Comics & Books

Category: Comics & Books

Spelljammer–D&D in space arrives tomorrow in three-volume boxed set

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August 15, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

No doubt the most eagerly-awaited gaming event of the year is Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, and at last it arrives tomorrow. An inexpensive three-book boxed set (including DM screen and two of the most beautiful of the 5th Edition’s pull-out maps) that feels like a standalone RPG, it allows Dungeon Masters and players to explore Wildspace and the Astral Sea. Combining themes of nautical exploration with deep space–think fantasy mash-ups like characters from H.P. Lovecraft, Jules Verne, Alex Raymond, and Edgar Rice Burroughs–Spelljammer brings new characters and places to 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, while allowing characters you already know into another world.

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Crashing–Series takes the superhero genre into the E/R

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August 13, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

Just as the classic 1970s first responder television series Emergency! is celebrating its 50th anniversary today on COZI TV (with a new documentary and appearances by stars Randy Mantooth and Kevin Tighe), the medical/rescue genre is getting adapted to superheroes in a new comic book series.

It’s a time of conflict. One faction is open-minded and willing to take on anything that comes its way with arms wide open. The other is ready to shut the door on those who aren’t the same. It all happens in a world where some people have superpowers and some don’t. In the tradition of Dark Horse Comics’ The Ward, with the action of Hotel Artemis, and the secrecy of The Star Chamber, the new monthly medical thriller Crashing from IDW Publishing follows a doctor in triage addressing patients who are “different” in the emergency room.

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Black Lotus–Blade Runner anime continues in monthly comic series this week

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August 11, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last year Netflix delivered what Blade Runner creator Philip K. Dick would have flipped over–the futurism and dark beauty of Adult Swim and Crunchyroll’s Japanese and American half-hour anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus. With a second season of the brilliant Blade Runner anime up in the air, Titan Comics is offering the next best thing. This week the TV series continues in the first issue of Blade Runner: Black Lotus–the monthly comic. This past May we previewed the comic here at borg.

So how does the comic compare to the TV series that made our annual best TV of the year, kick-ass heroines, and the Borg Hall of Fame?

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The DC Book of Lists–Indispensable fun for DC superhero fans

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August 10, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

While other kids were “making mine Marvel,” I couldn’t get enough of the 1970s Justice League of America, and spent many an hour memorizing Superman’s family ancestry back on Krypton. Tentpole icons Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, the Hall of Justice, and the exploits of battling thousands of villains produced more monthly books than a single person could ever read (although a few have claimed to do so). Writer Randall Lotowycz has amassed some of the basics but even more of the extremes, lists of “Who’s Who?” and “What’s What?” and the stranger side of DC Comics in the new book The DC Book of Lists: A Multiverse of Legacies, Histories, and Hierarchies. An indispensable sourcebook for DC fans, it’s also proof you can’t get through more than 80 years of continuously publishing content and not have some very quirky characters and situations.
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Tags: comic book artists, comic book characters, comic book trivia, DC Comics, history of DC Comics, Randall Lotowycz, Running Press, Running Press Kids, The DC Book of Lists, The DC Book of Lists book review, The DC Book of Lists: A Multiverse of Legacies Histories and Hierarchies

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Monsters of the Multiverse–D&D Monster Manual and Player’s Handbook update available in standalone edition

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August 8, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse is one of those Dungeons & Dragons supplements from Wizards of the Coast that you might have overlooked. First released as part of the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set in late January, it was one of the victims of worldwide shipping delays, and only made it to a single volume release finally this summer. Compiling and updating monsters that originally appeared in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes–and replacing those books for most purposes, this book is a bestiary presenting friends and foes for any D&D campaign with some creatures you’ve seen before while also fully incorporating 33 races not provided in the Player’s Handbook, but introduced in previous adventure volumes.

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Tags: D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition, Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, Dungeons and Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set, Grzegorz Rutkowski, Joy Ang, Monster Manual, Monsters of the Multiverse review, Monsters of the Multiverse variant cover, Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Volo's Guide to Monsters, Wizards of the Coast

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Van Der Valk–Add this ITV/PBS crime series to the top of your Fall watch list

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August 7, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

Don’t turn around, Der Kommissar’s in town.

