Somewhere beyond your wildest dreams lies the Akashic Library, its alabaster shelves stretching inerrantly past the horizon. Once we cross the threshold, what intoxicating mixture of half-truths and revelations shall we imbibe? There’s only one way to find out . . .

What a crazy world we live in, right? What a time to be alive.

It’s hard to avoid thinking about what’s going on in Minnesota—I know I frequently feel stressed and depressed about it, but here’s a video that brings a perhaps more positive perspective:

I can’t imagine going out and protesting in that kind of cold. That’s some impressive dedication.

Meanwhile it’s not nearly that cold here in southern Ohio, but we did get hit by the big snow storm. Our road wasn’t plowed, school got called off, and my family and I have been stuck here in the house since Sunday. I say “stuck,” but I’m trying to see it as more of a retreat. “Sabbath time,” as my wife would say. We are here in our Winter Palace, cut off from the world, given time for deep reflection.

Also, I finally had a chance to make the kids play Thunder Road: Vendetta, the board game I got for Christmas.

It was a fun time. Blu won, Alice and Jackson tied for second, and I lost, with all my cars destroyed. Such is life on the Thunder Road!

PREPARE TO OPEN THE VAULT OF VILLAINY
February is Zine Month. I always do a new RPG Kickstarter, usually longer than a zine, for Zine Month. This year I am trying to do something shorter, in the spirit of actual zines. Wow, I used the word “zine” a lot there. Is this paragraph even saying anything? Let’s move on.

My old pal Josh Burnett had an idea for an RPG supplement of colorful sword & sorcery villains that people could use in their campaigns. He started work on it, it looked cool, and I wanted in. I nagged Josh and convinced him to let me contribute to the book; it ended up being 10 villains, 6 by him and 4 by me, with beautiful color illustrations by Josh. It’s more his book than mine but Josh is busy, and I didn’t have anything lined up for Zine Month, so I offered to run the Kickstarter for Vault of Villainy. He agreed, and it’s happening!

The book will include 10 villains, like I said, including this guy:

The Face Taker! He takes faces! Other villains include The Great Beast Shoggula (pictured up at the top), Mourtika the Skull Witch, Urkor Sorvolion, Old Man Shaggyhide, and Mandagor the Mighty. We’ve got a nice variety of evil-doers lined up.

The Kickstarter launches in February. Right now you can visit the pre-launch page. PLEASE, my friend, take a moment to click the “Notify on launch” button. The more people who do, the better it is for the marketing. Do it for the marketing!

We’ll talk more about what’s in the book (SPOILER: Cool stuff) next month. In the meantime, click that button.

SELLING THAT SWEET, SWEET ART
At the moment I’m writing this, there are ten original drawings and one book on sale in my Etsy shop. You can see ‘em there just above these words. We’ve got three trees, two robots, some sad ladies, so many options! Get yourself something nice. As always, all money I make from selling art is donated to help Palestinian children. It’s a good cause, and I’d appreciate your support.

RIP, SAL BUSCEMA
Sal Buscema, one of the all-time great Marvel Comics artists, has passed away. Sal would've turned 90 on Monday, but he died last Friday. He is remembered for his long runs on the Hulk, Spider-Man, Rom, Captain America, Avengers, Defenders . . . Pretty much every Marvel comic at one point or another.

Like most comics fans I know, I didn't appreciate Sal when I was young. His art was never flashy. Many artists use a flashy style to cover up something. Sal didn't need to cover anything up--he had total control of the fundamentals of drawing comics, and would put down just the lines needed to tell the story clearly and efficiently. When you're a kid that's not impressive, but when you try to do it yourself, you'll learn that it's really damn hard.

Sal could tell a visual story like nobody's business, he could hit a deadline, he turned out thousands of pages, and I don't ever remember seeing a bad drawing from him.

LIGHTNING MAN RETURNS
I drew some more pages of Lightning Man volume 2, continuing the epic saga of our hero’s journey through another dimension. You can see them here.

BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME
Annihilation volume 1: Annihilation Day, Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Scott Kolins, Kev Walker, and various
Annihilation volume 2: Desperate Measures, Keith Giffen, Andrea Di Vito, and various
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, Jason Pargin

I finally read Annihilation, the Marvel Comics crossover event from 2006 masterminded by the late, great Keith Giffen. I still miss you, Mr. Giffen; good job making Nova cool.

Having read all the John Dies at the End books (though there’s a new one coming in the fall) I started Jason Pargin’s other series. As the title of Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits indicates, the book is set in the future, but it’s a near future. The default technology is pretty similar to what we have, except for the ultra-tech that’s introduced in the course of the story that’s the basis of the plot. The book is about a twenty-something girl named Zoey Ashe who lives in a trailer and works in a coffee shop and lives a perfectly ordinary life, until one day she discovers that she’s the heir to a massive fortune and a quasi-legal empire. Hi-jinx ensue!

Jason Pargin started his career as a comedy writer, so of course there’s lots of great throwaway jokes and good lines, but he’s also surprisingly good at plotting and pacing. The story kept moving and provided just the right balance of humor, action, worldbuilding, social commentary, and character stuff to keep me invested the whole way through. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

TV SHOWS I’VE WATCHED
Death Note
Percy Jackson season 2
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 season 1
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 season 2
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

The kids and I finished Death Note. It’s—well, it’s one of the best-known animes, and it came out in 2007, so anyone who’s interested has probably already seen it and is rolling their eyes that I’ve just now watched it. But I grew up in the 80s and I haven’t seen a lot of anime.

I knew going in that Death Note was about a high school kid who found a magical notebook and, once you write a person’s name in the notebook, they die. I thought this would be a psychological horror story about this kid starting off with good intentions and slowly, over the course of the series, getting corrupted into a deranged murderer. This is not the case. In the first half of the first episode young Light Yagami is hesitant to use the notebook to kill; by the second half, he is already a mass-murdering monster. He just goes for it! The rest of the series is a battle of wits between Light, the mass-murderer, and the world’s greatest detective, who’s trying to figure out who’s killing all these people.

The story has surprisingly little psychological depth—again, that seems like something you’d dig into with this premise—but it works really well as a suspenseful battle of wits between geniuses who are constantly trying to outwit each other. Lots of plot twists and turns; there’s a thrill that comes from you never really knowing what’s going to happen next.

In other news, my eldest child and I have started watching Deep Space 9. I’d only ever seen the first episode before and for years I’ve heard people tell me it’s the best Star Trek show. We’re kind of obsessed with it now, it’s a great show. And they say it only gets better after season 2!

MOVIES I’VE WATCHED
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Midsommar
Superman
The Substance
Table 19

The Substance is pretty gross, man. Midsommar was wild. I don’t have much else to say about these movies, which is good, because I need to go outside and shovel the driveway.

Stay safe out there!

Your Pal,
Leighton