SDCC 2016: Rest of the Haul and Final Thoughts

I bought and received some other things at Comic Con that I'd like to share.

* I added to my Skelanimal collection with Panda Green Lantern

* Hasbro's Magic: the Gathering exclusive Planeswalker set

* Loki hoodie for my fiance

That's it! Comic Con was a blast and I can't wait to go next year. It was like coming home after not attending for 3 years. I'm hoping to volunteer, but even that gets very impacted. One more bonus and then I'll shut up about San Diego.

Siege and Storm

Alina and Mal have fled to an unfamiliar land and seek to build a new life there, away from the Darkling and Ravka. She returns to her sickly, weak state and suffers from the guilt of the deaths caused by her power. They don't stay in hiding for long and quickly have to face the Darkling along with his frightening new power that was previously thought to be impossible. Alina escapes the Darkling with the help of a notorious pirate that is more than what he seems, but not before she acquires another amplifier. This new power prompts her to seek even more power and drives a wedge between her and Mal. They all return to Ravka to prepare for the coming battle with the Darkling, but only time will tell if all of their efforts will do anything against the Darkling's shadow army.

I read Shadow and Bone before it came out last year and was dismayed that although I got to read it early, I had to wait even longer than normal. The wait was completely worth it, I am pleased to report. All of my expectations were subverted time after time, making Siege and Storm exciting and surprising to read. I expected the beginning to have an extended time in hiding with narrow escapes, but the Darkling showed up fairly quickly to capture them. It was so outside my expectations that it was jarring. In a genre with so many conventions and stereotypes, Siege and Storm is a very welcome breath of fresh air. Most second books of trilogies simply set up for the last book and don't have a lot going on outside of that. Siege and Storm accomplished that and so much more. New and very memorable characters are introduced, my favorite being twins Tolya and Tamar. The characters we all love (or passionately hate) develop and change throughout the story.

Alina Starkov is wanted by a great many people. She's known as the Sun Summoner and Saint Alina, after rumors that she died and resurrected circulate Ravka. Very few people know her as simply Alina. Everyone wants something from her. Princes ask for her hand in marriage, not because they like her, but because of the power she wields. A growing group of people idolize her as a saint and hang their hopes and dreams on her, but know nothing about her at all. She doesn't even recognize herself at times because her hunger for more and more power is changing her. I like this new story line. She's grown a lot since she discovered her power. Now the questions are how much is too much and is she seeking it for herself or to save Ravka? I still like Alina, but I see some dumb decisions she's making, like pushing the only person who likes her for her (Mal) away for his own good.

Siege and Storm is an amazing read with crazy twists and turns, breathtaking action, and heartwrenching events. The Darkling is back with a vengeance, charming, frightening, and seemingly unbeatable. He is such a compelling yet evil character that appears and influences throughout the novel. The ending of Siege and Storm was completely shocking and I didn't see it coming. I need to know what happens next and I will be definitely preordering the final book.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Zombies in Magic

Magic the Gathering has always featured zombies as one of the main creature types for the color black. Who doesn't like shambling masses of zombies at their disposal to vanquish their enemies? Sometimes they get less or more popular, depending on the focus of the given set, but they are always there. Here are some older zombies:

Headless Horseman (later classified as a zombie)

Fleshbag Maurader

Grave Titan

Bog Raiders

Geth, Lord of the Vault

Korlash, Heir to the Blackblade

Thraximundar

Since the Unglued set (which featured non-tournament legal cards for fun) in 1998, there have been full art token cards to show regular zombies with no special abilities that are usually produced through a creature, like Grave Titan, or a spell of some sort. These all have the same strength and toughness (2/2), but I like how the artists imagine them differently, depending on the set. Here are a few of the zombie tokens used throughout the years.

Unglued

10th Edition

Shards of Alara

M10

New Phyrexia

Innistrad

Innistrad is the newest set that features classic monsters in new and different ways. Instead ow werewolves, vampire, and zombies all being black creatures, they are all over the color spectrum except white (which is reserved for humans, spirits, and angels). Here are some of the new zombies and zombie cards that are a bit different than their earlier counterparts:

Skaab Ruinator

Endless Ranks of the Undead

Grimgrin the Corpse Born

Unbreathing Horde

I hope zombies will always be a main creature type in Magic and I can't wait to build myself an awesome zombie deck with these new Innistrad cards!

