Comics » Troll in the Corner

The Kickstarter Problem

Board and Card Games, Comics, Role Playing Games, Technology 12 Responses »

May 092012

The lovely Kickstarter logo

Short post today. I want to talk about Kickstarter, the self-described “funding platform for creative projects.” Here’s a link to their guidelines, which constrain but don’t seem that strict.

The concept behind the site is very simple. Let’s say I want to create something. I can start a Kickstarter page, and fill it out with all the details about whatever it is I’m gonna make. Donors can come, see how much my fundraising goal is, and choose to contribute. I set up fundraising “tiers”, much like larger fundraising organizations do, except these tiers provide tangible benefits. The $10 tier might get you a personalized thank you card, the $50 tier might get you a signed copy of whatever I’m creating, and a $500 donation might get your name listed as a Gold Donor or whatever.

The main selling point of Kickstarter is that if the fundraising goal is not met, you don’t end up donating any money. So if my goal is $400, and I only raise $250, the money raised all goes back to the donors, no questions asked. So it’s kind of like risk-free financial supporting: toss some money if you like the idea, but if not enough people do, then there’s no risk.

There are definitely some cool projects that have popped up on Kickstarter in the past year or so. But I am a bit worried that it might get out of hand.

I’m not saying the Kickstarter model is a bad one. In fact, I’m absolutely positive that more projects will see the light of day because of the platform, when in the past they would have been merely the dreams of idle gamers, artists, and programmers. Kickstarter is a fabulous tool for the indie creator, to be able to subsidize the creation of whatever his or her dream project is – and if enough people can get behind it, then it’s worth creating.

Popularity: 2%

Marrowbones by Eric Orchard is available today. You should get this, it’s awesome.

Comics No Responses »

Apr 162012

Marrowbones is the new comic written and illustrated by Eric Orchard. It also became available today, with issue #1 selling for just $2. It’s the story of Nora, stuck in the Hillgrove School for Haunted Children by her parents. She’s rescued from her dreary existence by her Uncle, who’s a bit like her and brought to Marrowbones Swamp. Here she works at her Uncle’s Inn with a cast of magical and sometimes dead characters. It’s really good, and you should get this!

Marrowbones

Popularity: 1%

Katsucon 2012

Comics, Conventions, Movies and TV No Responses »

Feb 272012

My White Mage Cosplay

This month I had the great pleasure to attend Katuscon 2012 in Washington D.C. It was my first time there and I was pleasantly delighted with it. Not as huge as some of the more popular conventions it had comfortably sized crowds.

Venue

Held at the GayLord National Resort and Convention Center right in the National Harbor, Maryland. This giant hotel and convention center sported plush interiors just ripe for amazing cosplay photography. The rooms are expensive but large and comfortable. Lots of elevators and escalators for exhausted con-goer’s tired tootsies. There was plenty of parking at a very reasonable price and the National Harbor food options ranging from quick and cheap to expensive elegance.

Cosplay

Like most anime conventions this one boasted of some amazing outfits. From last minutes home-brewed concoctions (like mine) to competitors for the World Cosplay Summit. The lovely venue and perfect sunny weather provided excellent opportunities for photographs and cinematography. For a good time just Google Katuson 2012 for some beautiful videos and photos.

Artist Alley

My favorite room was filled with upstart artists selling paintings, jewelry, clothing, and more. Several artist were available for commissions. My favorite item was a D1: A simple clay Mobius strip with a one painted on it. No matter how you flipped it you always knew what you’d get!

Merchant Room

So many awesome things! Mostly Anime and Japanese products but several booths had dice and game books. Rare DVDs and video games were to be found alongside mini figures and plushies. Clothing styles spanned the range of Gothic Lolita, cyberpunk and steampunk. And so many giant robot toys!

