The Lord of the Rings Online website features more LOTRO-y goodness. Look for “Hero’s Guide to the Silvertine Lodes.” As usual, Will Hindmarch wrote it, and I edited it. By the way, if you haven’t checked out the game, I recommend it. The Mines of Moria expansion really rocks. I’m also getting into Guild Wars these days. The fact that …
Blood Bowl on Comicon.com
A short while back, Jennifer Contino interviewed me for her Pulse column at Comicon.com. You can now read the results online. Jennifer clearly didn’t know much about the history of Blood Bowl as a game, and I suspect many comic-book fans might not either. I enjoyed having the chance to set things straight and give credit where it was due: …
Gen Con for Sale–But Not Really
My favorite time of the year–Gen Con–has been in bankruptcy since early this year. While the core business (Gen Con Indy) is sound, the company lost money trying to establish Gen Con So Cal and on a disastrous Star Wars Celebration III. As my pal Peter Adkison explained, the idea was to establish a strong showing at Gen Con Indy …
(My) Kids in the News
Last Friday, Ashley Rhodebeck came over from the Beloit Daily News to interview my family. She’d been assigned to update the local readers about our quadruplets and how they’re doing. The article appears in today’s paper, and you can read all about us online too. The kids had a ball talking with Ashley. When her car pulled into the driveway, …
Happy Birthday, Marty
Ten years ago today, I became a father. My son Marty was born down in Radford, Virginia, while I was helping run Pinnacle Entertainment Group as its president. Even before he was born, we knew we wanted to move back to Wisconsin to be closer to family–something I couldn’t have imagined when I was in high school–and within six months …
The Cost of Making Comics
Publishers Weekly just posted an excellent article about what it takes to make money at producing comics. It’s framed in terms of this summer’s notorious debate between Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis, but feel free to ignore that and just look at the numbers. Making money in comics is far from easy, and this shows you exactly why. Put …
More Forbidden Knowledge Out Now!
My latest book apparently hit shelves before I knew it. More Forbidden Knowledge: 101 New Things Not Everyone Should Know How to Do is now available at bookstores around the US (at least). Amazon still lists it under the name of Michael Powell, the original book‘s author. However, Urban Outfitters (of all places) not only has it under my name …
Lester’s Shadows
My fellow Alliterate and good pal Lester Smith just launched WhenShadowsRise.com, a new website dedicated to the development of a new horror roleplaying game. Among many other gaming gems, Les designed the excellent Dark Conspiracy RPG way back in 1991. Les has been working on this game in his limited spare time for a long time. I’ve heard about it …
No ChiTAG for Me
Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to the TAGIE Awards tonight or to ChiTAG tomorrow. My wife has come down with the flu, and while my mother will come over to watch most of the kids tonight, my son Marty needs a parent to join him at the opening night of his play (KFAD‘s production of A …
Good Times Too
I’ve posted a lot of gloomy things here lately, so I thought I should give some attention to some of the good ones too. Three new babies have come into the world recently and that’s something to wear a goofy grin about. First, my cousin Michelle Norville gave birth to her fourth child, Lucy Ann. Michelle and her husband Marcus …