Tonight’s episode was the beginning of the Flash and Arrow crossover!
Ashley V. Robinson
via DC Comics
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/10/11/the-flash-hi-im-barry-allen-and-im-addicted-to-changing-the-timeline
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
The Flash: Hi, I'm Barry Allen and I'm Addicted to Changing the Timeline
Ashley V. Robinson
via DC Comics
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/10/11/the-flash-hi-im-barry-allen-and-im-addicted-to-changing-the-timeline
DC All Access: Win a Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 Blu-Ray Collection
Albert Einstein alert!
DCE Editorial
via DC Comics
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/10/11/dc-all-access-win-a-supergirl-and-dcs-legends-of-tomorrow-season-1-blu-ray
Reader Recaps: The Suicide Squad Kneels Before Zod
With Rebirth now in full swing and so many exciting new titles to try, we can’t blame anyone for needing a reminder of what happened in the last issue.
Meg Downey and Matt Ross
via DC Comics
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/10/11/reader-recaps-the-suicide-squad-kneels-before-zod
Dilettante 042: Expanding Your Influences
STEVE LIEBER'S DILETTANTE
Steve Lieber advises artists to look elsewhere for influences, including photography, dance, prose, theatre, and painting and sculpture.
CCI_Gary_SDCC
via The Toucan Blog
http://www.comic-con.org/toucan/dilettante-042-expanding-your-influences
Interview with Dan Carroll, Dragon Con Media Relations Director
It’s no surprise a ton of work goes in to planning a convention. For one as big as Dragon Con, there are countless moving parts and departments that must work together to make it run smoothly. This year, Dragon Con celebrated its 30th year and that’s thanks in part to Media Relations Director Dan Carroll, who has been with the con for ten years. In an email interview, Carroll reflected on this year’s DC, what makes it stand apart from other cons, and more.
How did you first get involved with Dragon Con and can you tell me a little bit about your history with the con (how you arrived at your current position, etc.)?
I first volunteered for Dragon Con in 2006, working the helpdesk. I worked the helpdesk for three years and fell in love with the convention. The Media role opened up in 2009 and I created a matrix of my skills and assumptions about the role, using my experience in corporate communications and management. I have found a home with Dragon Con, and a position where i could use my skills to celebrate the community and the convention.
The Nerd Machine puts on our own con in Nerd HQ, but clearly every con is different. Can you tell me about what goes in to planning Dragon Con?
Dragon Con has over 117 departments working throughout the year to plan and execute this amazing convention. We have to organize our guest list, approve and manage performers, vet and assign space to vendors, and a million other tasks that will be difficult to define in a short interview. We are predominantly a volunteer organization, including my own role.
What are your main duties as Director of Media Relations and what would people be surprised are some of your responsibilities?
I have four responsibilities: outreach to reporters and media outlets, management of registration, coordination of guest interviews, and acting as the event spokesperson. My team is big enough and mature enough that I can delegate most of the first three responsibilities to our PR director, registration manager, and interview manager; however, I am still responsible for oversight and vision in these tasks. Being the event spokesperson is the most fun thing about my job. Being interviewed and being able to be the voice of Dragon Con in this unique role has been a lot of fun.
One example of a surprising aspect of my job is that I often go to interviews with Dragon Con guests. One memorable experience was going on the radio with Burt Ward, Robin of the 1960s Batman series.
Dragon Con has become synonymous with Atlanta. How important has it become to the city and why is Atlanta the best place for the con to be held?
Dragon Con is very important to Atlanta, and very much loved by the city. The economic impact of Dragon Con expands every year, and is approaching $70M. The way the city has accepted Dragon Con is very clear from the recent proclamation of Dragon Con Day by the Mayor of Atlanta and our respect and appreciation from the Atlanta Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Likewise, Atlanta is Dragon Con’s home and there is no thought ever of moving from Atlanta. We started here, we expanded here, and we are staying here. We could not have grown with the Atlanta infrastructure and our Atlanta based volunteers who welcome everyone with southern hospitality.
What do you think makes Dragon Con special – how is it different from other cons?
The real star of Dragon Con is our attendees. Dragon Con is our attendees. We are a top up community that occurs every year when thousands of friends and family come together to celebrate a myriad of fandoms. We are not a trade show, we are not a promotions event. We are a family reunion.
Dragon Con is known for its charity work, too. How is a philanthropy chosen ever year and can you tell me about this year’s successes?
This year we raised over $100K for the ACSS, the Atlanta Center for Self-Sufficiency, including a $50,000 matching donation from Dragon Con itself. Each year interesting and worthy charities are reviewed by our board and one is selected. Of course we also take part in the long standing Robert Heinlein Pay-It-Forward Blood Drive.
How do you measure the success of the con itself? Is it through attendance, feedback, something else…?
Well, that’s an answer that changes for each person, but in my case my department succeeds when more people know about Dragon Con in a positive light. Attendance is also a fair barometer. In the end though, it is the number of people not who attended, but who want to come back again…that’s the real success of Dragon Con.
How successful do you think this year’s con was?
This was the best Dragon Con ever for me personally, professionally, and for watching people fall in love with Dragon Con for the first time.
Looking back on this year, is there anything you would have done differently? Or is it a well-oiled machine at this point?
We start planning the 2017 convention early in the summer, andwe look at what we haven’t completed or won’t accomplish and put them into our backlog for next year.
My department excelled this year and allowed me to be able to do more. Since my role is to talk about Dragon Con, I had more exciting and interesting things to talk about than ever. We have a minimal of incidents, and nothing that involved Dragon Con attendees or reporters.
We had an excellent convention, but we always want to improve and expand the entertainment value of Dragon Con for attendees.
What do you hope con-goers take away from Dragon Con and how would you encourage those who have never come to attend?
