The "Hey Kool-Aid®" Pitcher Meets "Con Air"

BLAM! VENTURES, LLC ACQUIRES PLANET OF THE APES LICENSE

BLAM! VENTURES, LLC ACQUIRES PLANET OF THE APES LICENSE
Indy studio set to bring the original film series back in a unique format in 2010
New York – July 13, 2009 – BLAM! Ventures, LLC (BLAM!) announces a twobook
deal with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. to create new, expanded
stories set in the world of the immortal 1968 film Planet of the Apes (POTA) and
its sequels. The deal offers BLAM! a distinctive opportunity to explore the POTA
universe from fresh and startling points of view, in a format unlike any other seen
in the franchise's history.

The original Planet of the Apes stars Charlton Heston as astronaut Col. George
Taylor, leader of an experimental deep-space mission lost in time. Taylor and his
crew (Dodge, Landon and Stewart find themselves in what they believe to be a
distant star system, stranded on a barren planet some two thousand years after
they left Earth. They soon discover a primitive tribe of human savages, and–
much to their surprise–the intelligent apes who rule this world.

With a shocking ending still much discussed today, as well as an underlying
warning to watch how we treat the world in which we live, POTA went on to be a
phenomenal commercial success, spawning four sequel feature films and two
television series. Forty years later, there are still many stories to be told—and
fans who eagerly anticipate them.

BLAM! Ventures is excited to bring one of the most beloved franchises in science
fiction history back into the spotlight, under its 'Lost Tribes' imprint, and promises
a product of matching quality. As the cornerstone of this new imprint, BLAM! will
publish its POTA tales as illustrated novels, blending beautiful, full-color, fullpage
paintings with smaller black-and-white illustrations and rich storytelling in a
hardcover book format.

The first-ever original novel based on the classic POTA film series, Conspiracy
of the Planet of the Apes will hit both the direct market and major book and
retail chains in spring 2010. BLAM! Ventures' Creative Director, Andrew E. C.
Gaska, along with Editorial Coordinator Christian Berntsen and Developmental
Director Erik Matthews, serve as the writing team for Conspiracy.

More than twenty artists are expected to offer their amazing talents to this
project. The first on board are legendary artist Jim Steranko (Raiders of the Lost
Ark, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.), renowned book
cover painter Ken Kelly (Conan, KISS), Joe Jusko (Savage Sword of Conan,
Tarzan), Sanjulian (Errie, Vampirella) Mark Texiera (Ghost Rider, Wolverine),
Leo Leibelman (Heavy Metal), Matt Busch (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica),
Brian Rood (Indiana Jones, Star Wars), Tom Scioli (Godland), David Hueso
(G.I.Joe: Storm Shadow) and newcomers Dan Dussault (Critical Millennium) and
Dirk Shearer (Mouse Templar).

Fans interested in getting a first peek at the novel's artwork can do so at this
year's San Diego Comic Con International, to be held on July 22-26, 2009.
BLAM! Ventures will display a gallery of images at booth #2547, as well as
making available for sale limited-edition prints of two Conspiracy paintings,
entitled Alpha and Omega (from artists Joe Jusko and Sanjulian, respectively),
as Comic Con International exclusives. BLAM! will host artist signings and
answer questions regarding the upcoming novel, in addition to giving away a
limited number of special Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes promotional
items, including character bio trading cards and replicas of Landon's dog tags.

A recognized industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and
Merchandising licenses and markets properties worldwide on behalf of Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Television and Fox Broadcasting
Company, as well as third party lines. The division is aligned with Twentieth
Century Fox Television, one of the top suppliers of primetime entertainment
programming to the broadcast networks.

BLAM! Ventures, LLC is a multimedia company specializing in the comic
book/graphic novel industry and digital media. The company's Lost Tribes imprint
looks to revive many classic science fiction and fantasy movies and television
shows of the '60s, '70s and '80s with a fresh approach and a reverent hand,
touching the audiences of today's generation, while reacquainting previous fans
with old friends. For more information, contact thehitlist@blamventures.com.

