to give me a Gadget Pool.)

The Ugly: Argh - brain lock A guy in our gaming group got ahold of a playtest copy of a game whose name I can't remember now. It was an insanely complex fantasy RPG. Massive sets of rules and you still ended up with about 50/50 chances of doing anything. The only good point was that we quickly realized how insane the game was and degenerated into sillyness for the rest of the evening, ending up with the party fighting amongst itself at a circus. Oh, and I liked the intelligent giant spiders.

Want to Play But Haven't: Deadlands, Castle Falkenstein, Trinity, Marvel SAGA, the upcoming Buffy RPG, a good Trek RPG, Feng Shui

Will Avoid: Any Post-Apocalypse game, Traveller

WISH 3: Setting Ideas

Discuss three setting ideas or ideas for elements of settings that you got from movies/books/TV/etc. that you have read or seen recently. These do not need to be full-fledged settings, but can be single elements that could be incorporated into existing games.

The 13 Gods: One idea I had a long time ago was to create a pantheon for a dark fantasy world where the gods were based on the 13 Clan Founders from Vampire:The Masquerade. I stink at pantheon creation, and realized that you could make a pretty interesting pantheon out of those jokers. You also have the whole Titans/Olympians thing going on with the 3rd Generation replacing the 2nd. And the idea that godhood can be stolen (by the Mage Tremere and the Necromancer Giovanni) provides some plot hooks.

Sunnydale Burning: Over on the boards for the forthcoming Buffy RPG, there were discussions about how to play a modern campaign in the Buffy canon and still have a PC Slayer. My idea went along these lines. The demon bikers arrive in Sunnydale a few minutes earlier, disrupting the ressurection spell and Buffy stays dead. Without Buffy, the bikers take over Sunnydale and start the wild rumpus. Either Angel or the Watchers bust Faith out of jail, leading to a big battle with the demon bikers that kills Faith (calling the next Slayer) and clears the decks of all the Buffy/Angel cast the GM doesn't want hanging around their game. As a sub-idea, the first arc of the campaign is handling Dark Willow, who shows up earlier as a result of the carnage.

Tales of the Slayer: Arkham I've been reading Lovecraft's stuff online, as well as the new CoC RPG, and thought that Arkham would make a fine setting for a Slayer campaign. Naturally, the natural result of a CoC campaign (mad and/or dead PCs) shifts as the monsters get beaten, but I think the mixing of genres would be nifty.

DANG IT Okay, I just can't have blog entries past a certain size or this stupid thing falls over and I lose the post entirely. Razafrazin...
WISH 2: RPG Romances

Describe two romantic relationships involving a PC you've seen in a game. One should be a romance that worked for the participants and the other should be one that failed, died, or came to an end. What was good and bad about these relationships from the point of view of plot and character development

Dr Peter Silk and Mickey McCall This was in a World of Darkness play-by-email game. Peter was a resident at the local hospital, and vaguely inspired by Dr Bashir from Deep Space 9. Mickey was a messed-up second generation vampire hunter. He fell in love with her at first sight. She thought he was a naive dork. They had great chemistry together and anyone could see where they were going (except them). After saving her life from a vamp, she realized she loved him too. They had a brief, toe curling kiss that pretty much opened things up between them. Naturally, he was kidnapped by vampires and turned into a gargoyle before they could even talk about The Kiss. He escaped and she talked him out of watching the sun come up (suicide being a sin - she'd kill him if he had to die). They were discussing options in a safe house in the woods when the campaign folded. Jae (Mickey's player) later used the two of them (sans his transformation) in a hunter game she ran. In that world, they got married and later helped train another set of vampire hunters.

Nick Cross and Dana McKinney Nick was the Reed Richards of a super-team called the Voyagers in a Champions game. Dana was his DNPC, a Hollywood actress. Now, the reason the "romance" between the two flopped was for unrelated reasons. Because I came up with my character first, all of the other players made characters connected to mine (one worked for him, another was his bodyguard, one was his sister and the last original member of the team was his ex-girlfriend). Because he was the hub of the group and the team leader (not that anyone listened to him), things tended to fall on him the most. His company was repeatedly attacked by the team's enemies. It seemed like he had a big target painted on him. So, when the GM started a subplot with Dana acting strange, I/Nick ignored it because I was tired of being the target. Because of this, Dana slipped into the background. That sort of fizzled things for the two of them, and she was mostly ignored for the rest of the campaign.