SDCC 2011: Panels

I finally feel human again! Yay! I've been fighting off my Comic-con cough and I feel so much better. I feel kinda bad that I haven't been posting that much, but there's a giveaway in the extremely near future to make up for it! On to the panels...

On Thursday, I unfortunately did not go to any panels at all. :( I didn't get into the Con until 10:30, so the Deadliest Warrior: Vampires vs. Zombies panel was almost over by then. I went an hour early to see the Game of Thrones panel. The line didn't seem to long until I realized it went outside and looped on itself about 5 times. The volunteer said if we weren't in line for 4 hours, we weren't getting in. So we were about 2 hours early for the Dr. Horrible screening which was nearby, but that line was also ridiculously long. *sigh* We still had a lot of fun that first day. I'm glad we didn't choose to spend hours and hours standing in line instead of finding free stuff, shopping, and playing Magic.

So the next day, we were resolved to see the Magic: the Gathering panel. So much so that my boyfriend DJ decided to sit in the room it was in for 5 hours and seeing 2 other panels.

The first panel was about Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. I had seen it in the bookstores and magazine racks next to my preferred horror magazines Fangoria, Horrorhound, and Rue Morgue, but the covers always seemed to feature old horror films. I was interested in what was new and little known. I didn't know the magazine actually shows you how to get the effects and monsters that are in those films. They also cover interviews, reviews, and retrospectives. The magazine is more for the whole family whereas the other magazines would definitely not be for children. I left halfway through the panel to get a galley from PenguinTeen of Cornelia Funke, but I actually misread it and it was the Relic Hunter by Catherine Fisher. It still looks good anyway. I went back to the room and saw the second panel. On the way, I passed a huge crowd of people that were waiting for the Magic panel.

The second panel was about being a successful comic book retailer. My boyfriend really wanted to see this because one of his dreams is to have a comic book/hobby store with an adjacent cafe/restaurant. I walked in when someone asked how to get more female customers in the store. Being a female customer, I was instantly interested in how this question would be answered. One woman on the panel recommended a "for girlfriends" shelf and having a girls' night where women can come and meet other women and play games together. Another female comic book store owner advocated assuming that everyone who walks into the store is a client. So many times, I've been dismissed as this customer's girlfriend when I actually read more comic books than he does. Other people had questions that were very interesting. A store owner from Mexico wanted to know how to get product from the US. Another retailer wanted to know if he should keep back issues in his store or not. The discussion was surprisingly interesting and I learned a lot about what to do in order to have a successful comic book store.

Finally, it's time for the Magic Panel!!! First, the flood of people outside took a while to fill in every available seat. The ballroom was fairly small, only seating 200-300 people, so quite a few were turned away. (Hopefully it will be in a bigger venue next year.) Every seat had a t-shirt with a mana symbol on it, which was awesome except that they were all extra larges. (Yay, nightshirt for me!) Anyway, everyone settled down and they started to reveal things to come in the future of Magic. On the panel were the people behind the card game: Mark Rosewater (head Magic designer), Aaron Forsythe (research and development), Matt Cavotta (head creative Magic art director), and Mark Purvis (manager).

First, some cards for From the Vaults: Legends were revealed. These are small groups of cards put out in limited edition box set of 15 cards in premium foil (meaning they are pretty and shiny). This set goes with the Commander decks that were just released because you can use all of these legendary creatures as a general in that format. 7 of these cards are going to have alternate art and there will be one preview card from the next set Innistrad, which will come out in October. Here are some of the legends:

Kresh the Bloodbraided*

Doran, the Siege Tower

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Sun Quan, Lord of Wu

Next, they revealed the art of the 2 planeswalkers from the new duel deck, Nicol Bolas vs. Ajani

Ajani Vengeant

Nicol Bolas

Next was what I was really excited about: Innistrad! This is the next set in Magic and the start of a new block. According to Mike Rosewater, the set is going to be based on classic horror films with creature types such as:

Unlike other sets, these creatures won't only be seen in black. Vampires will be black and red. Zombies will be black and blue. Werewolves will be green and red. I'm really looking forward to the new set!!

