Omnibus in the UK!

Wp-Content Uploads 2007 04 Bb-OmnibusThose fortunate enough to live closer to the Black Library in the UK than I do can now officially get their hands on Blood Bowl: The Omnibus. This no-neck, gold-tusked linebacker of a book smashes all of the first three Blood Bowl novels (Blood Bowl, Dead Ball, and Death Match) together under one cover, plus a short foreword I wrote just for this tome. That’s 768 pages of hilarious, spike-balled mayhem for the low price of only £9.99.

The rest of the world has to wait until November 27. Oh, the humanity.

We’re Home

Yesterday, we moved into our new home here in Beloit. It’s much bigger and has a fantastic office for me. I’ve been working in an office downtown since the quads were born, and now I’ll be able to cut my commute down from 2 minutes to 20 yards.

Many new neighbors came by to welcome us to the neighborhood already, including Pam and Sam Lathrop, who live right next door. Sam’s the chief of police in town, and Pam is the administrative assistant to the city manager. She’s also the kind-hearted soul who brought us Sunday dinner every week for the first year we had the quads home. As part of their welcome gift, Sam mowed our lawn for us as we moved in.

Ginormous thanks go out to the strong-backed men who helped us move in: Andy Friedl, Mark Nosek, Lester Smith, Rob and Eli King, Don Perrin, and Dan Schooff. Also to Lori Gordon and Ellen Plunkett for watching the quads for the afternoon. As always, big thanks to my mom for pitching in at every chance.

More regular posts to resume shortly.

High-Voltage Halloween

On Saturday, I blipped down to Hoffman Estates (north side of Chicago) for a wrap/Halloweeen party for High Voltage Studios. They celebrated not only the upcoming holiday but also the six different video games the company completed this year, including the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law game on which I worked.

I had a great time. The place was decked out with horror movie posters, inflatable ghosts and gravestones, and a looped DVD of clips from various horror films. They also had an bar, keg beer, blackjack tables, and a DJ spinning tunes for a lively dance floor.

The costumes stunned me. I couldn’t even recognize some of my friends under them. Kevin Sheller and his fiance Jessa came as Birdman and Birdgirl, and their costumes beat out the ones seen on the live-action parts of the show. Eric Nofsinger made such a good Edward Scissorhands that I didn’t recognize him until I was on my way out the door. Micah Skaritka’s evil clown getup was so perfect he had to tell me who he was.

The unexpected highlight of the night came in the form of an old pal who’d also been invited to the party, along with some other friends from his company. However, due to NDAs, I’m not sure if I’m at liberty to reveal the identity of the mysterious luchadores I encountered that night. Such is the way of the computer game business, but perhaps it’s all for the best.

For myself, I didn’t get the invitation until last Wednesday and have been stuffing my family’s things into boxes ever since, so I didn’t have any time for a proper costume. My wife has a great costume, but it was her night for her book club, so we went our separate ways for the evening. I wore a High Voltage T-shirt under my button-down and went as an employee. I was told I should have come with an ax in my head (via special effects trickery, I hope) and been an “ax-employee.”

Birdman in 2008

The Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law video game I worked on with High Voltage Studios has been officially bumped to 2008. Word is that Capcom didn’t want to release the game in such a crowded period of time. Putting a little breathing space between it at the third Phoenix Wright game won’t hurt its chances either, I’d guess.

While delays aren’t any fun, I’d rather the game had a chance to grow some legs rather than get sucked back into the sea by the pre-holiday tsunami. Birdman fully endorses this product and/or service.

P.S. Thanks to my friend Andy Friedl for the heads-up.

Eye Heart Cthulhu

My fellow Alliterate and pal Stan! just came up with a doozy of a Cthulhu cartoon, just in time for the Halloween season. If it tickles you enough to want to share it with those around you, Stan! has opened up a Cafe Press store with this little doodle available on dozens of different products.

This reminds me of the friend who sent me four plush Cthulhus when our quadruplets were born. While they were fantastic toys, I couldn’t bring myself to put them in the cribs with the kids. Explaining them to the NICU nurses just wouldn’t be worth it.

30 Days Tonight

30 Days of Night, the film based on the graphic novel, opens tonight. My good friends at IDW published the original story, and my friend Jeff Mariotte co-wrote the novelization of the film* two original tie-ins based on the series. I’ve not met Steve Niles–who wrote the story (and the novels with Jeff)–but I’ve had a couple of long chats with Ben Templesmith–who drew the story–at Comic-Con, and he’s a fine gentleman as well. Best of all, IMDB lists my great pal Ted Adams as a co-producer, along with some guys named Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert.

The story is set in the small town of Barrow, Alaska. Vampires invade the town in December, just before the sun sets, not to come up again for 30 days. Harrowing disaster ensues.

It’s a fantastic high concept, but Steve and Ben turned it into a wonderful, all-too-human story as well. Here’s hoping the film is a monster hit too.

*Thanks to Christian Johnson of Cinerati fame for catching that goof. (Tim Lebbon novelized the film.) Check the comments on this post for a chance for fast fingers to claim copies of Jeff’s books!

Gamer Bling-Bling

If you’re on the hunt for the coolest accessories in gaming–you know, those things that you don’t need to play a game but which make it so much better–be sure to stop by Gamer Bling. The site has a growing list of reviews of cool bits for your tabletop games, and it’s blessed with a self-deprecating sense of humor to boot.