Game Room

This large space was host to several large tables set up with different consoles and games. Atari, Sega, Playstation 3, Wii, Kinect and more. Several large arcade games were set up in the back for good old nostalgia gaming. Several competitions were held throughout the con and gaming went far into the night. One featured retro video games which, when I was a kid, were just called video games. The Magic the Gathering tables were always filled with players.Sadly there were no empty tables for tabletop gaming. I had carried my dice around all weekend hoping for a quickie but alas it didn’t happen.

Conclusion

Like most conventions you get out of it what you put in. The higher profile panels had long lines, you had to walk a ways to get fed or pay for an expensive one. Chasing down someone to take their picture can get old. But being surrounded by lovely people having fun is always a delightful experience. I try to enter conventions with little expectation of how they’ll be and I’m always delightfully surprised by what I find. That way I’m never disappointed by panels I miss or friends I won’t meet up with. Most important rule: Enjoy yourself!

Pirate Deadpool

Sailor Venus Courtesy of Caitlyn Jones

Popularity: 2%

Troll in the Corner partnering with Deniath to bring you some amazing geek themed deals

Board and Card Games, Comics, Deniath, Role Playing Games, Troll in the Corner, Video Games 3 Responses »

Feb 162012

I’m very excited to announce that Troll in the Corner will be partnering with Deniath to bring our readers all kinds of great deals on games and geek collectibles.

Deniath features private sales on all things that appeal to folks like you and me. Board games, art, collectibles, toys – just about anything if it’s got a geek interest built into it. Their mission is “To invigorate the lives of our members by feeding their geek obsessions and helping them discover new ones”.

They are an invite only site which features private sales that are always good deals. I’ve personally used them long before we began to talk of this partnership and have nothing but good things to say about them. How does it work? In their own words:

We offer invitation-only access to exclusive, 72-hour deals just for those who share the love and passion for all things geek. Whether you geek out on toys, board games, comics, art, movies, or other pop-culture collectibles, we know there are more products and services out there that you would love. Daily deal and flash sale sites have flooded many inboxes over the last couple years. For nerds and geeks in particular, there are seldom deals that particularly relate to their interests. Instead of fashion, décor, luxury travel, and spa deals, Deniath wants to fill every geek’s inbox with deals on toys, games, gadgets, art, and pop-culture collectibles!

Membership can only be had by requesting an invite code, or by being invited directly by a current member. Until now that is….

Through our partnership, we have a limited time membership promotion as well! Simply email the Deniath folks at community@deniath.com and include “Troll in the Corner” in the subject line. Do that and Deniath will send you an invite code almost immediately. Take advantage of this now, because this promotion only runs until February 29^th!

What this means for you, our readers

From time to time we’ll be featuring exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming Deniath sales. Get your Deniath membership set up now and you’ll be able to take advantage of these sneak peeks! You’ll be able to see some specific details about forthcoming sales. Details that aren’t normally released until the sale itself starts. We’ll feature our first sneak peek in the very near future!

Even better, invite your friends and family to join as well. When someone you’ve invited to Deniath has their first order shipped, you get a $10 credit towards your next purchase.

We’ll also be offering invite promotions like the one we’re running right now – near instant access to the Deniath community and sales, without have to wait for your invitation request to be fulfilled!

But wait, there’s more

We’ve got some other very cool ideas in the pipeline as well. Keep your eyes on Troll in the Corner for more!

Popularity: 2%

Eric Orchard: The Situation, Springwinder and Sci FI

Comics, Interview, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Jan 302012

Picture courtesy of Tor.com

Artist, Eric Orchard may best be known for his work on children’s books such as The Terrible, Horrible Smelly Pirate and A Forest for Christmas, but his latest project is much more adult. No, he does not break form and tell a story of sex and scandal, but instead on that other adult topic, office politics. He is providing illustrations for a new web comic based on Jeff VanderMeer’s Novella The Situation which tells of a refugee turned bio-engineer and the problems that start with the fish head project, then lead him to a darker place, the HR department.

“It’s basically a science fiction story about office life, but really scary, paranoid, deadly office life,” Orchard explains. “It all takes place in a sort of post apocalyptic devastation. The only safe place to be is working for the company, which isn’t safe at all.”