There are 2 other art from cards that are released, but no word on what they do. This art is just gorgeous. The panel said if you play zombies, you will use this card, so I can't wait!

I really hope this picture is for a new Sorin Markov planeswalker that is actually usable in standard, but we won't see until the set after Innistrad, Dark Ascension.

Next came the Q&A, which included such questions as "Why did you take so long to realize Jace, the Mind Sculptor was broken?" The really awesome part of the Q&A was the random prizes given out. One person got a box of Legends in Italian. Another got a pack of Arabian Nights and got a Library of Alexandria, which is a card worth about $300. One unlucky fellow got a pack of Beta, the second set of Magic ever, and got a basic land for a rare. :( A little boy received an original painting of a card called Creepy Dolls that will be in Innistrad.

Even though this is the only panel that I got to see that was planned, it was totally worth it.

* Sorry about the quality! The lights were on up until the vampire picture, so the projections look really crappy before then.

In My Mailbox: Comic-Con Edition

Well, I can say I have survived 2 whole days of Comic-Con with lots of soreness and a horrible cough. I had tons of fun though. I wanted to start with sharing the stuff I brought home.

Stuff I bought:

* Box set of A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin (one is missing because my friend needed to read it)

* My Life as a Teenage Zombie by Diana Rowland

* Zombie Dice game

* Kirby Krackle CD and pin pack

* Absolute Sandman Volume 1

* West Nile Virus Giant Microbe

* 2 of the latest Lenore comics

* a print of Angelic Renewal by Rebecca Guay

* a print of Kalitas, Blood Chief of Ghet by Todd Lockwood

* a playmat of the awesome new art for the Magic planeswalker Liliana

Free stuff

* Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

* Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant

* The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

* Crossed by Ally Condie

* Greywalker by Kat Richardson

* Star Carrier by Ian Douglas

* The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

* The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks of the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman MD

* Secrets of the Demon by Diana Rowland

* Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

* Genesis of Shannara by Terry Brooks

* Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind

* Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

* The Relic Hunter by Catherine Fisher

* 3 sampler books

* Miscellenious pins and bracelets

More about Comic-Con tomorrow!

More Lovecraft!

When I did my previous post about Lovecraft in other medias, I forgot two things!

1) I'm sure most of you have seen the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa where he's on a horse and making you wish your man smelled like him. Cthulhu saw it too and figured he could sell his own scented products. Here is his commercial:



2) I love Magic the Gathering. In one of the recent sets, Rise of the Eldrazi, a triad of very large evil creatures were introduced that were once worshipped as gods. They were imprisoned for thousands of years, but were awakened by some planeswalkers. Their only motivation is to eat, so they devour the mana and life energy of worlds, kind of like Galactus. These are some of the most difficult creatures to destroy or get rid of in the entire game. The makers of the game were inspired partly by such Great Old Ones as Cthulhu. I see the inspiration especially in the tentacles. Here are the three Eldrazi:

Emrakul, The Aeons Torn

Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth


I totally see the resemblance. :)

SDCC 2010: Magic the Gathering

The only other panel I went to at Comic-Con was the one for Magic the Gathering. I have been playing this card game for over ten years. I even met my boyfriend, who I have been with for eleven years this September, at a Magic tournament. We just went to the pre-release of M11, the latest set of this game, and we are already excited for the next set, Scars of Mirrodin. According to Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic, he wanted to revisit Mirrodin, the set from 2003, with an unknown twist. This set is very artifact heavy and featured some interesting (and annoying) concepts. He wasn't able to say a lot about it, but he did show us this new card.

There is also going to be an all new planeswalker (shown here with Elspeth) AND a new version of Elspeth. Plus there will be some new angels, zombies, and vampires. Yay!

Here is some art from the new set as well. There were no names or abilities attached to them, but they look spectacular!

Plus the new art for the planeswalkers Tezzeret and Elspeth were shown, along with two unnamed reprinted cards (speculated to be Honor of the Pure and Thirst for Knowledge).

Still more Comic-Con to come!