Zombies in Art: Magic the Gathering Edition

The San Diego Comic Con exclusive planeswalker set for Magic the Gathering featured 5 planeswalkers and 4 of them were zombies. Eric Deschamp's art is gorgeous, quirky, and macabre. Each zombie is themed towards that planeswalker's power except for Liliana who controls the zombies. This never actually happened in the Magic stories, but it's an interesting fantasy set that asks what if the other planeswalkers were Liliana's zombie puppets.

Nissa Revane wields nature's power, but as a zombie, she acts as fertilizer for flowers.

Jace Beleran has great power of the mind, including creating illusions, telepathy, and clairvoyance. Zombie Jace eats his own powerful brain.

Chandra Naalar is imbued with fire magic. Unfortunately, zombies don't react well to fire...

Gideon Jura has great strength and valor in battle. His severed arm, once used to save others, strangles his own neck,

And leading them all is well dressed necromancer Liliana Vess, happy that her rivals are gone and puppets for her to command.

Too bad for her this didn't really happen, but it makes a great collectible product that I knew I had to own. I love when two things I love work together. If you'd like prints of any of these works, go to Eric Deschamp's website and there are lots of size options plus you can check out his other works.

Panels Part 3: Magic, Jim Lee, and The Sandman

1) Magic: the Gathering

This year, Wizards of the Coast celebrates Magic: the Gathering's 20th anniversary! Yay! The panel consisted of Mark Rosewater, Mark Purvis, Jenna Helland, and Dave Guskin. One of the celebratory things is the upcoming From the Vaults: 20 that rereleases a card from each year that changed Magic in a significant way. Unsurprisingly, the most coveted and expensive card is Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which made standard play hell for its entire run. I was most excited by the alternate art to Akroma's Vengeance and Guilded Lotus.

Other cards in the set include Hymn to Tourach, Dark Ritual, Green Sun Zenith, Chameleon Colossus, Kessig Wolf Run, Char, Chainer's Edict, Fact or Fiction, Tangle Wire, Thran Dynamo, Wall of Blossoms, Fyndhorn Elves, Swords to Plowshares, Cruel Ultimatum, Venser Shaper Savant, Ink Eyes Servant of Oni, and Impulse. You can buy this for about $200 online or at a local game store. They talkd about the new versus deck, Heroes vs. Monsters, which plays into their new set. They also mentioned that a new Commander preconstructed decks would come out November 1st. These decks feature many reprints of older cards and 51 brand new cards, including this one:

Then they moved on to the upcoming set in a new block: Theros. It's heavily influenced by Greek mythology (which I love! It makes my nerd heart sing!) and features 3 main factions: gods, monsters, and heroes. Here is some of the gorgeous art of this set.

This last art is my absolute favorite. No cards were spoiled, but the new border for some of the cards was revealed and of course it's beautiful.

For the prerelease, events will give players packs in a way similar to the faction packs from Return to Ravnica except they will be monocolored and are different paths for the hero (you) and each pack comes with a different hero card that can be used to fight a hydra on game day.

I can't wait for this new set and I'm so excited to find out about the different cards. Not many cards have been spoiled yet, but I hope all the gods are enchantment creatures, which hasn't been common before.

2) Jim Lee

Jim Lee is a comic book artist for Marvel comics and Image comics. This panel is a live demonstration of his art. I expected it to be mildly interesting, but he was hilarious. He talked about his life, his family, and his art. His family really wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer when he was growing up. He talked about choosing the name Jim (after James T. Kirk) when he moved to America from Korea. There was no real organization to anything and he just commented on what he drew or whatever he wanted while he drew. He called up 3 people from the audience to help him fill in some areas in black and then gave away the art using a bizarre method of serial numbers on money. Here are the completed works that he gave away. (Sorry for the bad pictures. His hands moved a lot.) This first one is of Death from The Sandman.

This next one is of the Joker from Batman with very scary teeth.

This last one wasn't completed, but it was of Superman bursting through some boulders. There were lots of jokes about the sleep-like face and the fascist arm position.

The panel was unexpectedly delightful and I will definitely go see it again next year.

3) The Sandman: 25th Anniversary and Beyond

The Sandman series has been completed for quite a while and this year marks its 25th anniversary. Recently, it has been announced that a prequel will come out. Most of the panel was dedicated to looking back on The Sandman and the great many comic book covers for the artists, author, and others to reminisce. The panel consisted of Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Todd Klein, and J. H. Williams III. The interesting thing to note about these mixed media covers is that there was no photoshop then. It's an amazing feat to create them anyway, but when limited to actual photographs and drawings that can't be easily resized or manipulated in photoshop is even more amazing. Here is one of my favorites.

The new Sandman comic is called The Sandman Overture, written by Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams III. The first issue will be released October 11, 2013. They showed the cover art, an alternate cover art, and then the first couple of pages.