Orchard’s art brings the strange world of The Situation to life, picking out the strange details in one panel and treating them as commonplace in the next. Pen and ink style shading brings the shadows to life, and not just the darkness that is the result of the lighting. There is a darkness of spirit to the story, not a meanness so much as a feeling the boss is watching over your shoulder that comes through in the art.

The darker images of The Situation have given Orchard a chance to let himself go a bit more. “After so many cute animals, leering skulls were a huge relief!” he said. He went on to explain that he worked hard to stay true to the imagery of VanderMeer’s story. “The novella is so rich with ideas and imagery that would just never occur to me that it opened up whole new worlds for me,” Orchard said.

Orchard has also been working with other cartoonists to create a publishing imprint, Springwinder, that will showcase fantasy and sci-fi digital comics. With Springwinder he hopes to bring independent comics to both computers and smart devices in the near future.

Orchard’s art at times almost has the feel of something from the last century, something reminiscent of etchings more then digitally augmented art. “I always start traditionally, either with pencils or a pen and ink drawing, and then I scan it in and transform it in Photoshop,” Orchard said. “I love to draw on paper and I love the freedom and possibilities of working digitally, so it’s perfect for me.”

It is probably no coincidence that his art has an old world feel to it. While he has a broad range of influences he is particularly drawn to the genre artists. “I’m such a huge consumer of comics and illustrated books, and I have been all my life, that narrowing it down is really, really hard. I’ve always been most drawn to genre artists. My favorite artist has long been the Victorian king of the illustrated book, Arthur Rackham,” Orchard said.

Another source for inspiration for Orchard are role-playing games. It is the place where he learned to build worlds and create characters. “I love the 1st or 2nd edition D&D dungeon crawl kind of thing. I’m also a big fan of TSR’s Traveler. I grew up playing D&D, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk and a bunch of different Palladium games. Which all totally dates me.”

The Situation is available from Tor.com.

Popularity: 1%

The Greatest Ever…D&D Comic

Comics, Dungeons & Dragons, Role Playing Games 4 Responses »

Jan 172012

I speak from a position of authority here…well, let’s face it, I always speak from a position of authority. But needless to say, I’ve been reading D&D comics as often as I have been able to get my grubby hands on them almost as long as I first played D&D (when I was 8 years old).

In the beginning there was the Age of DC (2e in D&D terms). It started with the old Forgotten Realms title for me and shortly after I found the Dungeons and Dragons title (oddly enough, also set in the Forgotten Realms) published at the same time. I think I even ran into a couple of Spelljammer books here and there. Then the there was the lean years with almost nothing and I remembered the Dungeons and Dragons comics of yesteryear with a sense of nostalgia.

In college, however, we entered the Kenzer Co. Age (3e). Okay, sure, it happened before that, but I wasn’t reading comics then, and since I wasn’t reading them then they must not have been worth reading. My experience with this D&D comic was much more complete. Rather than snagging a few issues here and there off the spinner rack at the local Hy-Vee (that’s a Midwestern grocery story, folks) as a reward for getting an “A” on a spelling test like I did of the progenitor titles, this time I was a regular collector. I got every issue and even had a few signed. This too, however, it seemed, could not last.

Popularity: 2%

Discworld in graphic form (discovery)

Comics 2 Responses »

Jan 092012

My brother is a fan of Terry Pratchett and has attempted to convert me on occasion however, as much as I am interested in the stories, for some reason I could never get to grips with Mr Pratchett’s writing style. I was sad, but resigned to never knowing the beauty and humour of Discworld.

The other month I was in my local bookstore chain, browsing their (limited) shelves of graphic novels, and came across books one and two of the Discworld series nicely bound in graphic novel form. “Aha”, I thought to myself gleefully, “perhaps I can enter Discworld after all.”

Sadly the book is still on my to-read pile due to pesky things like housework and workwork but I see a vague area of free time ahead and I am going to sit and read that book. I’ll let you know what I think.

