Galaxy Laser Team comic #1 (Ekatón) - English translation

If you know your GLT, you'll probably notice that I'm missing the turtle-crab...

Happy Holidays all!  I hope your season has been amazing so far and that you ring in the new year exactly as you most enjoy.

Tomorrow will mark 10 years since I published my first post on this blog.  I kind of can't believe that...while I've had my lapses...it's something that's still a part of what I do and think about.  It probably helps that many of the people I've met through blogging (even my meager and sporadic output) are some of the folks I'm happiest to know in this world of ours.

I've been giving a fair amount of thought recently to directions I might try steering things in 2026 in an effort to streamline my blogging focus....and maybe stumble into more completed projects along the way.  So...we'll see how that goes, I guess...but in the meantime, I wanted to go ahead and share something else I've put a little time into lately.  (I'd like to think of this as my "Christmas gift to the world"...or the first part of it, at least...but I do realize that its weight doesn't really merit that kind of lofty description...!)

To cut to the chase, these links will take you to an English translation of the first issue of Ekatón: El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio, a comic series included in the Argentine children's magazine Anteojito beginning (I believe) in 1980.

Ekatón #1 in English (A5)

Ekatón #1 in English (A5, in an order to print and fold into a booklet)

The longer explanation goes something like this:

The picture at the top of this post shows a selection of characters from a reasonably well-known set of cheap plastic space figures initially released in the late 1970s.  While I'm not even sure if all of the names under which they were sold have ever been gathered together, they are now most often called the Galaxy Laser Team, or occasionally the Star Patrol.  At this point, there's been quite a bit written (and filmed) about these toys, so I'm not going to dive into their history right now.  If you're interested, you can find some great blog posts about them here and here, and plugging "Galaxy Laser Team" into your favorite search engine or video site search bar is sure to give you a number of informative results.

Another look at not-Chewbacca and one of the astronauts (to show a bit more detail than what can be seen above due to their color)

Now, they may not look like much, but something about the sculpts and the coloration (some of my actual childhood figures are pictured here) made these toys pretty freaking memorable for those of us who played with them way back when.  They're even being manufactured again (in loads of new colors) by Tim Mee Toy!  The thing was, while they were obviously made to cash in on a specific cultural phenomenon of the late 1970s (one that still earns new fans today), there was never a background story to accompany the figures.  Well...so I thought...until a few(?) years back when I found out that a children's magazine in Argentina, Anteojito, included a five-issue comic insert in the early '80s that featured characters based on the figures.  (Or...maybe the figures were based on the characters...?  I'm not sure if anyone knows for certain the order that everything took effect, but my guess is that the figures came first...)

While this comic series, Ekatón: El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio, has been widely available on the web for a while now and has even been reprinted fairly recently, I had never seen it translated into English.  So, I've tried to correct that.

The "cover" of the English translation

Some caveats(!!)

1)  I do not speak Spanish very well, so this translation is mostly from ChatGPT.  I did make some edits for syntax and flow, but nothing substantial was changed.  This seemed to me like a reasonable use of AI, since the creative nature of the task is minimal, BUT I recognize that others may take issue with that choice.  I hope you won't hold it against me too much.

2)  It is, admittedly, kind of sloppy...especially the "starburst" word balloons.  I made it in PowerPoint, and my efforts only roughened the already rough edges of the files I started with.  It is meant to be more utilitarian than ornamental, though.  And fwiw, I think the PDFs I have located of later issues are in better shape than the one I used for this installment, so as I continue this project, future editions may be a bit prettier.

3)  On that note:  I do not own any of this material.  I got this PDF from Scribd, and scans of all the original comics can be found pretty easily with a web search.  However, as noted above, this story has recently been reprinted in a deadtree form, and so it is possible there will be concerns about my posting it here.  I hope that adding the English translation will give others reason to believe this is a worthwhile thing to make available, BUT...well, please let me know if you believe it's a problem!

