My Geekfest today started with a trip to Wal-Mart where I found three of the five GI Joe adventure team figures. These are the Wal-Mart exclusives that I wrote about a few weeks back- Retro packaging, Kung-Fu grip, fuzzy hair and only $9.99 each!
I also picked up a DVD copy of “The Princess Bride”. I figured the Minions enjoyed ‘Stardust” so much last week they would enjoy this classic as well. I was right.
“She who must be obeyed” and I also shopping for clothes and books- her clothes, my books. We hit one of my favorite used bookstores where I scored a copy of Andre Norton’s Quag Keep.
Quag Keep is not one Norton’s better known novels, unless you’re a gamer, more specifically a gamer who cut his teeth on AD&D in the 70’s-80’s then you should know what I’m talking about. Few have the module, I suspect fewer still have the book, it was an awesome Geek boy find.
I also managed to plug some holes in my S&S book collection. I found #4 in the “Death Dealer” series-
Plague of knives, and #3 in the Carson of Venus series- Escape on Venus. These incidentally bring my S&S paperback collection to 70 books. I’m also working on a concept for a pulp game tentatively titled Mission: Adventure! That takes place in the cold war 60’s as opposed to the typical 1930’s pulp that everyone else is doing. I’m thinking a little “Jonny Quest”, little “Mack Bolan”, A little “Challengers of the Unknown”. I’m still in the early stages of development but I started collecting some research material to steal…er um…get inspiration from. I often do judge a book by it’s cover and this one looked fun.
More reading!
I remember Quag Keep rocking when I was a teenager - didn't know there was a module based on it though!!! Did you realise there was also a sequel "Return To...", but I've never read that.
ReplyDeleteAnd you can never get enough Mack Bolan (The Punisher done properly).
Did you see that Image comics is doing a 6 issue mini series of Death Dealer?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imagecomics.com/backlist.php?bookname=frank_frazetta's_death_dealer
I guess its been pretty popular as they are doing Silver Warrior in 2008.
"Live Large."
ReplyDeleteI had that router'd in a piece of wood "back in the day." Mack Bolan rocked. I would walk to the neighborhood pharmacy that carried the series (along with the other Able Team and Phoenix Force) every month to pick them up. Then I learned of the subscription plan by Gold Eagle. I had a massive collection of the Stony Man books by the time I went to college. I longed for a Mack Bolan movie (much talked about, but never definitely delivered; yeah, there were movies that eluded to its heritage, but never a Mack Bolan film, e.g., Dirk Pitt; instead we got Stallone and Stone in The Specialist)
Well, I digress. Sounds like a great premise for a game setting. You have one vote!
'Doh!
ReplyDeleteGood job on scoring a classic Joe. I checked WalMart again on Saturday morning and still no joy.
I looked for them for a couple of weeks, went to the Joe section at Wal-mart, and they were with some other action figures a couple of isles away.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your Joe score.
ReplyDeleteI never was an Andre Norton fan, but I loved Quag Keep. A few years back, I started trying to track down the novels that defined my youth, and that was one of them.
The Mack Bolan series was another although I lost interest when he went international.
I had gotten rid of my Executioner's years ago, then a couple of years back, I found a cache at a library ex-lib sale. I don't have 'em all, but I've got more than I thought I'd ever track down again.
The Mission: Adventure campaign idea sounds like a winner.
I LOVED the Death Dealer books. I don't know if James Silke ever wrote anything else, or even how much input Frazetta had into any of it, but they really had a lot of great ideas and concepts. I find myself thinking about them now and again, which is proof that they've stayed with me over time. Enjoy the Plague, sir!
ReplyDelete