Changed the template because I was having technical problems with it. Hopefully, this one won't have the same problems.

Now Reading:
Elvis, Jesus and Coca Cola by Kinky Friedman

My brother is a book-hound like me, though he pretty much stays within the mystery section of the bookstore. He was going to drop this book, among others, off at a resale shop, but I had always been curious about "the Kinkster" (as his fans call him), so I grabbed it out of the stack. There's something interesting about Friedman's prose. I am not really too hooked into the storyline, but there are such interesting bits of prose that I'm still working my way through it.

WISH1

Ginger wrote in her gaming blog.

Describe three NPCs (not major villains) that you really liked and what they added to the game.

1. Paragon: I didn't come up with him. He's from the San Angelo Champions setting. In a nutshell, he's an unpowered human who is just good at everything, like the DC Comics character Mr. Terrific. He showed up occasionally in my San Angelo campaign. The thing I liked about him was that he always had a plan, unlike the players, who like most Champions teams, just whomped on the bad guys. In the first session, Paragon's fan club was attacked by Amok, a road-show Hulk clone. Paragon spent a few rounds dodging and doing Martial Throws to Amok, while TV crews caught it all on film. His plan was to keep Amok busy until some powerful superheroes showed up and stopped him. Sure, his plan involved him getting pounded into the next zip code when Amok finally connected, but it worked like a charm.
   
   
2. The Great Lobachefsky: I didn't get to do a lot with him, as my Werewolf: The Wild Westgame folded before things got too far off the ground, but he's close to my heart. He was part of a pack of Silver Fangs who came in and ran an Uktena tribe off, stealing the Caern. Unfortunately, the Fangs did a bad job protecting the Caern, and his pack was massacred by Wyrm critters. He retreated into the bottle, and would have eventually died of Harano and alcoholism if the players hadn't showed up. He was almost entirely based on Londo Molari from Babylon 5, and a joy to role-play.
   
   
3. That Crazy Toreador: My mind is fried on her name, but she was the Toreador Primogen in a con round of Vampire. The players were charged by the Justicar to catch Jack the Ripper (the actual Ripper, it was set during the Ripper murders), whose killing were threatening the Masquerade. The Justicar assumed that Jack was one of them. Turns out he wasn't, but one of the Justicar's suspects was the Toreador primogen. She was unliving proof that the difference between Malkavian and Toreador was pretty thin at best. She was obsessed with having a baby, and conducting some really sick medical experiments in her attempts. I actually made a player cry by her telling her tragic story, and freaked out the rest of the group when she went ballistic on one of the PCs. Actually, honorable mention for the list goes to all the Malkavian NPCs in that round - they were all lots of fun, and none of them were the pie-in-the-face-and-bunny-slippers Malkavians that drive me nuts.
   
   

I've been watching the second season of Buffy on DVD in spare moments (while feeding Jackson, after putting him down for the night, etc). I have to say that, back in the first three seasons (and, to an extent, the fourth), the show stayed on message: that the monsters were largely metaphor for the real-life terrors of high school. Angelus was the quintessential metaphor made undead flesh - "you sleep with a guy and he becomes a jerk." Only on Buffy, he also becomes a psychopath who wants to murder your friends and destroy the world.

I think after Graduation Day, the show lost focus a little. It seemed early on that they were just moving the focus to the terrors of college (the roommate from Hell, the joys of beer, bad breakups, etc), but then we moved into a place where the focus wasn't metaphor, but the actual monster. Glory and the Trio (or Dark Willow) didn't have a metaphor. They were just monsters that had to be thwarted. I think that was the problem. The monsters weren't metaphors for real problems - the Scooby Gang had to face monsters and they had to face their issues, but they never echoed one another with the resonance of past seasons.

I still love the show, and am eagerly awaiting the next season, but I do hope they get back on message.

Management would like to apologize for the lack of postings. Check out our family weblog for the reasons why.

Big Summer Movies: It's a bit late to comment on the Big Summer Movies, when everyone has an opinion, and 90% of them are posted on the internet. I saw both Spider-Man and Attack of the Clones twice each, once up on vacation, taking my niece and nephews so Heather could hang with her family, and then again back home, with Heather. Spider-Man is a movie I loved to death, because they did it right. I don't give a crap about biological web-shooters or the debate about using Gwen vs Mary Jane. That was a great film, and I can't wait to get the DVD. AOTC, on the other hand, was kind of okay. Amazing to watch, but something was missing. A friend of mine wants to know what it was that Lucas "had" for the original trilogy that's been "lost" for this trilogy. Must consider this.