Some figures near the characters they presumably inspired

One final thing...not really a caveat, but a note...if you get some value out of this, please let me know!  I will eventually make my way through all five issues simply because I want to know the whole story and be able to page through it like I would any other comic.  However, if I know there are others who have enjoyed or are enjoying the project, it will certainly encourage me to work on those sooner rather than later.  (And perhaps it goes without saying that I would welcome anyone else who wants to join the effort...or even take it over, since I'm sure there are others much more qualified than I to tackle the translation and layout challenges...!)

I'm hoping the Cosmic Spark will play more of a role in future episodes.

With all of that said, I hope you enjoy!  Those links again (and please let me know if they're broken...):

Ekatón #1 in English (A5)

Ekatón #1 in English (A5, in an order to print and fold into a booklet)

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Grozz keeps gettin' graphic...plus, a Soldier!

I hate to start out posts by just lamenting my lack of posts...

BUT...man, I'm really having a tough time working regular blogging back into my schedule, aren't I?

Luckily, Grozz has me covered!  If I can't post my own thoughts, I can at least update my buddy Art's graphic novel reviews every so often.  So...that's what I've done.  He led with Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness and has now added The Punisher: Born to the list.  Check out the Gettin' Graphic With Grozz page for the full (yet concise) reviews...!

Image link

And to celebrate the Punisher's appearance among the selections on that page, I though it'd be fun to stat out old Frank (or, more specifically, a rather young Frank) using the Soldier class I recently wrote about...

(More soldiers to come, I think...!)

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Frank Castle

(Francis G. Castle, born Castiglione)

Soldier, Level 2

Image from the Marvel Database.  Plus, check out Kelvin Green's excellent breakdown of this issue from his exploration of Marvel Comics' 1991 offerings.

Human, 25 years old

Affiliation: United States Marine Corps

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA

15 (+1)  13 (+1)   14 (+1)   14 (+1)    16 (+2)    13 (+1)

HP 12     Move 30 ft. (6 units)

Attack Bonuses: +3 melee, +3 ranged (+5 w/Two-handed Small Arms)

Additional notes: Effects of exhaustion treated as one level lower than usual

Proficiencies

Skills: Athletics, Perception, Religion, Survival

Languages: English, Italian, French, Russian, Dari, German, likely others

Saves: Strength, Dexterity

Weapons: All simple and martial weapons; expertise with Two-handed Small Arms

Armor: All armor, shields

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It's time to get graphic with Grozz...

And now, for something completely different...!

(Sort of.)

I've mentioned my good friend Art (AKA Grozz) before here on Monstrous Matters when I wrote a bit about the boxing microgame Ring Doctors that he inspired me to try creating.  Since then, I've learned that (1) his name is, indeed, Art, and (2) we share many interests beyond the tabletop sports sims that were at the center of our meeting back during Covid.  I'm not even completely sure what he knew about me that led him to take this specific approach, but it was somewhere around the time he left a random voice text that was just a selection from Rorschach's journal (read in character) that I was like, "Yeah, I think this dude is weird enough that we'll probably get along pretty well..."

Grozz

As we talked comics more, I realized that Art took the time...seemingly after every comic he read...to put together concise but detailed reviews of the work he had just made his way through.  As in...it seems to be part of his process...like a comic isn't fully digested until he has it summarized in review form.  And he was about to take a journey through a list he found of the top 100 graphic novels ever.  It's the kind of thing that I would want to share here on the blog if I were ever organized and methodical enough to do it for everything I read.  But, y'know.  I'm not.

BUT...I also thought it'd be cool to collect his reviews in one place.  And since I have a blog about nerd stuff...I have that power.  And so, today I introduce to you a new section of Monstrous Matters...Gettin' Graphic With Grozz.  There's a permalink up there on the menu bar below the header; I'll try to post when new entries are added.  The plan is for them to be collected on that page as long as Monstrous Matters is plugging along as an amorphous expression of my life and interests.  As a bonus (for me)...I've just started a new job and have fallen off of the blogging schedule I managed to build up for a little while there, so this gives me something to make me feel like I'm tending my little corner of cyberspace a little more than I actually am... ;)

I definitely appreciate Art "trusting" me with his reviews!  Obviously, this isn't exactly a hub of internet nerddom, so I'd be a little surprised if the overall number of eyeballs on his work is actually increased significantly by appearing here in addition to the other spots on the web where folks post reviews...

