This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, and I’ve been invited back to The Spider’s Web in Yonkers, NY to promote and sell my work. So if you’re planning to make any stops for FCBD 2022, be sure to add The Spider’s Web to your list of locations, and drop by to say hello. Also making appearances on Saturday will be Michael Grassia (of Get in Toon!) and Emilio Velez, Jr. (Dodgeball Teens). And this is only the first of a number of growing shows this season on my 2022 convention list!
Read more… ›It’s a bitter sweet moment. On one hand I feel that all stories must have an ending, even when I wish they would never end–I’m not much for on-going series. On the other, the Soulsborne games (that is Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series) have been a singular source of entertainment and inspiration for me for the past eight years. With the recent release of the final Dark Souls III DLC, The Ringed City, From Software has brought an end to the Dark Souls story and possibly an end to an era in gaming. Read more… ›
Yesterday the final DLC for Dark Souls III, The Ringed City became available; however, as I haven’t had the chance to delve into it heavily, instead of a review I offer the final part in the trilogy of writing pieces on what the experience of playing these games offers to everyone but especially creators.
I understand that game play and design is a sort of broad topic to tackle with any game. Though in this particular context I mean as it pertains to the experience Dark Souls and the related titles of the Soulsborne series create. In truth, and with any well designed game, the way you play the game, the way you explore it is as essential to the player experience as the graphics and the story. In the best designed games, game play and design are the story. Because, after all, experience becomes story in the end, does it not? Read more… ›
J. R. R. Tolkien once wrote in a letter to a fan, “Part of the attraction of The L. R. [Lord of the Rings] is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed” (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien; letter #247, bottom pg 333).
It’s for this same reason, I believe, George R. R. Martin insists on not presenting a factual history of his Song of Ice and Fire series (The World of Ice and Fire being told from the perspective of a character in that world; vulture.com/2014/11/George-rr-martin-new-book.html). It’s partly why, in my opinion, the second trilogy of Star Wars films was so unsuccessful (aside from the obvious storytelling faults). The rumours I heard about the Clone Wars had built up a story in my imagination greater than anything George Lucas could have presented to me.
Sometimes that little bit of unknown information can be infinitely more enticing than the fully revealed truth. It’s what makes history so intriguing. We can never know all of the answers for a certainty. It’s this precise device which draws players into the stories of the Dark Souls games and their related titles (collectively called the Soulsborne series), and it’s the way the stories are presented which creates such an immersive experience for the player. Read more… ›
What I think has drawn people to the Soulsborne series (affectionately named by its fans for the Dark Souls series, Demon’s Souls, and Bloodborne, collectively) and evolves to obsession for many of us, is the experience the games provide. Not the story. Not the gameplay. But the totality of all of the games’ collective parts.
For anyone who is not a gamer (or game designer, for that matter), I’ve heard it said that the highest point in the art of game design, the greatest achievement a game can make, is to seamlessly integrate all of its parts into a complete experience for the player. Like reading a book or watching a film, you never once want the game to feel disjointed, a part of it forced or out of place; the suspension of disbelief should never be broken. And having been a gamer all of my life, and speaking as someone with a bit of amateur experience and classes in game design, I can honestly say I have never played a game or series which has achieved this so (near) perfectly. Read more… ›
2017 is already off to a roaring start. Over the past two weeks two of my comics, Chadhiyana #5 and Gentleman Cthulhu: Year One, were released online (the former by Rosarium Publishing). Then there’s the US Presidential Inauguration and everything happening around it (such as the Women’s March on Saturday). Even with all of that, this is something of an in between week for me. One of those weeks where I’ve been so busy with work, and so many gears are turning and plans are in motion, but there’s nothing official to announce. So I thought I’d take the time this week to just write a few updates and maybe (maybe) hint at a few things to come. Read more… ›
It’s October 25th. Halloween is a little less than a week away, my birthday is a little more than a week away and the first Dark Souls III DLC, Ashes of Ariandel, is available today for all the travelers of Lothric to discover and explore (I’m a huge fan of the SoulsBorne games, if you didn’t know). That said, one can expect I’ll be immersed in otherwise idle occupations for the next week or so, but that’s not to say I won’t be working on at least a few things, here and there. Read more… ›
Recently, two of my favourite modern creators announced an end to their beloved series. In video games, Hidetaka Miyazaki has (somewhat ambiguously) stated that “there’s absolutely no plan right now for any sequels, spin-offs or tie-ins” to Dark Souls or Bloodborne (forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/04/27/hidetaka-miyazaki-puts-the-souls-series-on-hold-wants-to-do-more-mecha-games/#180de5cb1845). And in comics, Mike Mignola has ended the Hellboy series to pursue a new direction as a watercolourist (albeit new works from other creators may come out featuring the character). Yet as devastating as these announcements seemingly are–and one coming after the other, no less–more than anything these two men have earned a great deal of respect from me for making these decisions. After all, I believe firmly in the old adage that all stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Read more… ›