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Frank Cho draws Red Sonja variant covers for limited release

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July 8, 2020

Legendary artist Frank Cho is back this month with a new way to get your hands on an exclusive run of a variant comic book cover design he created for Dynamite Entertainment’s ongoing Red Sonja series.  Initially part of an earlier crowdfunding campaign, Dynamite has just opened up the opportunity for anyone to get their hands on one of four styles of Cho’s beautiful rendition of the famous “She-Devil with a Sword,” with color work supplied by frequent Cho collaborator Sabine Rich.  According to Cho, “When Dynamite asked me to draw the Red Sonja cover, I jumped at the chance.  Who doesn’t love a redhead with a sword?  The cover will show Red Sonja at her best – power and beauty.  My goal is to make her look strong, classic, timeless and iconic.”  This limited time opportunity also provides the opportunity to purchase other collectibles featuring this definitive image of Red Sonja.

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The Black Hole returns–Disney reaches back to deliver the sci-fi film’s robots as new action figures

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July 7, 2020

Forty years ago a research vessel found a missing spaceship commanded by a mysterious scientist on the edge of a black hole.   Unfortunately it all happened two years after Star Wars.  Unlike Disney’s 1982 hit Tron, which would gain a large fan following, Disney’s winter 1979 science fiction film The Black Hole got left behind or at least somewhere in-between.  Nominated for Oscars for best cinematography, best effects, and best visual effects, the effects today don’t hold up so well, and the movie is known more for its soundtrack than anything else.  But its promise was an interesting slate of leading actors: Robert Forster, Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine (who probably should be an honorary borg here just on principal).  If you hold any nostalgia for the movie, it’s probably because of the unique robots: V.I.N.CENT (which stands for Vital Information Necessary CENTralized) voiced by Roddy McDowall, and B.O.B. (which stands for Bio-Sanitation Batallion)–a robot who has seen better days, voiced by Slim Pickens.  And one more–not only was the star of the movie named Maximilian (this confused me as a kid), so was the evil red robot.  For fans of the movie, you’re in luck this year, as Disney Select is issuing all three as action figures.

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Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion review–New Avalon Hill tabletop game is the hit of the summer

Filed under: Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Retro Fix, TV — 1 Comment
July 6, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you ever needed a big, fun, family game, it’s probably now, right?  We’ve just previewed Avalon Hill’s forthcoming summer release Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion, arriving in stores later this month, and it’s a winner–no doubt it will go down as the season’s best tabletop game.  With dozens of throwbacks to the classic animated series featuring Scooby-Doo and the Gang, it mixes elements of Clue, Monopoly-like strategy levels, and staples of the roleplay game genre including its own Monster’s Tome game book.  Twenty-five impressive mysteries and dozens of possible outcomes for each will keep your family busy this summer with your favorite sleuths: Velma, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, and, of course, Scooby-Doo.

You won’t play this game without piping in with your own ruh roh and jinkies along the way.  Clues, objects, and events all point back to elements of the TV show.  Colorful tokens (like Scooby snacks, pizza, flashlights, and treasure) are provided specific to each of the 25 mysteries that work together with clue cards (like a painting with eyes following you, a mysterious letter, and a locked box), layout tiles to build 28 rooms inside the haunted mansion and spooky areas outside, along with 8 dice and three guide books, all to set 3 to 5 players on their way to sleuthing out a mystery, Mystery, Inc. style.  Everyone plays one of those famous “meddling kids,” then one player steps out to play the monster, ghost pirate (or is that pirate ghost?), masked neighbor, werebeast, alien, witch, henchman… you’ll have plenty of familiar baddies to take on, challenging each other in the style of previous roleplay games like Magic the Gathering with upgradable strengths and dice roll battles.

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Vikings: Uprising continues the TV tie-in story with even more battles and bloodshed

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July 5, 2020

Last week we discussed here at borg Titan Comics’ first volume of stories spinning out of History’s Vikings series.  Vikings finished the 10-episode first half of its sixth season and the second half of its final season is expected late this year.  The next graphic novel tie-in fans of the show should check out is Vikings: Uprising.  This second book in the series features even more deception, strategy, and bloodshed than in the first.  You’ll want to soak up these characters while you can.  A rumored TV spin-off is expected to come to Netflix in the future, but that show will be a 24-episode series called Vikings: Valhalla, set a century after the original series.  So the characters won’t be the same, but it will look similar as it will be filmed in the same location.  Its focus is adventures of Leif Erikson, Freydis, Harald Hardrada, and the Norman king William the Conqueror.