But, hey...you never know.  And to all of you readers/victims of the usual Monstrous Matters content, I hope you enjoy!  It's all definitely a work in progress...please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions for making this feature worth even more of your time.

(Oh!  And in case it needs to be said:  Art's opinions, on comics or anything else, are not mine, nor do my opinions = Art's.  And the opinions expressed in "Gettin' Graphic With Grozz" are not the official stance of Monstrous Matters.  I suppose you could say that my opinions actually are the official stance of Monstrous Matters, but that view implies a level of perceived self-importance that makes me pretty uncomfortable, so I'm not gonna be the one who says it.)

Now...first up:  Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness!

Remembering Keith Giffen, 1952-2023

One of the creators most influential to my appreciation of superhero comics passed away this week, as the world lost Keith Giffen on Monday 10/9.  I first saw this on Bleeding Cool News, and it seems as if Rich Johnston may have been the first to report on it there.  Giffen is the creator of Ambush Bug and co-creator of Rocket Raccoon, Lobo, and Jaime Reyes.  Most crucially, Giffen had an unforgettable run taking the Justice League into uncharted territory during the Justice League International era, following the Legends crossover series.

Giffen at GalaxyCon Richmond in 2019, by John Manard, CC-BY-SA 2.0

In true BWAHAHAHA fashion, Giffen's family posted this to his Facebook page at his request:

What a blessing to be able to know this man's work.

The Justice League comics of Giffen, JM DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al., are among the most beloved stories of my formative years as a fan of comic book superheroes.  While I was familiar with the Super Friends and aware that the JL of decades past had featured the heaviest hitters of the DC universe, as far as I knew, the Justice League was meant to be this ragtag band of misfits (to use a cliché) that struggled, argued, and threw out quip after quip while fighting the bad guys.  I can still remember purchasing Justice League #3 on a family trip and being carried away by it in the car...an event that could easily be seen as a starting point for my existence as a comic book lifer.

Mr. Giffen was one of...if not THE...first comic book writer(s) whose name I actually knew.  His genius will live on through his creations and through the remarkable characterization he helped to give to the creations of many others.  He will be missed.

It's a weird time to be alive

Mostly because I live in New Jersey now.  Who saw that coming?  It was just a couple of years ago that I moved out of Georgia for the first time, and now I've left the Sun Belt far behind.  Weird, indeed.

I mean, I do like most of what I've experienced in NJ so far (although some of the drivers around here need to chill the eff out).  It's just not a spot I had ever really imagined myself living.  Interestingly, there's been a big split in the reactions of folks who I talked to leading up to the move.  There was a definite "why in the world would you want to go there?" camp, and an equally passionate group that felt the need to immediately defend the state from its stereotypes.

Please be reminded, as I have been, that it is the Garden State for a reason.

While I'm living in the western part of the state, I have come to realize that pretty much all of North Jersey is considered the New York City area.  And though my little borough doesn't feel like NYC at all (I don't think, anyway), the proximity to the big town does have my mind wandering to stuff like...

...and...

...and...

...and...

...and even...

Long drives like the one that took us from North Carolina up here also tend to put me in a post-apocalyptic frame of mind.

I guess I'm just saying I've been in a very comic bookish mood lately.  Hmm.  Maybe it's time to revisit Light City in the near future.

And anyone happening upon this who is familiar with North Jersey -- got any recommendations on good places to go for geeky goodness around here?

E is for Earths

...of the parallel variety, that is.

I'd love for Light City to be accessible for all sorts of supers gaming.  I also just love a good, wacky multiverse.  Here's a little sample what's been discovered so far by the fringe physicists of Light City:

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Earth-Alpha:  The "prime" Light City universe.  In my head, anyway.  Heck, maybe every individual game world is its own Earth-Alpha.  That's the beauty of a prime universe: It's forever malleable, ready to be retconned, revised, and updated for the present time!