Popularity: 1%

Comics on medication

Comics No Responses »

Jan 042012

Well, tablets to be exact – the electronic kind.

Since I started reading comic books I realised that my local bookstore was sadly bereft of much more than very popular graphic novels. I also realised I did not want a load of flimsy comics cluttering my life, where the heck would I store them?

So where do I get my newly awakened comic fix? Online you geeky idiot!

Discovering comics online

I asked on Twitter and found two great apps for my Android tablet. I believe they also work on that thing called an iP*d for those unfortunate enough to own one. Twitter was also great for advising me on comics to try – never mind the Almighty Google, Terrific Twitter can answer anything now too.

The first one I tried was Comixology (@comixology on Twitter) who have

partnerships with top comic book publishers including Archaia Entertainment, BOOM! Studios, DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Image Comics and Marvel Comics

…so pretty wide ranging. Their Android app works great and you can browse & purchase through it – oops, I spent more money. There’s plenty of freebies too so you can try various genres. Of course, if you have more than one device you can log in and read from any of them.

The second one I used was Dark Horse Digital (@DarkHorseComics on Twitter), I started with this one because they provided different comics (such as The Umbrella Academy) and variety is the something of life isn’t it?

As with Comixology there are freebies and you can read from different devices with your log in. Unfortunately the Android app doesn’t allow direct purchase yet, you have to do that through the online store in your browser. But things are synched pretty quickly so it’s not such a big deal.

Using comic apps on your tablet

The experience is pretty much the same for both, you can view either the full page or pane by pane (tap the screen to move along). I like this as you can see the overall page and get the gist of things then zoom in to see the details – it also helps us noobs who aren’t quite sure which way to read a comic book yet.

Viewing the images on the screen is great, mine’s 8″ and I cannot find fault even after seeing them on a 10″ screen. I like the way I can expand the image as opposed to holding a paper comic up closer to my eyes. Oh, you youngsters don’t have that problem? Hmmm.

Of course, all the comics you download are indexed so you can easily find the next one you want to read.

There are a few of cons to viewing on the screen (and this applies to books as well as comics).

it’s not as easy to leaf back through to re-read a section
while there’s a great range of choice not all are available (older ones mainly)
no way to share what you’re reading

Final diagnosis

Comics entering the digital age has enabled those like myself with little or no access to physical comic book stores to discover their wonderful worlds. The apps (and there are others) for devices like tablets make the experience easy and enjoyable. Although I still get the dead tree versions of ones I really like, for sheer portability and scope of choice I would totally recommend you at least try them.

Popularity: 1%

Graphic Novels : A journey (pt 2)

Comics, Literature 3 Responses »

Oct 252011

The n00b transforms

I quickly realized, when looking around the graphic novel section of my local bookshop, that there were all these different versions of Batman, Superman and so on written by different people. How could that be? I had no idea of the history behind comics and that made it difficult to choose where to start.

Then I heard about the new book by Grant Morrison “Supergods”. It sounded interesting and just what I may be looking for – being a history buff I do like learning about the past of all sorts of subjects. I am only half way through but it has helped a lot, not only with my understanding of the comic industry, but also for choosing what comics I might like to pick up next. I have a selection of camera shots on my phone of various pages from the book to remind me what to look for. Hmm, may upload them to a public album on Google+ so anyone can see and make suggestions.

Apparently writers can take a well-known comic book character and re-write the whole story to bring it up-to-date and make it enticing to new eyes. It explains why there’s so many different Batman thank goodness – was getting extremely confused there. Re-writing (or re-imagining) characters seems to be the way things are often done in the industry. With Morrison’s explanations of the (as he puts it) different ages of comics I can see how it was necessary.

Another source for recommendations was Twitter. I put it out there that I was a new reader and what did people suggest and received a multitude of responses. In fact I made a new Twitter friend because of a resulting conversation. I was also directed to the Comixology app for my Android which has been brilliant. Lots of free issues to try out.

