Surprises and Weaknesses

Okay, a nice surprise and bit of weakness here. Last week I received a package that I didn't expect but proved to be the last instalment of the Kensei Indiegogo from last year.

Some excellent sculpts in there but no idea how I will ever get it painted.

But it all fits very well with the Okko skirmish game and miniatures I bought a few years back (the game has 2D cardboard cutouts rather than miniatures), and could easily tie in with samurai. I expect there to be a flood of second hand samurai miniatures in a few years when the Ronin hype has passed.

The weakness is that I fell for the Conan kickstarter. I played the game at Essen and it has real promise, while the minis are beautiful and plenty. So it was good I did away with the ban on buying new games. That was quite the easiest NYR of last year.

From Dynasty to Banzaï to Matchbox

There’s weird connections in your brain, ya know? Stuff that apparently has nothing to do with each other but makes sense because it all came together at some point in your life. One of those weird connections to me is this one.

The memory came back to me playing Kiss' best selling album Dynasty. It connects me to a holiday on Schiermonnikoog, late 1979 or early 1980. Schiermonnikoog is a small island just north of the Dutch coast and a regular place for our spring or autumn holidays around that time.

Right then my brother and I had discovered a series of comic books depicting the history of WWII. At the time of this holiday we had just bought the volume on the war in the Pacific, and I remember reading it while listening to Dirty Livin’, a Peter Criss song which would be called a guilty pleasure now. I never got all the volumes of the series of eight comic books, and some only a decade ago. But the ones we had then, they’re worn out and very dear to me.

I also remember my brother and me playing with our Matchbox American infantry on the wooden floor of our holiday house with Ace Frehley's Save Your Love, another of my favourites from the album, in the background. I still love those Matchbox plastics although I gave almost all of it away a long time ago.

Twilight Companions

I may have remarked sometime before that I spent many a rainy wednesday in the local library when I was young. I didn't read books but went through the collection of comics and quickly shifted to the adult section when I was about 10.

One of the comics that made the biggest impression on me was what I thought to be a two part series about two youngsters in the Middle Ages hooking up with a lone knight and wondering into some half fantasy world with kobolds and dreadful monsters. It was pretty dark. The style reminded me of the Passengers of the Wind.

I did try a few times to remember what the name of the series had been but got confused with les Tours de Bois-Maury by Hermann, or de Torens van Schemerwoude in Dutch, which also features a knight and some youngsters. Not a bad series at all of course, but not what I had been looking for.

Then I was in the comic shop on Saturday and I had the insight to just ask the proprietor, who immediately knew what I was talking about. I had been right about the style because it was the same artist: Francois Bourgeon. The series is called The Twilight Companions (De Gezellen van de Schemering in Dutch, no wonder I got confused!) and actually consisted of four books. So much the better!

The series is now sold in a complete edition

The books are still brilliant and reading it had a profound sobering effect on me. The story, set in Hundred Years War France, is of a former mercenary captain trying to make amends for his cruel past. He is accompanied by two survivors, a boy and a girl, he rescues and serve him in return.

There´s lots of bickering between the two kids and all characters have their flaws. But Bourgeon manages to make us care about them: foolish, cowardly or vengeful. Their ultimate fate struck a very powerful chord with me and is on my mind very much still. Likewise, very few of the supporting characters are solely evil, but rather twisted, wounded, corrupted or victims of fate.

The peasants and townsfolk are not hapless spectators or victims, but often willing accomplices and fickle. Most of them are cruel but pitiful survivors of a pretty hopeless age. That fits pretty well with my world view, but given that this is what I read when I was 10 or 11, who knows to what extent these books shaped it?

The main theme in all these books is revenge and redemption. Most characters have devils from their past, and must make difficult choices to accept new ones. The fact that often they have little influence on those decisions, or the outcomes, makes it  a tragic story.

The drawings are stunning. Facial expressions are rich and subtle, the monsters terrifying, the countryside, towns and castles atmospheric. The many 'extra' images, for example the owl in one of the later books, are subplots that effectively convey the atmosphere of the story.

Now I've found them back, Mariotte, Anicet and the knight will forever be my Twilight Companions.

Book shoppping: comics and Ospreys

Some good book shopping on Saturday with Michiel!