Earth-Beta:  The first parallel universe to be found, when Nature Man traversed the elemental planes and found his counterpart from this alternate Earth.  The boom in superheroics occurred much earlier here (in the 1940s...folks with masks and powers were a huge part of the Allied victory in World War II).  Some heroes, like Black Lion, are fairly similar between Earths Alpha and Beta, aside from age.  Others, such as the Flame, differ enough that it's hard to even trace how they're connected.  Still others have no known counterpart on the other Earth.

Earth-Beta

Earth-Gamma:  An Earth where The Assembly is the premier superhero team rather than The Association.  Cities don't all have the word "City" in their names.  And the movies tend to be a lot better.

Earth-Theta:  Here, an aged Black Lion came out of retirement in the 1980s to clean up his beloved Empire City after it had fallen deep into a crime wave.  He ended up facing off against his old pal Wonder Man, who has become a tool of the American government.

Earth-Mu:  A world of anthropomorphic cats.  And superheroes.  So, yeah, superhero cats.

Earth-Mu

Earth-Nu:  This universe has many of the same figures as Earth-Alpha, but the age of heroes began in the mid-1950s.  There are lots of apes, and Wonder Man is kind of a dick who spends a lot of time making his girlfriend look like an idiot.  Scholars of the Multiverse aren't quite clear on whether or not this is actually the same world as Earth-Theta.

Earth-Xi:  Pretty much everything on this world appears to be made out of toy bricks.

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There are a lot more of them out there!  (You might even say they're infinite...ba dump bump.)  I'm definitely interested in knowing what sorts of parallel Earths you would want to encounter in a superhero multiverse!

D is for Dogwood City

I'll make this one quick!  The world of Light City, and really the project itself, is a pretty natural extension of the the trip through the alphabet that I took on this blog two years ago, when I made my first attempt at constructing a superhero setting out of public domain characters.  The focus that year was Dogwood City, based in my mind upon the large southern city that I lived in at the time.

I guess I sort of fell in love with the process, because shaping the details of such a fictional world in my head has become almost an addiction over time.  Seriously, I think about stuff like...oh, how different heroes' debuts should fall on a timeline a LOT more than you'd probably think someone should consider such "facts."  At least Light City is giving me a bit of an outlet for it now!

Anyway, there's really no reason that Light City and Dogwood City shouldn't be on the same map.  (In my little section of the multiverse, anyway...!)  Perhaps there'll be a chance to look at geography in a little more detail in the coming days.  For now, let's take a quick second look at the flagship hero of Dogwood City...Nature Man!

Oh.  Yeah, that was it.  That WAS the quick second look.  Maybe we'll take a slower look when the letter N rolls around.

Up next:  EARTHS!

C is for The Club

The Club is the premier "teen team" of Earth-Alpha, initially formed by some of the younger companions of members of The Association.  At its founding, The Club consisted of just four heroes:  Nature Boy, Cub, Melanippe (sister of Hippolyta), and Leora (niece of the Sea Amazons' Queen Mea).

Nature Boy

Cub

Melanippe

Leora

The Club would go through a number of lineup changes over the years, eventually including heroes such as Young Robin Hood (operating out of Forest City) and Rainbow Boy.  The team later became widely known as The New Club, and as young adults, its members would form a related group called The Crew, leaving the Club moniker to a new generation of young superheroes.

(Nature Boy, of course, would slowly become less involved with the team after taking up the mantle of his mentor, Nature Man, upon the hero's death saving the multiverse.  As Nature Man, David Crandall would eventually join The Association.)

B is for Black Lion

Only nine days into the month, and I'm already on the letter B!  So let's see, looking at the A to Z calendar...

...mm hmm, carry the 2, and I should catch up sometime around no shot in hell.

Oh well.  Onward!  We just took a quick look at Black Lion on Wednesday as one of the keystone members of The Association.  He was also one of the first characters I covered two years ago when I pondered a superhero universe centered on Dogwood City for my first go at the A to Z blogging challenge.  To recap:

Ten years ago, George Davis's brother was stabbed to death for a diamond he possessed.  This senseless act of violence motivated George to take on a persona that would be the bane of criminals everywhere...

And so, we have a dark-clad hero, driven by revenge and operating at the peak of human physical condition...the Black Lion!

