Ring of Emotions

It's kind of ironic how these comics come about sometimes. I had the idea for this one the other day, because I've really been into the previews that WizKids has been doing for this Starter Set. The sculpts look fantastic! And the one dial that we've seen over on icv2, for The Flash looks great too. I am very excited about this set, and I can't believe how long we're going to have to wait to get our hands on it. There was also a call to action by WizKids to get word out about this set. I think it's cool that they're trying to mobilize the fan base to get the word out, and this is a heck of a product to do it with.

Unfortunately the previews for the starter are so good that they're really overshadowing The Brave and the Bold which is an expansion set that comes out a month before the starter. Part of the reason I'm personally not all that excited about that set has partly to do with disliking the Duo mechanic and it's application to some figures. Particularly ones that are vastly different in power sets. However, only time will tell if the set will actually be good or not. I'm hoping they preview the new Alter Ego mechanic soon, because that'll be another make or break mechanic seeing as it will contribute to 10 slots in the set (I think). I'm sure I'll post more on that as more information becomes available.

With that, here are the images of the awesome sculpts from the upcoming Blackest Night starter, releasing on May 12, 2010.

Miracles from Chaos

Well, it's been a little while since my last blog, but as you can see, I have good reason. I tried something a little different with this comic, because it felt right to try this one from a "first-person" perspective. So you're reading the entire comic from the perspective of the Allan character (or me) if you will. I hope the "black-out" effects in frames 4 and 5 translate well, if not, now you know what's going on there. And for more explanation, here's the story:

5:30 AM on 1/13, my alarm goes off to get up for work, and Jill heads into the bathroom after noticing a trickle coming down her leg. No sooner does she sit down, when I hear a splooshing sound, followed by her exclamation of "Oh, dear lord!" Meanwhile, I'm asking what's wrong, and if I should get ready to go to the hospital. She tells me to get a shower, so I hurry into the other bathroom, and start to use it. Suddenly I hear another sploosh followed by another loud exclamation, at which point she tells me to "Skip the shower!"

Now the scramble is on! We're both throwing ourselves together and calling the neighbors so that they can come over and take care of Lilly. Somewhere in the back of my head, the Benny Hill music is playing. Anyway, the neighbors come over and we get out the door.

On the way to the hospital, I miss the turn into Bayview. Not realizing there's another entrance further up the street, I try to jockey across the lanes to get turned around. Unfortunately, I missed the car in my blind spot, and we end up having a minor fender-bender. We exchanged information while Jill's water continued to leak.

Once in the hospital, things slowed down a bit. There was a little concern about Willow's heartbeat, but that seemed to be remedied by positioning Jill on her side, and at some point hooking her up to oxygen. Otherwise, things went pretty smoothly, and after Noon when the nurse finally came in from another procedure, I asked if I had enough time to run to the cafeteria and get some lunch. She checked Jill's vitals, and assured me that everything looked normal, and not quite ready to go.

So I ran off to the cafeteria and come back to find out things have changed in the 5 minutes I was out. I'm ushered back into the room to see everything set up and ready to go, so I toss my lunch in the chair in the corner, and take my position at bedside.

Things started to blur from there. Jill was doing a great job, and all of a sudden they had a complication with a stuck shoulder. That said, the team was awesome. One of the women smoothly took my position, and I instinctively moved away to let them work. They got Willow out without injury. However, I think she might have had her cord wrapped around her neck, and she wasn't breathing when they first pulled her out.

The peds team took over, and had her breathing in just over 3 minutes, and her heart was beating the whole time, so there shouldn't be any permanent damage from what they tell us. Once we heard her crying, I think Jill and I both finally remembered to breath. Jill was crying, but I asked her if she was OK, and she said she was, to which I replied, "Good, because I'm going to pass out now."

Fortunately, I didn't, but it did take me a few minutes to regain my composure and calm down. Once I righted myself, they let me hold Willow, which is always a great feeling! Mommy and baby are doing great, although Willow needs to figure out that she should sleep when it's dark. Currently she's nocturnal.

For those wondering, here are the stats: Willow Elizabeth Grimm was born 1/13/10 @ 12:40 PM. She was 9 pounds 1 ounce, and 20.25 inches long.

I'm back to work tomorrow, so hopefully things will start to normalize a bit, and I'll get these out a little more regularly.

Moving the Rebel Base

Sorry it's been a while since my last blog. There are multiple reasons for that, not the least of which being the holiday season. I was also working on a different comic that was taking entirely too long to finish, and it's not remotely timely now, so I'm axing it, and doing this one instead.

Helped Sara and Chris move from their old apartment to their new apartment yesterday (in the frigid cold) and as usual, a funny conversation happened that I just had to put into the comic. Only difference is, I botched the reference on moving day, and said Bantha instead of Tauntaun, but I fact-checked myself before I did the comic.

Fortunately the move wasn't far, as they're just upgrading within the same complex, but moving is a lot of work, any way you slice it, so I'm glad I could throw in a hand to help. Hopefully they're getting settled in today, before everybody's back to regular working hours.