Somewhere along the journey I picked up “The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman. I think I was in Waterstones looking for new authors & picked up “Neverwhere” then found “The Sandman” among the graphic novels, or maybe it was a review on Amazon … hmm, whatever way I found him my happiness levels increased by at least +10. I am currently halfway through the second book (note I am picking up the book-y versions rather than individual issues because they are easier for me to find and look/feel nicer).

On my “to read” list (graphic novels only) are:-

The Sandman (book 2)
Batman : Arkham Asylum
Discworld (books one and two)*
Blankets**
Morning Glories (#2 onwards)^
Lucid #2^

And that’s just the ones I have bought! Hoping to pick up the rest of “The Sandman” series soon.

*I always loved the idea of Discworld but for some reason never quite got on with Terry’s writing style so never read any of them. I am hoping reading the graphic novel versions will satisfy my curiosity.

**Blankets (Craig Thompson) was sent to me as a gift. Not a clue what it’s like but looking forward to finding out.

^via the Comixology app (there’s also a rake load of free issues but too many to list)

Someone also said I should read Peanuts. Yes, I know, I must have had a deprived (depraved?) childhood to have never read Charlie Brown. A good friend also lent me a Nemi book which I subsequently went out and bought for myself. Adventures of a Goth/Rock chick :-)

I really want to review some of the graphic novels I have been writing about here but still feel unsure of the genre – will I be forgiven if I make a glaring ass of myself I wonder? I am no longer a n00b I suppose, transformed into the pupal stage perhaps, but I am definitely enjoying the experience and want to share.

Popularity: 2%

Graphic Novels : A journey (pt 1)

Comics, Literature No Responses »

Oct 242011

The n00b (or a short introduction as to how I got into comics)

I used to read comics as a kid – Bunty, Debbie, the occasional Beano but that was it. I never even saw Superman or Batman I don’t think. Comics in that form only invaded my consciousness when I got into geek stuff at an older age and even then I just ‘knew’ of them, I never really thought of reading them, although I did briefly try out the comics made available on the PSP.

A few years ago I began listening to more rock music, including the band My Chemical Romance who I became a big fan of. The fan base talked about the singer’s graphic novel (comic) “The Umbrella Academy” so much that one day, when I had some spare coins, I bought it off Amazon. Oh dear – I discovered a whole new genre of reading to spend my gold on.

The first time I read it was extremely confusing for me. I had voraciously devoured books from a young age, but graphic novels need a totally different mindset to read them. I was missing the narrative until I realized I had to look at the pictures as well as the words to understand the story. Once I grasped that concept I was away.

I am learning that each pairing of writer & artist is not only important to the telling of the story but also creates different feelings in the reader – whether the art is finely drawn, full of hidden meanings or is it strong outlines and ‘in your face’ concepts for instance. The artist uses their art to create the mood just as the writer of a conventional novel uses words.

I read “The Umbrella Academy : Apocalypse Suite” and its follow up “Dallas” and thoroughly enjoyed them. Not because I was a fan of the band but because it was fun & exciting & well-written & (possibly more importantly) well-drawn. For those who may have not tried graphic novels let me tell you – they ain’t for kids anymore. Pick one up, download an app to try out free ones, borrow one from a friend. Try it out, you never know, you may enjoy it.

my journey continues in Pt 2 : The n00b transforms (coming soon to a blog post near you)

Popularity: 2%

Older Entries

The Kickstarter Problem

Marrowbones by Eric Orchard is available today. You should get this, it’s awesome.

Katsucon 2012

Troll in the Corner partnering with Deniath to bring you some amazing geek themed deals

What this means for you, our readers

But wait, there’s more

Eric Orchard: The Situation, Springwinder and Sci FI

The Greatest Ever…D&D Comic

Discworld in graphic form (discovery)

Comics on medication

Discovering comics online

Using comic apps on your tablet

Final diagnosis

Graphic Novels : A journey (pt 2)

The n00b transforms

Graphic Novels : A journey (pt 1)

The n00b (or a short introduction as to how I got into comics)

TitC Publications at DriveThruRPG!

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