Not the MOST original background, but originality is pretty much the opposite of what I'm looking for here.  I imagine him to be one of the most prominent heroes in the prime Light City Universe.  (Hopefully I can be forgiven for some inconsistency in whether or not he gets a "the" before his name.  Even the Batman can vary in that regard.)

And to stat him up for Light City...well, I may as well pull liberally from my previous thoughts on the hero that Black Lion is undoubtedly based upon (hey, I already included the Lion-arang when I gave him rough stats two years ago...!).

Black Lion
Level 7 Brawler
Real name:  George Davis (secret)
First appearance:  Wonderworld Comics #21 (1941)
STR 16     DEX 13     CON 12     INT 18     WIS 18     CHA 16
7 HD (25 HP)     Saving Throw 8
AC 8[11] (Lion-suit)
Attacks:  3x Unarmed Strikes, +8 to hit, 1d6+1 damage; Lionarang, range 60 ft., +7 to hit, 1d6+1 damage; Special Improvisation 1x/day.

Hmm...well, A is for The Association

How's it going, internet?  It's been a while!

So, there've been a couple of months of big transition for me, as I went from living just outside the perimeter of Atlanta, GA, to a little old rural farmhouse nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina.  My wife Laura got what is essentially a dream job working at a newly opened Behavioral Rehabilitation Center for the ASPCA, and I have happily tagged along to see what adventures await.  Thus far, that's meant I've spent a lot of time following groundhogs back to their den entrances, hanging out with all the four-legged kids that we moved here from Georgia, and pondering/worrying about what the heck I'm gonna do with my life.  All of which somehow take a lot more time than you'd think...somehow...and blogging has fallen to the side in that setup.

But...April is here, and it's time to A to Z!  I just couldn't let the month pass without taking part in the blitz blogging event that has been so much fun for me the past two years.  So this month, I planned to explore, in alphabetical fashion, random thoughts related to the game and setting of Light City, the little superhero RPG project that I started working on last year, based on the excellent game Swords & Wizardry Light.  Unfortunately, not only did I miss the window to be an official A to Z participant, but I've failed to even get the first post up anywhere close to on time.

But...that's not gonna hold me back!  Just consider this my own little half-assed, guerrilla A to Z effort.  With a little luck, maybe I'll get through M by the end of the month!

If you want a quick introduction to Light City...and there are plans in the works to get a more ideal/complete intro to the setting available for perusal...you might want to check out the short RPG supplement The Assembly (which has quick rules for making characters in the style of a certain Marvel Comics superteam) or look at +Justin Isaac's excellent master list of Light City content.  (And let me note, by the way, that while I've been slack as heck, Justin has not only been absolutely killin' it with Light City material, he's also unleashed a brand new Old West game, a clever SWL mod called Six-Shooters & Wagons.  Check it out!)

...

Also, wow, that was a wordy intro.  And maybe too many hyperlinks.  Oh well.  Time to start the A to Zing.  A is for...

The Association

The Association is widely regarded as the premier super-team in the prime continuity (Earth-Alpha) of the Light City Multiverse.  Originally formed as an ad hoc effort to fend off the global domination scheme of the intergalactic echinoderm known as the Space Urchin, the heroes decided to continue working together whenever their combined skills were needed.

The Association's lineup has varied considerably over the years and has included heroes such as the Flame, Samson, the Green Giant, Silver Streak, and the Atomic Thunderbolt.  Additionally, the team has strong ties to some heroes whose membership status is debatable, such as Cub and the Wandering Nephil.  Many incarnations of The Association, however, have included the following heroes as a core:

Wonder Man

Operating out of Empire City, Wonder Man was one of the first costumed heroes to appear in the Light City Universe (which is why individuals with powers are often referred to as wonderheroes).

Black Lion

Hitting the super-scene in Empire City about the same time as Wonder Man, Black Lion works to keep the streets clean with the help of his sidekick Cub.  Black Lion is highly respected as perhaps the greatest mind on Earth-Alpha.

Hippolyta

Legendary queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta is often regarded as a role model for the girls of Earth.  However, she strives to be a symbol of courage and power for all of humanity.

