Review: My Undead Yokai Girlfriend (2024, Prime)

I’d been doing a little reading on East Asian cultures recently, and what do you know? Amazon Prime just debuted this eight-episode Japanese series, which fit the bill neatly. I’ll try to avoid spoilers in my review, because I want you to dive right in and watch this. It’s a lot of fun. First, let’s …

Review: The Vampire Genevieve Stories – Warhammer Fantasy

The omnibus collection. “One sees more devils than vast hell can hold”― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream After having polished off the Gotrek and Felix Warhammer Fantasy books, I went ahead and read the Genevieve series. Turns out that the first book in the series was, in fact, the first book of Warhammer fiction of …

Proto Indiana Jones

I think it’s common knowledge that the Indiana Jones series owes its origins to pulp traditions. Surfing the net I came across mention of three specific movies that allegedly bear more than a slight resemblance to what Hollywood produced under the Indiana Jones name. I tracked them down to make up my own mind. Secret …

My Favorite Published RPG Adventures of All Time

I came across a group of folks trying to name their favorite published adventures for the role-playing hobby. I had a little trouble coming up with a list of my own. Upon reflection, the majority of my gaming appears to have been home-brewed excitement. Oh, the horror! I’m only going to list actual “adventures,” rather …

Review: Arcanum – Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Who approved this art? This computer RPG was a hard sell for me for two reasons. First, that box artwork. Gag, it’s awful, and in no way makes me want to play. Quite the opposite. (And who is that woman supposed to be? Looks like tire tracks all across her face. Cue Jimi Hendrix?) Second, …

Review: The Horatio Hornblower Stories of CS Forester

When I was in school I remember going through a phase where I read novels set during the Age of Sail. I couldn’t tell you with any certainty which books I read at the time (curse my failing memory), but I know that I didn’t read Forester. And when that thought popped into my head …

Review: ATOM, Trudograd RPGs

Zdravstvuyte! Do you miss the days of Fallout 1 & 2, bunkie? Isometric turn-based post-apocalyptic wandering, digging through the scraps of a fallen civilization while fighting off your fellow looters? Fondly recalling the glory days of the socialist world, joyously working with your komrades to free humanity from the chains of capitalist oppression? Wait, what? …

Artist Retrospectives XII – Allen Anderson

Illustration also used for the Tales of the Space Princess game Born January 31st in Minneapolis Minnesota, Allen Anderson grew up in Minneapolis and took correspondence art courses from The Federal Schools, Inc., graduating in 1928. Allen Anderson, American, 1908-1995 He went to work as a staff artist at Fawcett Publications in Minneapolis from 1929 …

Review: Iron Sky, and The Coming Race

If you like pulp adventure, silly sci-fi and space Nazis, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re so sensitive that even lampooning Nazis offends you, just click on by. Back in 2012 some wild and crazy Finns produced a comedy film titled Iron Sky. The premise is simple; some Nazis escaped defeat at the …

Movie Review: Thunderball (1965)

I read the Ian Fleming novel, Thunderball, a few days back, so last night I watched the 1965 film version for the first time in many, many years. Overall it’s pretty similar to the novel. It was easy to see where the movie production folks said, “You know, we could make this exciting by (for …