Me and the family had a nice holiday. Hope all of you did as well. And I hope to post more regularly in the coming months, but I'm sure that they baby will have something to say about that, when she comes.

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting!

Today at Legends Comics in Towson I had the pleasure of demoing SlugFest Games Kung Fu Fighting card game and More! Kung Fu Fighting expansion for the small group of brave soles that ventured out in the horrible weather to attend the Face Smasher X-Treme 3000 Deluxe-A-Con '09 2.0 : Vengeance.

For those that did check out the game, thanks! The first match pit the Imperial General vs She Who Must Fight, and after a grueling match that was tolling on both fighters, the Imperial General gained the edge, and brought down his opponent with a final blow from his mighty blade.

The second match was also fought by 3 worthy opponents. The Venerable Master, the Mysterious Stranger, and the Jade Princess all entered the ring. The Mysterious Stranger learned fast from the Venerable Master as he seemed to copy his every move. Meanwhile the Jade Princess grabbed any object that was not nailed down. After delivering a devastating opening attack with the Bamboo Pole to both her adversaries, the Jade Princess spent most of the game on the defensive. Fortunately her Chi was quite strong, as she pulled the lion's share of the Chi Restoration cards. As the fierce battle drew close to it's conclusion, the Jade Princess managed to best the Venerable Master before receiving a savage attack from the Mysterious Stranger. However, her luck did manage to hold, and she dropped the Mysterious Stranger before he had a chance to finish her.

All in all, if you're looking for a fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek combat-oriented card game, that takes about 5 minutes to learn, and about a half-an-hour to 45 minutes for a good game, check this out! And pick up the expansion. The archetypes alone are worth the cost.

And on a completely random related not, if you've never heard Tom Jones version of Kung Fu Fighting from the Supercop soundtrack, check it out! It's fantastic! (And yes, I'm aware that, that sounded a little gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Thankful for Mini-Waffles

For anyone reading that hasn't had a small child before, sometimes kids find certain foods that they love so much they can't live without. Our daughter loves 2 foods most of all: Mac & Cheese and Eggo Mini-Waffles. Further for those that haven't heard, we're experiencing an Eggo shortage. Which means that Mini-Waffles are particularly hard to find.

Fortunately, Lilly has decided that "it's magic" whether or not there are actually Eggo Mini-Waffles at the store or not. But recently her patience has been wearing thin. And luckily for Jill and I when we were in Target this weekend, they actually had 4 boxes of Mini-Waffles in the freezer, so needless to say, we cleared them out. Four boxes equates to 10 'sheets' of mini-waffles which basically have 4 minis to 1 waffle. That said, since Lilly only eats 1 sheet per breakfast, that gives us 40 breakfasts before we need to track down more. Needless to say, we're thankful for this minor holiday miracle!

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! And check back in next Saturday evening for an event report from the Legends Mini-Con.

HoT God Box

Disclaimer: Those that aren't into HeroClix, or at the very least collectible gaming of some sort will likely be very lost trying to read the blog ahead. However, trying to make it accessible to everyone would require it to be overly explained and ultimately alienate the target audience for this blog.

And now that, that's out of the way, I didn't actually pull that configuration from a booster, however, that COULD be a configuration under the current model since it has 1 common, 2 uncommons, 1 rare, and 1 super rare. That said, I'm ecstatic that HeroClix is back! And I'm even more ecstatic that as an early Christmas present my awesome wife and daughter got me a case of Hammer of Thor.

And what a case it was! I didn't get a God Box, or a chase for that matter. But I did pull 6 Super Rares and all but 1 of the CUR set. The only one I'm missing is Air-Walker (which I was bummed about) but hopefully I'll have him by the end of next week. Then I just have 6 SRs to track down, and I've got what matters out of the set.

So back to the topic at hand, God Boxes. Originally when I heard about it, I thought it was a neat idea, when I didn't know that there was a Chase figure in with the Super Rares, and before I fully realized the rest of the implications on the brick/case distribution of SRs. Others on HCRealms have mentioned plenty of better ideas on implementation of the God Boxes if NECA decides to try it again in the future. I'm skeptical they will. It's ultimately been more polarizing then it needs to be. That said, I'm hoping people don't chastise NECA for something that could be a legacy idea from Topps.

Family Friendly Humor?

Last weekend, Lego had a grand opening for their new store in Arundel Mills Mall. Jill, Lilly, and I went down to take part in the festivities (which is a big part of why there was no comic last week). That said, we had a great time and got some Christmas shopping done. Unfortunately, they have far more things that I'd like to buy, but can't really afford.

We did manage to buy enough that we got the freebies that we went there for. And as unfortunate as it is, this comic does come directly from a conversation that was had in front of me. It is an obvious joke, and had Jill and I not had Lilly, she may have even made it herself. However, I didn't feel it was an appropriate joke to have made in the middle of a very crowded store full of families with small children. Maybe I'm just becoming more sensitive to what people say around me now that I have my own child. I'm not sure.

Anyway, it didn't taint my experience, and I'm very excited to have a store in a reasonable proximity. I can't wait to have another excuse to go down there when it's less busy.