Beetle

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? A live version of Pat Benatar's "Run Between the Raindrops" off disc 2 of her Synchronistic Wanderings box set.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? The soundtrack to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Said by a player in our Firefly game as she flipped through the GURPS rulebook "There's a skill for tanning? ... Oh, that kind of tanning."

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Spirit of Radio" by Rush (from "Rush in Rio")

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our Firefly campaign: "Moving on from the orgasming slinky..." (The ship was just joined by a psychic/mentally damaged teen (like River). He liked slinkys, which led to jokes about him using his brain to make a slinky sentient and using it as a familiar. One of the players then began his vocal impression of the tremendous joy a sentient slinky would feel while going down stairs...)

Re: DC versus Marvel: different styles

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? fly baby from Sarah Masen's self-titled album

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did I can't believe I forgot to mention Hero Alliance! I've been waiting for years for the chance to steal the Argent/Atom Smasher plot line (and I may finally have the chance to do it... )

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Generic Up-Tempo Folk Song - The Limeliters

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Something's Gotta Give by the Royal Crown Revue

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

Re: Your Hometown For Pulp My old home town of Danvers, Massachusetts was a pretty typical town during the pulp era. Mills and leather tanneries were big, and there was still some farming going on (the town was once famed for its onions). There are two things that stand out in the history of Danvers. First - before it was incorporated in 1757 ("The King Unwilling"), it was part of Salem and was known as Salem Village. The infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692 actually began in Salem Village (I grew up on the next street over from the Rebecca Nurse homestead). Possibly useful for a pulp campaign. One institution that could be a major player is the now-closed Danvers State Hospital, a very creepy insane asylum perched on a hill that overlooks much of the town. It was so creepy that some say it was the model for Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium and is directly mentioned by Lovecraft in "Pickman's Model." The castle-like architecture just adds to the creep factor. Many of the buildings were connected by underground tunnels. Unfortunately it's being demolished to make room for condos... Main Building in 1893 [ATTACH]20948[/ATTACH] DSH from the air - it gives a better idea of the size of the complex [ATTACH]20949[/ATTACH] Another good DSH link is here

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did It's not so much individual comics that I miss as entire stillborn universes. !mpact Comics (especially The Fly, Jaguar and The Comet) A well-done attempt to go back to the roots of comic story telling, with 80% less angst. One of these days I have to pick up the run of The Black Hood too. The Protectors and it's spin offs (Ferret, Man-of-War, Gravestone) from Malibu - another good, "back to basics" universe before it started going south. First they merged it with their "X-Mutants" title and then they killed it in order to make room for... The Ultraverse - Excellent creators given an opportunity to create a universe from scratch. It didn't all work, but they created some create characters (personal favorites - Hardcase, Choice, Nightman, Mantra, Prototype and Ranger) and very good stories. The entwined origin idea was interesting and they played it out nicely during the first year of the comics. Then Marvel bought them... Shadowline - Eclipse's attempt to do superheroes. Lots of interesting stuff going on - their lead character was a deceitful anti-hero pursuing his own agenda (Doctor Zero - he arranged for a missile attack on the G8 summit so he could fly in and stop it). Michael Devlin (St. George) was one of the better written religious characters in comics.

Re: Cranston, Lamont Cranston.

Re: movies/t.v. vs comic books Yet Joel Shumacher said he wouldn't work with Val Kilmer again even if he was filming "The Val Kilmer Story."

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? The Absolute Beginners soundtrack

Re: Epic Fantasy: The Five Essentials Trying not to repeat works not already suggested: Chronicles of the Deryni by Katherine Kurtz (original trilogy only, please). Highly involved world with a historical feel and an interesting system of magic. Touched by the Gods by Lawrence Watt-Evans. A single volume work! The Domdur Empire (long dominant because it really is favored by the gods) suddenly has to deal with a revolt powered by dark magic. The chosen champion of the empire (long unimportant since the Empire had no real problems) just wants to live his life. Heck, he doesn't even believe he really is the chosen champion (just because some wierd priest said something doesn't make it true). That explination doesn't really do it justice. Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly - a good example of the "people from earth end up in fantasy world" story that also qualifies as high fantasy. I had Memory, Sorrow and Thorn but Markdoc beat me to it. Classic high fantasy.

Re: Best supporting non-super character in comics? Jarvis!

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) The Vanguard and LL is really good. It also leaves you the option of adding a third team to the list: The Pymaholics! Ant-Man Giant-Man Goliath Yellowjacket Dr. Pym Ultron Rover

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... One of the running jokes in our GURPS Firefly game is that the doctor, who is an accomplished fencer, is always threatening to spar with people that irritate him. In the last session, the merc, the pilot and the doctor were talking about ways to help Liza, the doc's girlfriend (the current plot). The merc kept getting on the doctor's nerves, which led to this exchange: Doctor (to merc): You know, I haven't practiced with my sword for quite a while... Pilot: That explains why Liza looks so unhappy.

Re: Power Question: Purple Man

Re: Comics that I miss. Limiting myself to comics that are no more: Power of Shazam Starman - Wil Peyton version (Three votes! It's a landslide!) Elementals - Willingham only Most !mpact titles (Fly, Jaguar, Comet, Black Hood) New Warriors by the original creative team

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? La Villa Strangiato by Rush off of the "Rush in Rio" album. It's my traditional "end of the day, I need energy" listening.

Re: DC Universe Overview [off topic] That reminds me of one of my favorite comic book moments. In an early New Warriors the kids end up fighting a group of villains with element based powers. Namorita and her opponent are absent from all the panels of the fight. Once the other Warriors have defeated their foes, there's a great panel showing a flying Namorita holding an unconcious Water Wizard by his collar complete with the line: "He tried to beat me with water. Dork." That always cracked me up. [/off topic]