Queen Mea

Ruler of a splinter group of Hippolyta's people known as the Sea Amazons, Mea's primary concern is the defense of the world's oceans.  She is also a formidable warrior on The Association's many non-aquatic adventures, although her prowess on dry land has somehow become a running joke among observers of metahumans.

The Arrow

The finest archer on the planet, the Arrow serves as a strong supporter of his teammates and, quite often, as the conscience of the group.

Four-color thought experiment: Drafting a superhero universe

So, I've had this running through my head for a bit...really just a fun thing to ponder, but I actually think it would be a cool exercise to carry out at some point.

What if you took all of the superheroes out there, put them into a pot, and allowed the major comic book publishers to draft their rosters in the manner of American professional sports leagues?  (I'm sure some leagues in other countries do it, too, but it's more of an American phenomenon, as far as I know...)  To make it interesting, we'd let more than the Big Two in on it...maybe five or six entities...or hell, a hundred, since this is all hypothetical anyway...could choose their group of heroes to publish.

If you were in charge of choosing, how would you go about it?  Do you just pick the most popular characters out of what's available?  Your favorites?  Do you go for synergy above all?  Do you pick a theme and look for consistency?

There are a lot of fun wrinkles to consider.  Once you pick a member of the X-Men, do you feel the need to lock in mutant prejudice as part of your world?  If you first-pick Superman (one of the obvious top picks, I think), does his power level limit your choices the rest of the way?

And who would be the first character outside of Marvel and DC that's worth picking?  Spawn?  Hellboy?  Faith?  Popeye (sure, he's in there)?

There would have to be some specific ground rules that I haven't really ironed out...doesn't seem like it would make much sense to let someone have, say, Superman, but then let Supergirl go somewhere else.  Green Lanterns and the Fantastic Four present issues that would have to be addressed.  Those details are part of the fun of thinking about this, though.

From where I stand, there's really just one obvious first pick, no matter your overall strategy:

From the DC Database.

Probably the most popular superhero (and maybe the most popular fictional character) on the planet...extremely adaptable...doesn't have powers that warp the rest of the world...it's hard to see why anyone would choose anyone else.  Even if no members of the Family come along, Bats is worth it.

In my mind, it gets a lot hairier after that, though.  Based on my vision of an ideal superhero universe, with nods to both popularity and my own favorites, this is how I'd rank my top ten picks (at the moment, anyway)...

1. Batman
2. Spider-Man
3. Wonder Woman
4. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan if I have to pick one)
5. Captain America
6. The Hulk
7. Aquaman
8. However many members of the Fantastic Four I could get with one pick
9. The Flash (Barry Allen if I have to pick one)
10. Wolverine

I'd love to know how some of y'all would go about this...!

Big ups to my buddy JR!

I really should have posted about this earlier, but I suppose I'm better late than never on it!  My friend and sometime collaborator JR Mounts...writer, artist, and musician extraordinaire, and as I believe I've mentioned on here before, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet...has been nominated for a Dragon Award for his semiautobiocomic Stuck in My Head.  This is the second year that these will be given out at Dragon Con, the absolute giant of the local convention scene, and I think it is absolutely awesome to see such a labor of love by an indie artist like JR alongside names like Clive Barker, Jim Butcher, and Phil and Kaja Foglio!

If you're so inclined, I don't think it's even too late to register and vote in this and all the other categories...!

Playing in Light City: Heroic Happenings at the Halls

So while I've been focusing the tiny bit of creative energy I've had lately into the Light City releases, I thankfully have a couple of blogging brethren who have stepped up to spread the word on the project, for which I am very grateful!

Tim over at HeroPress has been kind enough to spotlight both of Light City's first two "issues," a significantly helpful boost to the four-color signal.

And Justin of Halls of the Nephilim has not only given Light City blogging and social media shout-outs, he's constructed a couple of his own characters using the rules, demonstrating that they do, indeed, work!  You should check out Spectrum and El Hijo de Lobo Plata sometime!  (I especially like the seven-level progression he shows for Spectrum...working through the emotional powers of the Green Lantern mythos...!)

Thanks y'all!  (You officially make up the Light City Chamber of Commerce!)