Marc Warren is a rock star. Or at least he looks and acts like one. He’s starred and guest-starred in dozens of series and in each one he’s a stand-out, most famously in Doctor Who and Life on Mars, State of Play and Band of Brothers, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, just to name a few. As a Dutch detective on a stylish crime series created by British network ITV, TV audiences will meet the next Sam Tyler, Aurelio Zen, John Luther, and Jimmy Perez. Warren plays Commissaris Piet van der Valk, Amsterdam’s best detective, on the series Van Der Valk, which saw its first season of three movie-length episodes make its way to the U.S. in 2020. The first episode of the second season is coming to the States in September on PBS Masterpiece. So who is this crime fighter from Amsterdam?

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The Next Time I Die–Hard Case Crime goes sci-fi in new crime story

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August 5, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s fun to both know what you’re getting and to get some surprises, too. That’s the case with Hard Case Crime’s latest novel, Jason Starr’s The Next Time I Die. It’s billed as a paranoid thriller, a mix of Philip K. Dick and The Twilight Zone. But the publisher is the home of classic crime novels, right? It so happens that not only is The Next Time I Die a retelling of sorts of a few PKD short stories, it’s a mix of a number of sci-fi tropes while pulling in a protagonist you might find in old crime stories like Rudolph Maté’s D.O.A., James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity, and Vera Caspary’s Laura. All in, it’s a lot of fun.

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A Half-Built Garden–New sci-fi novel presents an unusual look at the future

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August 3, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

An almost unrecognizable look at Earth’s future at the time of an alien close encounter, the new novel A Half-Built Garden arrives as a bit of a rarity in a bookstore section filled with so much future noir and dystopia. But writer Ruthanna Emrys’ future feels just as unfamiliar and strange as Blade Runner or Mad Max. The digitally interconnected, wired world seems out of control in the year 2083, and yet the characters are going with the flow when aliens arrive to clue-in we Earthlings to the need to move along because the course we are on is otherwise going to be–no surprise–oblivion.

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Tags: A Half-Built Garden, A Half-Built Garden book review, Ruthanna Emrys, Tor Books

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Doctors and Daleks–All-new roleplaying game puts players right into your next Doctor Who episode

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August 1, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you’re looking to get your fix of Doctor Who, a new roleplaying game has just arrived that may be just the thing for you. Whether you want to step into the shoes of a Time Lord yourself, become a member of an alien species (join your own Paternoster Gang!), travel anywhere to the past or future, journey into outer space, or accompany a Doctor as a Companion, the Doctor Who Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide is a giant guide to a new RPG for three or more players. Grab your friends and take your own time machine to explore the universe and history, help others solve problems, and share your fish fingers, just like in the six decades of the Doctor Who series. And you’re not required to use existing Doctors and Companions–or alien races–you can make up your own. Or play without a Doctor, like UNIT and Sarah Jane Smith in the show. How about Captain Jack Harkness and Torchwood? Pull them in, too.

Filled with photographs from the franchise’s six decades, Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide is available now in PDF, with pre-orders now being taken by publisher Cubicle 7 Games for the hardcover and a Collector’s Edition. Check out links to order below.

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StarGirl–Joel McHale reclaims Star-mantle and supersuit for Season 3

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July 30, 2022

As we predicted last season, it appears Joel McHale’s Starman is going to find his way back to his family and superhero status in the third season of CW’s StarGirl. How will that fare for Brec Bassinger’s Courtney, her mom (played by Amy Smart), and her husband–and Starman’s former partner, Luke Wilson’s Pat Dugan aka the steel giant S.T.R.I.P.E.

Seems like the entire cast from last season is back. The second season wasn’t as powerful as the first, so hopefully Greg Berlanti & Co. and get some of the magic back with the original Seven Soldiers of Victory back in costume–along with another guest appearance (we hope) by John Wesley Shipp as The Flash. Here’s the new trailer for season three of StarGirl:

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