Okay, my Spider-Sense is all tingly with only a couple of days left before Spider-Man opens at the theaters. From what I've seen (being a spoiler-whore, and all), this is going to be an amazing film. We really are to the point in technology where you can have Spider-Man doing his "rooftop ballet." That's cool.

What's better though, is that the people making the film actually seem to get the point of Spider-Man. That's where the Batman films failed. For a movie about a guy in tights to work, you really have to take it seriously. Not that you can't have humor, and everyone has to moan about how crappy their lives are. (Because, face it, part of the attraction is that it is really cool to be a super-hero.) But for it to really work, and succeed as a film, you have to play it straight, because you're already dealing with a guy with super-powers and there's only so much disbelief one can suspend.

The appear of Spider-Man is that he's Every-Man. He's not a test pilot or millionaire or the last survivor of a doomed alien world. He's a guy who Fate decided to give the ultimate wedgie to. Peter Parker is a bright kid from Queens who loves his (surrogate) parents, isn't popular in school, and can't get the girls to talk to him. Reader identification much? But then, Fate steps in and he gets the ultimate gift and learns the ultimate lesson about power and responcibility. With Spider-Man, it's not just about fighting the Green Goblin. It's that the Green Goblin is his best friend's dad, and how does he stop the villain without hurting his friend. Peter worries about school, paying the rent, dealing with an pointy-haired boss, taking care of his sometimes ailing Aunt May, and getting the girl next door to notice him. Heck, he even had an ulcer at one point.

So, that's why folks like Spider-Man, and thank God that Sam Raimi likes him. I think that's the difference between folks like him and Bryan Singer and folks like Joel Schumacher who just didn't seem to like super-heroes.

Last summer, for obvious reasons, we didn't get out to see many movies. In retrospect, it appears we didn't miss much. Hopefully, we'll be able to get out enough to see more movies this summer. I'm totally stoked for the double tap of Spider-Man and, of course, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Sure, there are other movies coming out, like Scooby Doo and Signs, but those two have my inner geek all... quivvery.

Rick versus This Week's Comics

Incredible Hulk 39 (Marvel) Okay, that was... odd. The Hulk rarely shows up in his own book these days. It's more, the Incredible Bruce Banner versus the Evil Government Conspiracy hunting him. It's a very Stephen King Conspiracy, that can raise the dead and send out them as their minions. Bruce has an extended conversation with a double agent working for them, one who happens to have a bullet hole in her forehead. Very strange. So, it looks like the future arc is going to be Bruce going after the EGC. Of course, I really want to know if they can raise the dead, what do they need the Hulk for? It's not like EGCs in the Marvel Universe haven't shown the ability to create gamma-mutates.

New X-Men 125 (Marvel) For the past few issues, Cassandra Nova has putting the smackdown on, well, everyone. This issue, the tide starts to turn on multiple fronts. But that's not the cool part. The cool part is the mad Scots genius of Grant Morrison, casually tossing out brilliant ideas like beads at Mardi Gras. Nanotech Sentinels. Jean Grey "making room in her mind" to catch Professor X's dying spirit. Beast's casual revelation to an ex-girlfriend. Pretty much any word out of the Superguardians' mouths. A mutant with a star for a head.

Rising Stars 19 (Image/Joe's Comics) I have to say, if Brent Anderson had been doing the art all along, JMS would have had an even bigger hit on his hands. Anyway, the plot moves forward with the Evil Government Conspiracy discovering they have a weapon that they can use against the Specials. Not sure how useful it will be overall, since with every Special they snuff, the remaining ones grow ever stronger. Their weapon gives them an edge, but I doubt they'll be able to sucker other Specials the way they did Pyre.

Scattered Notes: Heather and I looked at the budget, which led me to vote Ultimates and Power Company off the island. Ultimates is well written and has brilliant art, but, um, not much happens. Three issues into the series and they don't have a full team yet, much less an enemy to fight. Also, Marvel's going such a good job with the "real" versions of the characters, I'd rather read Hulk and Captain America (which is sure to rock when it comes out next week) than modernized versions of the classic characters. Power Company left the island because, well, it's been three issues (plus the six specials and the JLA issue) and I really don't care much about the team. Honestly, I think I'd read a Skyrocket book but the rest don't do much for me.

Rick versus. This Week's Comics ctd.