I can't wait to read this, but I will probably wait for the trade paperback just because I don't have much room for individual comic books.

That's all the panels! I count myself very lucky to have gone to so many.

SDCC 2012: Panels Part 3: Ponies and Magic

On to Friday! I really, really, really wanted to see the Firefly 10th Anniversary panel. However, people started lining up the night before and I just didn't want to sleep outside in line. It did seem like everything else was a little more empty because of the thousands of people lined up for that one event. So instead of saving a futile and very far away spot in line for Firefly, I waited in line for a much shorter amount of time for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic panel. If you haven't seen it, it is much more awesome than the My Little Pony of my childhood. These characters are dynamic and interesting. Everyone can find aspects of themselves and their friends in these ponies because the writing and character development are exceptional. There are also really awesome references specifically for adult viewers to such things as Trainspotting, The Big Lebowski, Dr. Who, Star Trek, I Love Lucy, and Star Wars. If you are still incredulous, go watch the first few episodes on Netflix and judge for yourself.

* My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

This panel was packed! Lots of bronies and fillies and the odd child gathered to see what was in store for the next season and hear what the voice actors had to say. The panelists were Tara Strong (voice of Twilight Sparkle), Andrea Libman (voice of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie), Tabitha St. Germain (voice of Rarity, Luna, and Granny Smith), Cathy Weseluck (voice of Spike), and Megan McCarthy (writer who makes all the characters go insane). At the beginning, they played the extended version of the theme song, which was awesome.



After some questions like what's your favorite episode and how like your character are you, the fans got to ask some of their own questions. I'm glad someone asked about the future of Derpy Hooves. In case you don't know, she is a clumsy pony who has usually been in the background. It all started when they accidentally made her eyes all crazy or "derpy" looking. She was given a speaking role this last season and was deemed offensive largely by uppity parents because they felt she was making fun of people with disabilities even though removing a pony that they felt represents these people from the show seems even more offensive. I think she is merely a clumsy, sweet pony. She will remain a background pony for now, but may become more in the future. They were pretty close lipped about season 3 as a whole except when Tabitha St. Germain said that Fluttershy is turned into a dragon at some point and this clip (where Spike sings for the first time!).



There were a couple of pretty lame questions (like is Rainbow Dash a lesbian and a practically unintelligble question about Lauren Faust) but as a whole, the discussion let us know the actors and their inspirations better and see what direction the show will be going. I had no idea Cathy Weseluck was a classically trained musician or Tabitha St. Germain based Rarity's voice off of Audrey Hepburns. Hasbro is supportive of its adult fans and have shown that through the Comic Con exclusive doll, numerous references, and the names of many background ponies (Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Dr. Hooves, etc). I'm honestly glad that there are so many adult fans of this show because I think it's great. Adult males are a huge part of the demographic and I think people get mad when traditional gender roles are called into question, even if it is just with a bunch of guys liking an awesome children's show. The bronies and fillies are awesome and are the most creative and prolific fans, creating wonderful art, music, fanfictions, and generally enjoying a good show about the magic of friendship.

* Magic the Gathering

I've been playing Magic the Gathering for a long time and it's actually my boyfriend and I met. Ah nerd love. Anyway, I knew we HAD to see this panel even if we saw no others. The panelists were Mark Rosewater (head Magic designer), Aaron Forsythe (Magic R&D), Matt Cavotta (senior creative Magic art director), Mark Purvis (Magic senior band manager), and Scott Larabee (Magic organized play program manager). I was so excited to see what was coming up next for Magic and it was more than I was expecting. A few lands from the collection From the Vaults: Realms were revealed, including Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Glacial Chasm, Grove of the Burnwillows, Murmuring Bosk, Forbidden Orchard, and Dryad Arbor.

Then the next duel deck was revealed: Izzet vs. Golgari. The main 2 cards are Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Jarad, Galgari Lich Lord. That will be out in September. In November, the Commander's Arsenal will come out for those people (like me!) that like to play the Commander (or EDH) format. October 5th is the release the next set, Return to Ravnica. Here are some of the awesome lands to come:

Like the last Ravnica block, this block will feature 10 guilds of allied and enemy colors.The guilds will work be presented differently: 5 guilds will be in Return to Ravnica, the other 5 guilds will be in Gatecrash (the next set), and all 10 guilds will be in the last as yet unnamed set. These guilds will have one particular creature as guild leader. I am most excited for the red/white Boros angel and the black/white ghost.

Unfortunately, none of the actual cards were revealed. The prerelease will be interested because each player will choose a guild and receive a guild sticker, a letter for their guild leader, a guild themed achievement card, a guild spin down life counter, 5 Return to Ravnica booster packs, 1 guild booster pack, and a guild prerelease card that can be used during the tournament. That is super amazing and a good change to prerelease play. The next few months are going to be fun!!

More panels tomorrow! Last one!

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!