Sisu

The best kill in Nazi-mangling actioner Sisu, from the director of Rare Exports and the producers of John Wick, is in the trailer, but there are plenty more where that came from.

Good Exhibits Wear Black

Beyond the Little Black Dress, on the use of black in fashion, at the National Museum of Scotland starting in July. After last year’s history of anatomy, they’ve once again put on a deeply Goth exhibition that ends the weekend before Hallowe’en.

Star Wars: Shatterpoint miniatures

Rob Wieland gets an advance look at Star Wars: Shatterpoint, a new skirmish miniatures game from Atomic Mass Games (Marvel Crisis Protocol) and FFG, a few figures per side in 40mm scale, the third scale FFG have produced Star Wars skirmish miniatures in. More photos at Goonhammer. The emphasis on scenery means some packs are essentially dioramas with removable figures and a rule sheet.

Amusingly considering the game title comes from a Matthew Stover novel starring Mace Windu, there’s no Mace Windu.

VNV Nation, Electric Sun

A new VNV Nation album, including a song called Invictus joining their several songs with Chronicles Of Darkness subtitles. And it’s not the one about building the universe and holding the cosmos in our hands, which sounds like a new chapter if the band had an ongoing Demon game.

With Rick and Sue. And not sure how I got this purple desaturation effect on my phone selfie camera.

Disney- - -

And they pulled Runaways as well without even putting it on the list. The full list runs to over 100 titles.

Dracula Day

Dracula came out 126 years ago today.

It’s also Peter Cushing’s birthday.

And there’s a May 26th bit in Dracula too:

Telegram from Arthur Holmwood to Quincey P. Morris.

26 May.

Count me in every time. I bear messages which will make both your ears tingle.

ART.

Now wondering what it would take to make one ear tingle.

Also, ha ha, he said Count.

Candela Obscura quickstart

Candela Obscura has started, and the quickstart is here. Rather Blades In The Dark, the designer has said the full book will reference its influence and Creative Commons version.

Disney- -

And they sneakily added more things to the chopping block. Want to watch The Princess, or Rosaline? Hurry.

They Came From The RPG Anthology!

They Came From The RPG Anthology! presents new settings, as well as Storypath Ultra and Storypath quick and light.

Iron Man anniversary special

Kevin Feige and Jon Favreau talk Iron Man and the following fofteen years of the MCU.

Rom, the Greatest of the Spaceknights!

Through the power of people realising they could actually make money by agreeing to reprint something after sitting on it for decades, Marvel’s ROM: Spaceknight is being republished in full.

For those who don't know, as I explained five years ago, Rom was a tie-in for an unsuccessful toyline that played out like The Invaders TV series in the Marvel Universe except instead of a regular guy chasing the aliens trying to conquer the world it was a square-headed Cylon lookalike hero who talked like Aragorn, like if Klaatu and Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still were the same character and in a much worse mood.

Aye, this be our hero!

It’s a weird comic. I love it.

World Goth Day

Happy World Goth Day!

DARKNESS!

Buffy: The Lost Summer

A one-shot Buffy comic, apparently set in the TV continuity unlike Boom!’s previous run (I say apparently because when exactly does this fit?) The Lost Summer has a cute road trip setup, an auction of occult stuff (as done in Angel though tonally more like a sequence in Slayer) and an overall hangout sitcom tone. It made me smile a couple times and could have made for a fun breather episode, but other than the return to the regular universe it’s an odd thing to have on shelves in time for the Chosen anniversary.

Buffy: Chosen at 20

Yes, a lot of anniversaries for an annual thing are close together.

James Marsters on Buffy and Spike

James Marsters talks to Radio Times about Buffy and Spike’s shifting roles in the series as the exception to monsters being problems to overcome.

Buffy: Becoming at 25

Tonight marks the 25th anniversary of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer season two finale Becoming Part 2, one of the all-time emotional wrecking balls of the series.

Buffering and Slayerfest both doing double-retrospective things: Slayerfest 1 2.

And also the promo from the premiere, via old video.

By the time it aired here on BBC Two I knew what came next, but it still got me, and still gets me every time.

Winter here’s cold, and bitter...

Disney-

Disney is cutting back including pulling some series from Diney+, including original series and some pretty new ones like Willow, possibly to avoid paying episode residuals. This sucks.

Laws Of The Night V5

Laws Of The Night Minds Eye LARP rules for Vampire: The Masquerade based on V5, now on Backerkit and funded in an hour and a half.

The character sheet previews certainly look like V5. (With Hunger adapted so that Bestial Failures and Messy Criticals come up at points on the Hunger level, it looks like.)

Available in small paperback as well as big hardback (and PDF, of course) for less weight carrying around locations. (I have the Revised paperback from The Grand Masquerade and it would be much handier to travel with)

Still rock-paper-scissors, with no Bomb now.

Bunny on a broomstick

I’d love to see more of some of the stories glimpsed in Will Quinn’s Daily Bunny cartoons. Today’s, for example:

Daily bunny no.2124 is ready to fly

Russ Nicholson

Russ Nicholson, known for his art for Fighting Fantasy starting with The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain as well as Warhammer and more, has died.

A memorable example of his style from Titan

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One trailer

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One continues to make me think about making a live-action Bloodhunt trailer.

Buffy Best Of

Radio Times is preparing a Buffy special for the 20th annversary of Chosen, with a James Marsters interview and a poll for best episode.