Dragon Con is the most inclusive, welcoming, and open community I know of. If you have never attended before you will find something being celebrated that you adore. You will find a home and a new family.
admin
via The Nerd Machine
http://www.thenerdmachine.com/interview-with-dan-carroll-dragon-con-media-relations-director/
Interview: Mantic Games’ Adam Levine on Star Saga Kickstarter
When most people think about tabletop wargaming, they think that the price to get into this hobby is astronomically high. Not the case with a company called Mantic Games, as they release core sets for very low prices. Recently I had a chance to catch up with Mantic’s Adam Levine to discuss their latest offering on Kickstarter called Star Saga.
Please introduce yourself.
I’m Adam Levine, and I am the Global Head of Marketing at Mantic. My interests include reading, video games, and traveling.
Tell us a bit about Mantic Games.
Mantic was founded in 2009 by Ronnie Renton and in the past seven years, we have become known for games that offer great fun, great value, and great quality, whether that’s a fantasy wargame like Kings of War, a sci-fi skirmish game like Deadzone, or a more casual adventure game like Dungeon Saga. We’ve also done two licensed games for a broader audience: Mars Attacks with Topps, and The Walking Dead – which is hitting retail soon – with Skybound, and based on the hit comic book series by Robert Kirkman.
Mantic has loads of great games. What are some of the more popular ones right now?
Dungeon Saga has been huge for us, and that’s a big reason we’ve launched Star Saga: to expand on that concept. Dungeon Saga was designed to be a modern take on the classic fantasy games from the 80s, and we built it with simple, easy-to-learn mechanics so that almost anyone could pick it up and play. But it’s also a strategy-based game, and so it attracts players at all skill levels, and so far has been our biggest hit to date. We do think The Walking Dead will eclipse that, though, and already are seeing tons of interest for it online and at retail. Like Dungeon Saga, it’s a game players of all skill levels can enjoy. Kings of War has also been a big success for us this year, as it fills a huge void in the genre of mass-battle fantasy gaming and fans are just eating it up.
You currently have a Kickstarter for Star Saga. Tell us more about this universe.
Star Saga is set in our existing Warpath universe, which covers all of the sci-fi games we’ve done.
The Warpath Universe is a dynamic, hard sci-fi setting, some years in the future, where corporations run everything, from products and manufacturing to people, star systems, and even entire civilizations. Outside the wealth and glamour of the core worlds, the galaxy has a feeling of lawlessness, so in one sense it’s very much what I call a “cowboy future.” Bounty hunters and mercenaries are powerful and wealthy, and work both sides of every conflict.
We have three tiers of games within this universe: the bigger, broader games like Warpath, that play in terms of vast armies and entire planets waging war; the mid-level skirmish/battle games like Deadzone and our upcoming Firefight that tell more focused stories; and then we have Star Saga for more detailed, character-driven stories within the larger Warpath universe.
What will be included with the core pledge?
It hasn’t been fully determined yet, and won’t be finalized until after our Kickstarter completes, but right now it stands at 37 miniatures, including five mercenary “heroes” (although we are loath to call them heroes; they’re more anti-heroes, really), four enemy bosses, and 24 minions, one Kickstarter Exclusive Bounty Hunter and three bonus security guards; 3D-sculpted scenery including doors, tables, computer terminals, ammo crates, loot, and more; a variety of full color floor tiles, and of course everything needed to play, like the rulebook, game cards, counters, custom dice, and range ruler. The Kickstarter pledge also includes some other exclusive items like a dice bag and an autographed art print. The core pledge will come with the first two expansions, the Star Saga Mission Creator and Star Saga Character Creator, which allow you to build your own teams of mercenaries and design your own campaigns.
What are some of the stretch goals you want to unlock in this Kickstarter?
Well, we’ve already unlocked five stretch goals which added many of the contents listed, like the 3D scenery and extra miniatures. We have many more planned, including some more expansions, loads more miniatures, scenery, and bonus items. One upcoming goal is to update the rules of our previous game, Project Pandora, which we’ll make available to everyone for free (even if you didn’t back the campaign) to bring it up to date with Star Saga’s new mechanics.
What are some of the exclusives that might be available to people who fund this Kickstarter?
The core pledge includes a Kickstarter miniature of Blaine, the dimension-hopping bounty hunter we’ve featured in nearly every one of our campaigns. We’ve also included a printed dice bag, signed art print, and at our next stretch goal, we’ll be adding and another exclusive mercenary figure. Lots more exclusives are planned, too, as our total rises.
Would you be able to cross over with other games/universes such as Dungeon Saga?
Not Dungeon Saga specifically, but definitely other games in the Warpath Universe, like Deadzone. We’ve already got plans, if we get far enough, to cross over not just these characters into those games, but to adapt the characters and figures from those games to be playable in Star Saga.
Is there a chance that Project Pandora Grim Cargo would be remade?
Somewhat. Our $250K goal will see us update the rules for that game to be in line with Star Saga, and make those rules available as a free download.
Do you have any other projects coming up that you would want to talk about?
Nothing beyond Star Saga, though our retail launch for The Walking Dead: All Out War is coming soon and we’re all very excited about that. We have plans for a launch day organized play event, with giveaways and promotional items, too. We think this game will be something really special.
Any dream projects you would love to see made?
Dream projects? Well, as a fan myself, I’d love to work on some miniatures games based on my favorite video games or movies, and now that we’ve got some really great experience with licenses…who knows? Wink wink.
And there you have it! If you want to check out the Kickstarter for this great project, click here. This looks like a blast to play and if you love all things sci-fi, I encourage you to check out this great offering from Mantic Games.
admin
via The Nerd Machine
http://www.thenerdmachine.com/interview-mantic-games-adam-levine-on-star-saga-kickstarter/
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