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The Old Guard–Charlize Theron taps Assassin’s Creed vibe in second trailer

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July 4, 2020

Your next shelter-at-home action movie has a second trailer this week.  It’s again coming to Netflix, the one venue reliably delivering movies this year with the pandemic still spiking at new highs across the country.  In The Old Guard, Charlize Theron headlines what looks like Atomic Blonde meets Assassin’s Creed, with a pinch of Aeon Flux, Mad Max: Fury Road, 6 Underground, and Extraction.  Consistently building on her last action hero performance to create the next, best action heroine, Theron’s new film is a mash-up of action and fantasy.

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History’s Vikings–A graphic novel while you’re waiting for the TV series’ return

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July 3, 2020

As we look back on ten years of the best content we’ve covered at borg, it will be difficult to imagine the History channel’s Vikings not making our list of top television series for its faithful portrayal of historical and lore elements and its exciting drama.  Vikings season 6 has wrapped up the 10-episode first half of its season and as the wait continues for the second half of its final season, Titan Comics has two graphic novels to keep fans’ thirst for more quenched.  The first we’ll cover and preview today is Vikings: Godhead.  If you like the characters developed in the show, or haven’t caught the series yet but are called to the Norse stories of axes, swords, and shields, this book is for you.

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David Petersen’s Mouse Guard characters arrive as collectable LEGO-compatible mini-figs

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July 2, 2020

Mouse Guard is the New York Times bestselling series of graphic novels in a classic square children’s hardcover book format by author-illustrator David Petersen.  Petersen has stacked up awards for his series like no other comics creator, including for Mouse Guard: Black Axe, the Harvey Award in 2014, for Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Volume 1, the Eisner Award in 2011, for Mouse Guard: Fall: 1152, two Eisner Awards in 2008, for Mouse Guard: Winter: 1152, the Eisner Award in 2008, and for Mouse Guard: The Role Playing Game, the Origins Award in 2009, among others.  A movie with Fox was in pre-production before the Disney-Fox merger cancelled it.  Now fans of the internationally popular series can purchase fully customized miniature figures from Crazy Bricks featuring Petersen’s fantastical characters.

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Icewind Dale–Take on the treacherous tundra of Ten-Towns and a Frostmaiden in next D&D adventure

Filed under: Con Culture, Fantasy Realms — 1 Comment
July 1, 2020

The next adventure from Dungeons & Dragons is coming this summer.  Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is a tale of dark terror. Wizards of the Coast promises players will visit the forlorn, flickering candlelights of civilization known as Ten-Towns and traverse many bone-chilling locations that surround these frontier settlements.  Beneath the unyielding night sky, players will stand before a towering glacier and recite an ancient rhyme, causing a crack to form in the great wall of ice.  Past this icy dungeon is a secret so old and terrifying that few dare speak of it.  What fantastic secrets and treasures are entombed in the heart of the glacier, and what will their discovery mean for the denizens of Icewind Dale?  Do you dare try to save Ten-Towns from the Frostmaiden?  The new supplement to the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is available for pre-order now with an add-on frosty set of dice.

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Preview–Bond is back in the Royal Navy in next volume of James Bond Origins

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June 30, 2020

   

We were fans of the first volume of Dynamite Comics’ new look at James Bond’s backstory in Ian Fleming’s James Bond Origin, Volume 1, previewed here at borg.  This week the second volume of the story is scheduled to arrive in comic shops as a 148-page hardcover, and we have a preview for borg readers below.

It’s World War II.  A Norwegian supply ship carrying gold mysteriously sinks.  A Russian crew claims the Nazis are responsible.  And Royal Navy Lieutenant James Bond suspects foul play.

It’s a bit Raiders of the Lost Ark with a heavy Tom Clancy vibe.  And very loyal to Fleming’s character in the novels.

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Endless Summer–Hit the beach (virtually) with Archie & friends this summer

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June 29, 2020

 

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  Except for this year with the beaches closed. But you can always sit back and catch up on the pages of Archie Comics via some new books arriving soon at a comic book store near you.  The high point from Archie this summer is this great homage cover to the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer #1 hit album from 1974 that rode the Billboard charts for 155 weeks, my own personal most-listened to album ever (you owe it to yourself to listen to this great compilation album of the band’s hits–check it out here at Amazon).  The homage cover was created by Jeff Shultz and Rosario “Tito” Peña after artist Keith McConnell′s original album cover (designed just after McConnell’s tour as Marine Corps artist in the Vietnam War and a while before he would return to war as an artist in Desert Storm).

Here is the original double vinyl cover:

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