Slugfest!

It dawned on me this morning that I have never actually drawn Doc vs. Simian Prime. I mean, I have lots of drawings of Doc, and a few of Simian Prime, but I've never drawn them actually... you know... fighting. So, I took up the challenge and decided to go for the most iconic sort of late 60s slugfest image I could manage. I'm quite pleased with how this has come along. It's going to be the cover to something at some point... here it is in both black and white and color. I even like the black and white version. It's very clean.

An Introductory Adventure

I spent a little more time with the grand comics database for Doc, adding some details from the core rules that had not been in my master document. I think it is all aligned now - as you can see, there are many blank spaces that need to be filled in, and a lot of placeholders where I know who or what may have first appeared, but I'm not exactly sure what the story was that they were involved in. That said, it's a pretty good skeleton of what the history of Doc's adventures have looked like, and it also leaves me with a lot of room to expand, deepen, and enrich the lore. If this was everything, I'd be okay. I think that there are still major storylines and characters who have yet to be introduced, and I'm excited to find those things hidden in my searches through the 'back issue bins' as I explore my imagination.

I also see several storylines that are going to adapt nicely into adventures. At present, I conceptualize adventures at around 8-10 pages - the cover of the comic, one or two samples of interior art (probably not full pages, but panels from throughout), a one-page overview of the storyline as it appeared (with historical context and all that good stuff), and an adventure broken into three acts with frame/cut scenes that help to shape the whole. While issue #1 would seem to be the most reasonable start, I'm actually leaning towards the first appearance of Malamus the Magma King in issue #58. This could break nicely into a first encounter in the northern streets of Meridian where Malamus' legions have risen from the earth to 'counter attack' the people who have been disturbing his caves. After a short battle, the Magmen would retreat, having made their point - continued hostility will bring even more damage. In a cut scene, we could learn that a company has been doing illegal sonic testing and drilling in the northern mountains, disturbing Malamus. In Act 2, the heroes could attempt to intercept a Project Javelin task force (maybe led by Prototype) that has been sent to destroy Malamus and crush his small empire. In Act 3, they go to his volcano and try to negotiate a peace agreement that will get Project Javelin to stand down and bring at least a temporary peace. 

This would set in motion a lot of different elements of the comic, and introduce an organization that does unethical stuff that could be an ongoing background threat. Doc himself could either be present for the mission, or the idea is that he is always on some other mission but acts as a resource for the heroes via telecom. He could phone in with suggestions or send some help, but he just happens to be on the moon, or fighting tsunamis in Japan, or helping rescue people from Mr. Everest, or whatever.

For longer storylines, I could adapt them as multiple parts, doing smaller campaign arcs (war of the demigods), or I could find linked issues across continuity and release them as a cohesive story (the various stories having to do with Doc's secret lab being taken over, crashed into the ocean, and ultimately used as an undersea base). Staying with the idea of adapting the existing comics history gives me a nice framework to stay within, and really defines what these adventures will look like.

A GL Swipe Because I Did

I've been actually chilling a bit on Facebook, just joining groups so that my feed is full of 80s comic goodness and supers RPG stuff. I can now just jump on and scroll through the most awesome stuff and spend time in the same world of Stalwart '85, which is groovy. I ended up joining a Green Lantern group just because of this image, and then I had to swipe it and create a variation for Bronze Beacon, because I just loved it so much. No idea who the artist is, but I love the style. Here's the original with my unapologitic adaptation.

Edit: I found the source - fan art. Wanted to give the dude the credit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/qq9osk/fan_art_just_finished_reading_new_frontier_and/

On Staying in My Sand Box

I keep instinctively looking at ways to 'expand' the game for Stalwart '85. I keep thinking of what I want to do 'next', or how to move the game/story/world 'forward' in some way. I keep wanting to make new 'main characters' to pick up pieces of the narrative and carry them in other directions. I originally planned last summer to hand over the reigns from Doc to Skye, and to start to tell her story instead.

But Doc always comes back into the picture. I started play testing the Cataclysm Across the Cosmos this week, and realized that it's not that story unless Doc is there. Doc is the center of gravity for the whole thing. 

In the last few days, I've been scrolling through some old scans online of Marvel 2-in-1, thinking it would be cool to have a character like the Thing who could go around and team up with other heroes to expand the world. Oh. I already have him. He's Doc. He's already doing that.

In fact, he's been doing it for 264 issues as of the time Stalwart '85 comes out. 

It always comes back to Doc. That's the future - it's the past. I was thinking about how to develop adventures for the game, and realized that I have a database going of great adventure ideas in seed form - I have re-organized this a bit and posted it so you can see the living database, but the answers are all right there. I should be publishing adventures for the game, but they can be rooted in adapting the existing 264 comics. The game is set in April of 1985. It's a fixed point in time. I can now spend my time going back and filling in as many gaps as possible. It's a bit of a strange creative enterprise for me - my job is to spend my time going through the 'back issue' bins, organizing things and adding to them. I don't have to generate 'new content' - I can just spend my time building up the catalog of what already exists as of April 1985. That should keep me busy enough. This is the entire sand box I have to play in. I can stay within these walls and never run out of things to work on - if you figure an average Doc story was 16 pages, and there are 264 of those, that's over 4,000 pages I haven't figured out yet. I think that's enough to work with. 

Plus, the whole idea of the game itself is that you're with me in April of good old '85. You bought the game, you own some comics, and you're itching to start your own game set in this world. You have no idea what storylines or continuity or strangeness is ahead, and you start building a game based on the comics you have. As you go, you hit conventions or comic shops or mail order and start to fill in your back issue collection. My job now is to help you do it.