IMAGINATION MAN
According to www.emode.com, I'm driven by imagination!

Alexander, your unconscious mind is driven most by Imagination.

This means you have a deep desire to use innovative ideas to enhance your life and influence the world around you. This drive influences you far more than you may realize on a conscious level.

Your need to be innovative drives how you look at new opportunities and the kinds of experiences in life you choose to have. On an unconscious level, the reason you may be so driven by imagination is your fear of destruction, the opposite of creation. When you are unable to create due to restrictions imposed by your environment or even ones you unwittingly impose on yourself, do you feel trapped or confined? You may find these feelings of unease only get better when you find another outlet for your imagination.

With such a strong creative orientation, you are willing to entertain a broad spectrum of ideas at any given time. The world is a fuller, richer place because you can contribute new ideas to any experience. Your natural curiosity inspires those around you and encourages them to come up with ideas they wouldn't have thought of without your help.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Imagination, there is much more to who you are at your core.


Well, I guess that answers everything then.

I'm hungry. Time to eat.
A Book That I'd Buy

In June, Avatar Press is releasing a book:

Alan Moore's WRITING FOR COMICS Vol 1 GN
Retail Price: $5.95 US
Cover: Juan Jose Ryp
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Jacen Burrows
Readership: All Ages
Format: B&W, 48 pages, square bound
ISBN: 1592910122

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: The master of comic book writing shares his thoughts on how to deliver a top notch script! The main essay was originally written in 1985 and appeared in an obscure British fanzine, right as Moore was reshaping the landscape of modern comics, and has been tragically lost ever since. Now Avatar brings it back in print, collected for the first time as one graphic novel, and heavily illustrated by Jacen Burrows. Alan Moore also provides a brand new essay on how his thoughts on writing have changed in the two decades since he first wrote it. For fans of Moore's work, new writers, or anyone who wants a peak behind the mental curtain of one of the greatest living writers, this is a can't miss book!


... and I'm buying it. My goodness, how could I not? I've enjoyed Moore's Watchmen series along with many, many other ground-breaking works...
The Young & Persecuted
When I was younger and didn't quite know that adults didn't necessarily have all the answers, I encountered prejudice. Prejudice towards my hobbies: comicbooks, RPGs, Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels / TV / etc. I wish I could go back and have all the snappy remarks to their well-meaning but horribly uninformed comment. It's good to know I'm not alone though. Here are similar comments on successful comic book industry folks by their teachers taken from here.

BRIAN BENDIS, writer (everything)

My rabbi confiscated one of my text-books when he saw dozens of drawings of Namor- I was into Namor that year- that I had drawn into it.

Not knowing what Namor was and being pretty pissed off that I had ruined probably my fifteenth textbook, my rabbi publicly chastised me and then called my Mom to tell me that I clearly had homosexual tendencies because I was spending my day drawing naked wet men with wings on their feet.

I was really into dazzler too, does that make me BI?

BRYAN HITCH, window-gazer and excellent part-time artist

When Mr and Mrs Hitch went to St Cuthbert’s RC primary school for parent-teacher report night in the wind blown winter of 1979, Headmaster John "Paddy" Lett waved the three remaining fingers of his nicotine-stained right hand to dismiss their protestations of their son's supposed intelligence. "Yes, he may indeed have the highest reading age in the school and be capable of straight A grades, but it is clear to me," he waffled on undulating like a bin liner full of yoghurt "that Bryan will undoubtedly doodle his way into the dole queue."

FRANK QUITELY, window-gazer

St. Columbkille's primary and St bride's high (every single year):
"Easily distracted"

MARK MILLAR, frustrated artist

Mr Reilly – Maths Teacher – St Ambrose High School (1984): “Millar has decided it would be a wise move to be an idiot this year and prefers to court popularity by playing to the gallery than actually doing anything useful or constructive”

Mr Corr - English Teacher - St Ambrose High School (1985):
"No matter what I say, no matter what I do and no matter which child I sit him next to, Mark will not stop talking and concentrate on his work. This is a shame because, if he would only learn to keep his mouth shut, this boy might be capable of excellence"

Alanguilan & Wasted on ComicBookResources Column

The column is Stephen Grant's Permanent Damage column. It's a bit of a ways down, so here's the article:

Gerry Alanguilan's a Philippine artist who occasionally pops up as an inker at major comics companies, but if you read WASTED (Komikero Comics, Box 67, San Pablo City Post Office, Laguna, Philippines 4000; $3.95US) you'll realize what a waste of his talents that is. WASTED collects a crime comic Gerry wrote and drew in the mid-90s, about a would-be musician who goes nuts when all the pressures and betrayals of his life get to him. Not unlike the film FALLING DOWN, but involving a lot more bodies. It's one of those stories congested in overwhelming inevitability, but it's well done. Gerry's has developed as an artist since WASTED - his more recent work has a more illustrative European look, but I sort of prefer the open cleanness of WASTED: more power with fewer lines. Anyway, it's a kick.

Nice to see local talent reflected on the international comics scene. Wish it happened more often.
An RPG Cross-Over
Apparently, both DOJ (publishers of HERO System products) and GOO (publishers of Silver Age Sentinels and other fine products) have decided to do a cross-over RPG setting! Now hear this!

HERO GAMES AND GUARDIANS OF ORDER TEAM-UP FOR SUPERHERO RPG CROSSOVER

Hero Games and Guardians Of Order, Inc. jointly announced today plans to publish a shared-universe crossover adventure for their leading superhero role-playing games, Champions and Silver Age Sentinels. Reality Storm: When Worlds Collide will debut this summer at the GenCon Game Fair (24-27 July, 2003) in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“The folks at Hero Games are a great crew and we look forward to working with them on this ground-breaking project,” said Guardians Of Order President, Mark C. MacKinnon. “During the past year we joined forces to launch advertising and co-promotional campaigns that exposed each company’s supporters to the strength and quality of the so-called ‘competition.’ When we saw how supportive our fans were of our friendly rivalry, we decided to give them what they wanted most: a superhero RPG crossover, evoking the spirit of the leading comic book crossovers of the past four decades. They asked and we listened -- this is the must-have product for every superhero RPG aficionado!”

“We’re thrilled to be working with the Guardians gang on this project,” said Darren Watts, Hero Games’ President. “Not only are they a great bunch of guys, but we don’t think that anything quite like this -- mixing two companies’ settings and characters together in a crossover adventure -- has ever been done for gaming before. It’s a comic book classic, and all of us are having a fantastic time bringing it to the world of role-playing.”

Reality Storm: When Worlds Collide sets the stage for a world-shattering apocalypse when arch-villains Dr. Destroyer and Kreuzritter team-up to conquer both universes! The heroes from Champions’ Millennium City and Silver Age Sentinels’ Empire City must join forces to save their worlds, but can they put aside their differences to work together or will they destroy each other first? In addition to an epic adventure, Reality Storm will also contain detailed system conversion notes for the HERO System (Champions) and Tri-Stat System (Silver Age Sentinels) to assist players switching between games. Reality Storm: When Worlds Collide will be published by Hero Games in July 2003.

Founded in 1997, Guardians Of Order, Inc. is a Canadian publishing company specializing in Japanese anime and superheroic role-playing games, as well as licensed resource and reference books. In addition to their Origins Award-nominated Big Eyes, Small Mouth anime RPG and Silver Age Sentinels superhero RPG, they publish licensed fan guides and RPGs based on: popular anime series (Trigun, Hellsing, Fushigi Yugi, Slayers, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and others); George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire (fall 2003); and DC Comics’ acclaimed superhero series, The Authority and StormWatch (spring 2004). Guardians Of Order is headquartered in Guelph, Ontario. For more information, contact Guardians Of Order at info@guardiansorder.com, or visit the company's website at http://www.guardiansorder.com.

In business for over twenty years, Hero Games publishes games and game products based on its renowned HERO System rules, including Champions (the game of superheroic role-playing), Star Hero, Fantasy Hero, The Ultimate Martial Artist, and many others. Champions, named by InQuest Magazine as the best role-playing game of all time, has been inducted into the Origins Award Hall Of Fame. For more information about Hero Games, the HERO System, and related products, contact the company at info@herogames.com, or visit its website at http://www.herogames.com.