Okay, I don't know why this isn't working. Maybe I'm hitting a size limit. Here's the rest:

X-Treme X-Men 12 (Marvel) Still the worst comic book title I can think of (with the exception of "Gambit and the X-Posse" which was thankfully changed before it hit the stands), but a good read. Yes, it's Claremont with all his stylistic dialog and multithreaded plotlines. That said, it's the pretty good Claremont, before the burnout. The X-Men are fighting alien invaders (and Claremont does a good job of coming up with why every hero on the planet isn't in on this). Claremont is telling something more like a sci-fi adventure story than a super-hero story. Yeah, folks use pretentious code-names (i.e. "Lifeguard" calling herself that, instead of just using her real name), have super-powers and wear costumes, but it still doesn't feel like super-heroics as much as it does over the top sci-fi. Recommended (if you liked classic Claremont X-Men).

Coming Next Week

Incredible Hulk 39

New X-Men 125

Rising Stars 18

Rick versus. This Week's Comics

Black Panther 43(Marvel) Whatever Priest is smoking, I want some. Somehow, he's mixing a tight political thriller where the punching and hitting between Iron Man and Panther is secondary to the plotting with a salute to the silly, Kirby Age Black Panther, and it works. I had assumed that there were two plots going on - one with the "real" Panther and one with "Captain Happypants" Panther. But it's all one good plot. Double plus points for using time travel, my favorite McGuffin. I can't see where this is going, and I like that. High Recommended.

Green Lantern 149 (DC) Winnick is taking the old schtick of "hero's powers are amplified to godlike levels" and going in the opposite direction most people do. Kyle hasn't gone mad with power. He's still the same guy, doing the same stuff, but on a scale that perhaps he shouldn't. And through it all, he's questioning himself (and not in the naffy Ron Marz "am I worthy?" style) and seeking advice from wiser heads. And he smacks down an alien invasion during a JLA staff meeting. Highly recommended.

Nightwing 68 (DC) Gah. More crossover. This issue advances the murderer plot, as Nightwing discovers that the murderer had broken into the Batcave and Wayne Manor some time ago and made themselves at home. Interesting advances in the murder plot, but darn if I just don't care. The ongoing "Tad and Soames" plot moves forward, which will certainly confuse folks picking this up in the eventual trade. Mildly Recommended.

Power Company 3 (DC) Here's the problem: Busiek has the high concept of a "professional" super-hero team. One's a mercenary. Another is a media-hungry pop star. Still another is an old-school hero who isn't sure of this. Etc. And, in their first outing, they start off against an even more professional team of mercenary/thieves but stumble into a rumble with a Silver Age-style super-villain, who rants and raves and generally wants to RULE THE WORLD. I assume it's intentional: showcase the "new school" heroes against a decidedly old-school threat.This title is on the bubble for me. I'm interested in the story, but not the plot. I'm going to stick around a little longer, though. Mildly Recommended.

A followup to the last blog.

Here's my rule of thumb for getting rid of comics, books and gaming stuff.

Comics and Books This one is simple: are you going to read this again? With series of books or runs of comics, it becomes a little harder, because I haven't broken the collector streak of my brain enough to just toss a sub-par issue/novel out of an otherwise good series. But, it has made it much easier to get rid of things like comics Annuals, that for a long time were farmed out to some chimp who the editor liked, rather than being a special story the writer (and hopefully artist) wanted to tell. Also, it's easier somehow to get rid of an entire run of a comic (like my current selling of Batman and the Outsiders on ebay) than to go through it to keep the issues I like. The exception to this is when there's a creative team change and I gave the new guys a chance.

Gaming Am I going to use this? I have pretty much gotten out of the game-mastering biz, which makes it easier to get rid of books I was keeping in case I ever wanted to run GameX or loot them for ideas I could use in GameY.

This said, there are exceptions. I am sentimental about some things, so I hang onto them even when I know I'm not going to read them again. I just hold onto them like an old tee-shirt with holes in it. But, as times passes, I get sentimental about other things, and it's easier to get rid of stuff. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I kept and immediately vow to sell it on eBay as fast as I can.

My friend Ginger just posted some thoughts about getting rid of old games while cleaning out a closet. Anyone who has followed what I sell on eBay can tell I'm a big fan of making regular purges of Yee Old Comics and Gaming Closet. Even before I discovered eBay, I regularly sold comics and games to friends and local comics shops. I didn't make nearly as much as I do now on eBay (though getting store credit at the comics shop was great - it was like getting free comics). Generally, I made these purges because I was going to move soon and I didn't want to have to schlep them to the next apartment. Moving into a third floor walkup cured me of that. (Or, to be specific, the dirty looks from my friends who helped carry longboxes upstairs, cured me of that.)