Bloodhunt shuttered

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is to cease development, with the servers staying on as long as they can.

V5 Last Dance 2.01

Vampire: The Masquerade - Last Dance moves into season two with a new venue, a player joining, and some of my familiar roster of NPCs attending a gig.

Happy birthday to George Lucas

and all who celebrate.

Eurovision 2023

I was surprised Cha Cha Cha did so well after lurching off course halfway through.

More puzzled by the Poe thing. Really puzzled by that.

Golden Demon Warhammer painting awards

The Golden Demon Award winners include some amazing miniatures painting work.

Lockwood & Co.

Lockwood & Co. has been Netflixed by Netflix. Creator Jonathan Stroud posts an open letter on Twitter. “And I want you to know that Portland Row will always be open for business.”

(Fake) happy After Laughter day!

Paramore, After Laughter, at six

Giraffes are very tall.

We got to Edinburgh Zoo today for the first time since 2019. Giraffes!

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal

A preview and first episode of Unicorn: Warriors Eternal from Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky, in which three heroes are called to take new bodies over and over again to fight an ancient evil, whether the bodies’ current owners want the job or not.

Candela Obscura

Candela Obscura, a new steampunky horror fantasy RPG from Critical Role’s Darrington Press, naturally with a show attached, quickstart and first monthly episode due on the night of the 25th.

Into The Dark

We begin with a radio crackle, and it resolves into a low, ominous tone. A signal. A distress call? A warning?

Set off some fireworks

A big civic celebration seems like the kind of thing that provides a backdrop or kickoff, or maybe an ending if the PCs are due a parade.

Royalty in your setting

Who sits on the throne? And are the PCs ever likely to be in a room with them?

Where might they fit in a big show of pageantry like a coronation or jubilee? Part of the ceremony itself or the show around it, in the massed ranks, in the crowd, holding up placards and being moved on by police?

(Call back to the Star Wars RPG adverts pointing out an extra in a key scene and asking “What’s this guy’s story?” To which the answer is whether we care. But here I’m thinking established characters dealing with some big event.)

Coronation

That’s not how Éminence grise is supposed to work, Chuck.

“Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king.”

Conan, not Charles

I would invite Nick Cave to my coronation too.

Kim Newman notes: The rule is that if a coronation has to be televised, the BBC has to give us a Quatermass serial a couple of months later.

Edit:

That was long, and weird, and was Michael Jackson making a reference with the one white glove or what... and what was up with that ring stand...

Of course it involved the Stone of Destiny, but also four swords including Curtana, the blunted Sword of Mercy for all your HALO referencing Relics game needs.

Guardian weekend cartoonist Stephen Collins finds that he guessed Liz Truss’s outfit alarmingly well.

Jason Isaacs declines an OBE

Playing Vampire? Playing?!

I might get to play V5 this summer.

Choice paralysis ahoy!

I mean, I even have an idea for a Malkavian this time.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 is fine. Sometimes funny and intermittently puerile and leaning on its music selections and some “how is this a 12?” bits (see: James Gunn) but not a “just get to the villain reveal already” clunker like 2, my least favourite MCU movie until last year.

Adam Warlock fans won’t be happy. (I presume, having never met one.) Might have been funnier with a more Superman-ly casting for contrast.

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 comes from animation studios around the world, for a greater variety of styles, and also a greater variety of action beats and plot twists, though there are still plenty of recurring themes - a lot of families and often involving someone having the Force, and also a lot of mining.

I Am Your Mother from Aardman is as fun and lovingly done as expected. Screecher’s Reach from Cartoon Saloon plays as one of the spooky interludes in their folklore-based films. The Spy Dancer from Studio La Cachette is a French Resistance in the arts story, an idea I could see more of.

May the Fourth

So off to see, er, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.

Trinity Continuum: Adventure!

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! is out now in PDF and POD for those who missed the Kickstarter.

Adventure is out there, it’s heading our way...

Dracula Daily Day

Dracula Daily embarks again on May 3rd. Also this year, a podcast audio adaptation inspired by it.

The Writers' Strike

The Writers’ Guild of America is on strike, basically to save the creative industry.

Iron Man

Iron Man came out on this day in 2008. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is fifteen years old. That’s almost a third of my life, although being the most recent third it still feels like a pretty new phenomenon.

I knew the plan was to make more, with Marvel holding the rights to a pretty classic Avengers lineup and The Incredible Hulk already on the way, but it still seemed risky. Iron Man itself was a low-stakes gamble despite costing 200 million dollars. Another Hulk movie? Thor? Captain America? This chain of “could this really work?” thinking pretty much kept going until Guardians Of The Galaxy. (Not helped, it must be said, by Iron Man 2 being pretty clunky.)

The biggest surprise I remember on the night was the end, not counting the post-credits scene. Having set up the traditional secret identity... Tony just dropped it.

One press group reaction shot and roll credits.

Just like that, it was already a very different superhero story. (Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer had the team in the public eye a year earlier, following their public identities in the comics, but for Stark it was a change.) Whatever came next could be pretty wild.

And it has been.

May

And trying not to consider a game based on Soviet sci-fi. (The Soviet era being raked over by Russia now helps.)

Morning update: The sun would appear to have risen. Good work, fire jugglers and all!

Evening update: It being May Day, I hope somebody wears a Tax The Rich outfit to the Met Gala again.