The best time was actually spent in the comic shop. Hadn't been in a long time and I got myself the new Okko (part 8 in the series), a new collection of short reports by Joe Sacco, published in the Anglo-Saxon world as Journalism, a book of pretty easy football jokes which may spur on one of the kids into reading (so with as few words as possible), a collection of Lovecraft stories adapted to comics by a Dutch cartoonist and finally a long lost prize from my youth: The Twilight Companions by Francois Bourgeon.

The bonus prize was the free comic for the national comic week. Good timing!

Look out the coming weeks for reviews.

Also bought a few Osprey's at Atleest in my hometown, a specialised bookshop combining anthropology, archeology with Chinese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indian and Egyptian studies. And a nice section of military history, among which the various Osprey series.

I picked up the new The Portuguese in the Age of Discovery 1300-1580, The New Zealand Wars 1820-72, British and Prussian Napoleonic Tactics and the Fortresses of the Peninsular War 1808-14.

Left a lot for later as well (eg the one on castles of the Teutonic knights in the Baltic), and there was some stuff out of stock that I would have liked (the Raid series on the James-Younger gang  and the Napoleonic Cavalry tactics). And there's been a reprint of Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars, which is expected to arrive soon.

The good news is of course that I will have to go back some day.


Ps Musical accompanyment for this week: Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club. This Friday I'll be seeing them live!

My Secret Satan of 2012

Well then, returned home today and lots to tell and so little time to tell it. So let's start with this:

One of the joys of Fortress Ameritrash is the annual Secret Satan ritual performed around Christmas. It's similar to Secret Santa, but instead a great way to get rid of the worthless crap you compile through bad buying decisions and unwanted gifts. If you feel a bit sentimental, you might slip in a few nice bits to soften the impact of your satanic evil.

But you also receive a load of junk yourself.  Last year I received a copy of Ascalion, the German version of Borderlands, but also a puzzling cd of country songs performed on a Moog synthesizer. So I was pretty apprehensive of what would befall me this year.

Oh boy, was I glad my package turned up late for Christmas…

This meant I would be on holiday when it arrived and I wouldn’t have to touch it for some time. Who knows what hand Lucifer would’ve dealt me?

So when I got back today, I picked it up at my neighbour’s. There was a bit of a wait at the door, but my apprehension was soon soothed when the old men appeared and happily handed me the package. He seemed in fine feather.

Much relieved I returned home, but decided to take precautions anyway. The box was sealed pretty tightly and I consulted a friend of mine who’s in waste disposal about the best approach. I improvised a hazmat suit.

Better safe than sorry, let´s move this MoFo outdoors

Then on to dissecting the box of doom.

This time Satan had not been beating about the bush. The hate was in my face as I stared at the behind of Reiner Knizia’s Modern Art in a dilapidated version. Many a time have I lamented my knowledge of this game and Satan throws it right back at me and my suboptimal talent for In Die Faust bidding. I left the box there to whither for some time and to let the foul stench wear off.

OH NO!!! I've been Kniziad!

As I returned I decided to dig deeper and removed Knizia´s Bane from the box, revealing a stunning edition of Jodorowsky’s Weapons of the Metabaron, a classic French comic. Of course Satan wouldn’t spare me a treacherous trick, as I lapsed on the series some time ago and have no clue where all this fits in the greater story line.

Puzzle

And still deeper down the box, I found this accursed amulet. Taunting me, Satan obviously despises me for my lack of needling skills. In fact, this proves to be the badge of the Colonial Marines in Aliens! That is awesomely cool! I will become a seamster, no matter how and sew this badge of honour on some fitting sleeve!

Bug Stomper: "We endanger species".

And then to top it all off: a kick in the shins on what first appears a friendly Christmas card…

It proves no such thing

Well, I guess I had that coming….

But then... much later, when I sat down to write this post, I thought of actually opening that box of Pandora, and found that apart from containing the accoutrements to the accursed Modern Art, it also held Mission; Red Planet! It looks almost complete, only missing the rules. But that can be fixed. That makes this year´s haul actually kind of awesome. And Satan rather like a big ol´ soft puss...

This game has been on my 'this must be really cool' list for a few years now

PS if you want to know what I inflicted on an unsuspecting victim, look here