The biggest benefit of purges is that they make it so much easier to find what you've got. I'm in the middle of the Biggest Comics Purge ever for two main reasons: 1: adoption ain't cheap and 2: I can't get to the comics I do want to re-read. It really does me no good to have a huge and entertaining run of The Flash if I can't read them when I want to because the longboxes are stacked five deep in the closet and "F" is near the bottom.

Somewhere in there, I lost the collector side of comics reading. I don't need to have complete collections, nor do I have to hang onto my run of Batman and the Outsiders just because I have had them since high school. I haven't re-read them, no have I wanted to re-read them in close to a decade. That's probably a sign that I don't need them anymore. And that makes it easier to find Batman: Holy Terror, which I do re-read all the time. It's not about having comics - it's about reading comics.

A thought about gaming stores.

BJ (Before Jackson), I used to go to gaming stores all the time. I rarely bought stuff, as the groups I gamed with played old standards like Dungeons and Dragons (2nd Ed) and Champions where the books I needed were written ages ago and I was too cheap to buy more. But I still liked to go and just look at the new stuff.

This weekend, I took Jack with me to a couple of gaming stores. I've done this once or twice before, but when he was smaller and less mobile, so I could carry the car-seat and just set it down when I wanted to look at stuff. No longer. I needed the stroller and discovered that gaming stores are just not stroller-friendly. The aisles are too skinny (which makes me think that wheelchair-bound folks are even more screwed, as bet they would have trouble reaching the comcis in the backs of longboxes). Jack could easily grab all sorts of stuff, most of which was dusty, so I spent most of my time trying to convince him that his rattle was more interesting than the stack of musty old wargames. Now, I don't expect a gaming/comics store to have the same wide aisles and reading chairs that a Borders does, for instance, but it seems to me like there's an excess of clutter. Some of the games/toys/etc that are stacked up have been there as long as I've been going there. Now, I know that someday, some buyer will stroll in, find that special out-of-print book that they've been looking for all their lives, but I wonder if the cost of keeping all the, well, junk (which is, I know, another geek's treasure) is the reason why game/comics stores are on such a shoestring budget. Heck, with eBay out there, most folks can find just what they're looking for without having to drive all over town. A general clean-up would also go a long way towards making the stores more friendly to new customers.

Okay, I've been fighting blogger to get this up, so here's what I tried to post last week.

Rick versus Last Week's Comics

Alias 8 (Marvel) The ongoing "Sidekick" story rolls forward, with the comic book version of Rick Jones developing a serious potty-mouth once he enters a MAX comic. Of course, the geek in me knows that the guy isn't "really" Rick, since this guy isn't wearing Mar-Vell's Nega Bands. However, I'm curious as to what's really going on. I also like the "excerpts" from Rick's book, almost making me wish Bendis was writing it too. Recommended

Detective 769 (DC) Gah. You got crossover on my Rucka! The idiotic Bruce Wayne: Murderer crossover plotlame takes over the book for a couple of pages. Fortunately, the meat of the book is Batman hunting down some poisoned smack and meeting an old foe. Mildly Recommended.

Dungeons and Dragons: In the Shadow of Dragons 7 (Kenzer and Company) Well, I didn't see that plot twist coming. Going to have to re-read the series when I get a free moment to see if they set this up at all. B- (The art has been slipping since the first issue. Granted, this is their first big, serious comic, so I'm giving them a break.) Recommended to fans of D&D.

Exiles 12 (Marvel) We see the Weapon X counterparts of the Exiles, and see they get the really nasty missions (ones that make killing Phoenix seem easy). Winnick continues to please. Highly Recommended

Hawkman 2 (DC) Hawkman and Hawkgirl start off on a pulpy, Indiana Jones with wings adventure.Considering the tangle that used to be Hawk-history and my new commitment to dropping titles left and right, I have no problems adding this one. Recommended

Ultimate Spider-Man 21 (Marvel) A solid Spider-Man story. Bendis understand that Peter has to lose as much as he wins, so the victories are sweeter. Spider-Man easily bests Kraven after his fight with Dr Octopus. Not only that, but he gets some good press for a change. Naturally, he's grounded as soon as he gets home. Recommended.