On the web at: www.blamventures.com/pota

It Worked for Me

Interview with A Thomas Harlan

Randolph Carter has posted an interesting interview with author Thomas Harlan over at MMO blog Grinding to Valhalla. Harlan, the author of the In The Time of The Sixth Sun series, talks about how gaming has influenced and hindered his writing.

For those who have missed out on Harlan's tremendous talent, The Sixth Sun series follows is a science fiction epic set in an alt-future world dominated by the Aztec culture as embodied in Empire of the Méxica.

Harlan's protagonist multi-globe-trotting xenoarchaeologist Gretchen Andersson is joined by Japanese naval commander and Aztec noble judge-sorceror Green Hummingbird in an attempt to suss out the Mystery of The Missing Survey Team on Ephesus III.

Reading Harlan is a sheer delight. The reader can tell that Harlan's head is chock full of historical obscura just waiting to bust out on the written page in a hodge-podge inventive way that miraculously makes sense. After all, how cool is it to have Aztec Jaguar knights walking around with Webley and Nambu pistols?

http://grindingtovalhalla.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/reading-the-text-thomas-harlan/

Roleplaying & Rubric

Noisms at Monsters and Manuals posted a link to an absurd thread over at RPGnet that breaks Dungeons and Dragons character classes down into three or four categories. Here is an excerpt:

Anyway, A-shaped classes are those that use one primary attribute for all attacks and relegate secondary attributes to other effects. The fighter's an example of this. V- and Y-shaped classes refer to the same thing: a class that has attacks based on two different attributes. The ranger and the paladin are examples of V-shaped classes.

MAD = Multiple Attribute Dependency (or Disorder, if you like), in reference to V-shaped classes.

The thread reminded me of J. Evans Pritchard, PhD's soulless essay "Understanding Poetry" from the movie Dead Poets Society, the one that Robin Williams makes his students rip from their textbook. Pritchard proposes a measure for tallying the greatness of a poem by marking "how artfully the objective of the poem has been rendered" on the x axis and "how important is that objective" on the y axis. The TSR fanboys over at RPGnet are doing to the paladin and the ranger what Dr. Pritchard's formulaic approach to literature would inevitably do to a reader's love of Byron, Shelley, and Keats -- namely, suck the ever-lovin' life out of it.

One 4Eer posted that, "rangers are technically H shaped. Two builds that are for the most part nearly interchangable but viable by themselves." Can someone who posits something like that be having half as much fun as I did in 1982 when I decided to "roll up a druid" because I had just seen the movie Beastmaster and thought it'd be cool? I think not.

Cargo Pants Tribe

From Br'er Spear Weasel:

You see them around a lot, especially in Central Texas. But they could be anywhere.

- Almost always wearing sandals and khaki or OD cargo shorts. The more pockets, the better.
- Tech-savvy... they often worked at Dell.
- Might have a bumper sticker on their car, but you probably won't get the joke.... unless you know who HP Lovecraft is.
- Often center-right or vaguely libertarian politically, but not always. Their politics are usually pragmatic rather than ideological.
- Usually own multiple "sport utility rifles"... you know, the scary-looking ones that some call "assault weapons".
- Often slightly overweight, usually have a goatee.
- Probably play WoW, or DnD, or something nerdy like that... but they also do martial arts, and hit really hard for a pudgy guy.
-Up on the latest fan boy superhero or sci-fi blockbuster, but for some reason still have a fairly attractive mate/S.O.

Does this describe you? Welcome to the tribe. Do you know someone who fits this bill? Invite them in. No dues, no requirements.

There are more of us out there than you'd imagine, and we are all going to see the Avengers movie when it comes out.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=110509073085&ref=mf

Cthonic Bastard out of Carolina

What makes this video worser than worse is that while watching it, I can smell the snow crab legs my wife is eating in the other room.

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