(Any second now, I also expect to see another awesome Light City addition from Justin hit the web for public consumption.  Can't wait...!)

Light City #2 is now up on RPGNow!

Took me long enough!  The second entry in this experiment in superheroics for Swords & Wizardry Light is now available.

Click here to check it out!  (What do you have to lose?  It's free!)

For some reason, it grates on me to have the exact same image two posts in a row.  Guess I need to post more...

Light City - Superheroics for Swords & Wizardry Light

Here's a new little experiment I'm hoping to run with...working with supers in the Swords & Wizardry Light framework, one tiny publication at a time...

The first "issue" of Light City is the Brawler class, for street-level heroes that do the hard work with their fists (like our friend the Flame, above!).

It's free over at RPGNow.  Click here to check it out; I'd love to know what you think of it!

Thanks to my blogging bro Justin for his revision advice here.  Hopefully something else will roll out in the Light City series before too long...!

Monstrous Monday: Brain-Bats revisited!

About a month ago, I posted the classic Basil Wolverton story "The Brain-Bats of Venus" for #MonsterMonday.  +Justin Isaac suggested that some stats for the Brain-Bats would make for a good follow-up, and I had to agree.  (In fact, they probably should have been there in the first place...!)

Today, I finally make good on that suggestion!

Venusian Brain-Bat

HD 2d6 (7 HP)
Defense 10

Venusian Brain-Bats are flying creatures with a width of around 6 feet and a pair of hooks at the tip of each of their fleshy wings.  They are vulnerable to Psychic and Electrical damage (taking double).

Attack:  Brainsmother +2 (1d6-1 psychic damage)

Sentient beings hit by a brainsmother attack must save or come under the control of the Brain-Bat.  While under this control, a creature finds that its thoughts and impulses are affected in addition to its actions.  Each time the Brain-Bat compels the being to perform an action, it may resist with a save, and it may perform actions of its own desire if succeeding at a saving throw.  After 1d4 hours, no more saving throws are allowed, and the effect ends only if the Brain-Bat is killed or removed from its victim (or leaves voluntarily).

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And now...my favorite part for some ridiculous reason...here it is as an underground elemental beast.  Remember to collect 'em all to see who rules the monsterfighting pits...!

Wasteland Wednesday: Jack Kirby's proto-Kamandi

I think the topics I hit on this blog probably make it clear that I'm a fan of ridiculous anthro characters and settings, so I was pretty darned happy when I found this old SF anthology comic story.  (I had probably read about it, as it's even referenced on the Kamandi Wikipedia page, but I didn't realize it was in the public domain until I happened upon it here.)  Here's a Kirby story from way back in 1957 (15 years before Kamandi's debut!) that shows some clear roots for the later series.  Interestingly, this story also predates the novel upon which the film version of Planet of the Apes was based, so it's very cool to see that the basics of The Last Boy on Earth were laid out with no Apes influence.

The full story is below, and you should really check out all of Alarming Tales #1 (lots of free Kirby!)...but I don't think I'll give too much away by sharing a bit of opinion before continuing.  (But please feel free to skip to the good stuff below!)

The "resolution" to this story is kind of weird.  And I know that "weird" is a silly observation when the story is about time-traveling to the future to find a world of interspecific warfare among anthropomorphic animals, but I can't help but feel that this is one of those story seeds that would have really benefited from expansion beyond the short-story anthology setup of so many of these '50s SF/horror/monster/etc. comic series.  This panel toward the end of the story seems like it should have a lot of weight...

...but, just six pages into the world, it just seems silly.

Not that I mind all that much...it's still pretty awesome overall!  And in this future world of 2017, we get the benefit of Kamandi to expand the scope of the story.

Side note: This Wasteland Wednesday is also an appropriate time to return to "real" blogging on here, as I've left Monstrous Matters to be a bit of a wasteland lately as my life undergoes a soft reboot.  I hope to be back in the blogosphere to visit for a spell, now!

Wait, what?

From Space Adventures #46 (1962)...

BOYS LOOK! A NEW TOY!

This artifact of an ad from this 1946 comic is a little bizarre, but I have to say...I'd love to get my hands on one of these...!