Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
The fourth and final installment of the AD&D Characters Coloring Book. My favorite page in this lot: “Mercion is a good cleric. Scary things like skeletons are afraid of her goodness.” I think Zarak looks appropriately sinister, but isn’t he a little short for a half-orc?
Parts one, two, and three of the book are here, here, and here, respectively.
Here’s the 36-year-old Tom Wham, who designed the canonical Snit’s Revenge and The Awful Green Things from Outer Space:
I’ve been making up games since my dad game me a Monopoly set…
It’s a chance to create an alternate world where people can be things they can’t be in the real world. You can create a place in which you can have power over something.
Compare this to an H.P. Lovecraft quote I shared on Facebook yesterday: “There is no field other than the weird in which I have any aptitude or inclination for fictional composition. Life has never interested me so much as the escape from life.”
The article goes on to describe RPGs as “power-to-the-people” games, which I thought was a keen observation for the time.
There were 5000 attendees at Gen Con in 1980. In 2013, there were 50,000.
(Images via Google News)
It’s less than 2 inches in circumference! Helix made Star Wars-themed school supplies for the UK, some of it seen below via Matt & Kristy and eyeSPIVE. You’ll see the pencil sharpener, very clean and bright, in the second shot.
I hope there’s a calculator in the “Maths Set,” because that’s the only thing that ever made numbers easier for me.
I haven’t been able to find much on Read magazine yet, but it seems to have run from the early to late 1970s, and focused on giving young readers fun, relevant stories and articles.
Lots of good stuff in the interview about what does and doesn’t constitute “serious culture.”
“The public accepts all the media more now,” explained Stan. “Take movies. Thirty years ago movies were considered frivolous and unimportant. Now they’re taught in schools and colleges, analyzed, etc.”
The literary novel was also considered frivolous until at least the first quarter of the 20th Century. Today, graphic novels and comics are taught in schools and colleges, and many universities offer degrees in Pop Culture.
Stan again on “why Marvel’s heroes had so many failings”:
“We’ve always felt that if readers could accept the fairy tale quality that this person has green skin or can burst into flames or whatever, then everything else should be realistic… We can write much more interesting stories with human heroes than with unreal ones who never lose their cool.”
Lee, Kirby, and Ditko created a series of interconnected myths that are just as powerful in their way to the modern world as the stories of Zeus and Odysseus were to the ancient Greeks.
(Images via Steven Casteel/eBay)
According to French Wikipedia, the Dungeons & Dragons animated series premiered in France in 1984 (IMDb says 1987, as do other sources), and was rebroadcast starting in 1986. The series was called Le Sourire du Dragon (The Smile of the Dragon), as was the song used for the intro, sung by Dorothée. Listen to the full version here, and watch the actual intro here. It’s very sweet, but also kind of creepy, maybe because it reminds me of the Twin Peaks soundtrack.
The game was designed by François Marcela-Froideval, an influential figure in the introduction of RPGs in France. He came to the U.S. in 1982 to work for TSR, where he collaborated with Gary Gygax on Oriental Adventures (1985), among other projects.
Tignous is credited as the interior artist, and comics innovator Bill Sienkiewicz painted the cover. Sienkiewicz got his start on Moon Knight and The New Mutants, and went on to do mind-blowing art for Elektra: Assassin and the Daredevil: Love and War graphic novel, both of them written by Frank Miller.
See detailed views of all the game pieces and instructions at Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Encyclopedia.
(Images via eBay and Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Encyclopedia)
“Lose your earthly identity and become a Micronaut!” One of the more beautiful game boards out there, from the illustrations to the design and decor. Who knew fuschia could look so good? We’d call the ensemble retro-futuristic today. Plus, the damn thing can double as a playset.
Read more about how to play the game—basic kid stuff—at Innerspace Online.
(Images via eBay and Board Game Geek)
I never really think of the 1980s as having such an unmistakeable look, but here it is: a sort of flamboyant, sugary Art Deco. It may be tacky, but damn, it sure is fun.
Wang Chung is underrated, in my opinion. Starting with 1983’s Points on the Curve, they put out several catchy, sophisticated pop albums. I hated them in 1987, of course, and would have been going on Space Mountain over and over again when the music started. That’s what I did at my grad nite in 1990.
Check out pre-“My Prerogative” Bobby Brown! It’s hard to think that at one time he was a somewhat normal guy with a more than tenuous grasp of reality and common sense.
See a whole lot more grad nite material at the ultimate old school Disneyland source, Vintage Disneyland Tickets.
Imagine this. It’s Friday morning, May 27, 1977. You wake up and go to school, but it’s not really school anymore: finals are over and graduation is next week. It’s just a party at this point. After classes, you and your friends go straight to the local theater to catch a little movie called Star Wars that opened two days earlier. It looks pretty cool.
Two hours later, your mind forever altered, you go home to change and grab something to eat. You go back to school, get on a bus with your friends, and head to Disneyland, talking about Jedi Knights and summer and college and the wide open future. The park has been taken over by high school seniors: no kids, and only a smattering of chaperones. You’ve got it all to yourself.
There’s a new ride called Space Mountain. It just opened today. You can’t wait.
(Images via Vintage Disneyland Tickets)
Two variations of a popular castle and knight set from the ’50s. There were many such sets, including one featuring Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Prince Valiant is an Arthurian adventure comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It’s still running today under different authors. A live action film adaptation appeared in 1954, with Robert Wagner cast as the Prince.
(Images via Toy Soldier HQ and Pinterest)
2 Warps to Neptune 