The last issue of the full dozen Magic: The Gathering comics I wrote for IDW hits stores and Comixology today. Along with marvelous artist Martín Cóccolo (with help from Christian Duce and Atilio Rojo), colorist J. Edwin Stevens, and letterer Shawn Lee – plus a fantastic array of stunning cover artists – I’ve helped chronicle the adventures of mage-thief Dack Fayden as he stalks the planes in search of justice. In this final installment, he finally finds it.

Thanks to all my fellow creators for making this vision of mine real. I especially want to thank my editors on the series. Denton Tipton guided the creation of the series, and then Carlos Guzman took over with help from John Barber and brought the entire thing to life. (I just come up with the words. The editors are the people who bring everyone together to make the story into an actual comic.)

Here’s a free preview of the final issue. Check it out and then grab the whole thing when you can. I had a great time following Dack through his grand adventures, and I hope you did (or will!) too.

Once you’ve done that, though, let me recommend a couple of great comics for you to read. Last year, Mark Waid and John Rogers launched a new webcomics site called Thrillbent.com. It’s showcased all sorts of talent, but the two highlights are Mark’s Insufferable (now starting its second story arc) and John’s Arcanum.

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Last year, Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend contacted me about editing a fiction anthology based on his upcoming Spark Roleplaying Game. I liked the game and Jason’s ideas for the book, so I signed on. He launched a Kickstarter for the game back on March 12, and today he announced the anthology as a stretch goal for the drive.

We’ve already lined up a number of fantastic authors for the book. They include:

• Mur Lafferty (Parsec Award winning Host of the “I Should be Writing” Podcast)
• Mike Resnick (five-time Hugo Award winner)
• J. Daniel Sawyer (Author of The Antithesis Progression)
• Greg Stolze (Game designer of the Unknown Armies RPG and prolific author)
• Alasdair Stuart (Host of the “Pseudopod” and co-host of the “Escape Pod” podcasts )

If the drive hits its stretch goal, everyone who backs the drive at the $10 level or greater gets a copy of the ebook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats. Otherwise, it won’t happen, at least for now.

The drive ends on April 12, just four days from now. Jason has set the anthology as the drive’s final goal at $16,000. The drive’s already up to almost $8,500 as I write this, but that’s a long way to go within so little time. If it sounds like fun to you – especially if you like games like Spark – consider backing the drive. Either way, if you could help spread the word, I’d appreciate it.

Here’s hoping the drive makes that last goal, as I’d love to read those stories, and I think you’d enjoy them too.

The last anthology in my trilogy of recent write-ups is GI Joe: Tales from the Cobra Wars. This is a re-release of the book that came out from IDW a couple years ago as a trade paperback, but this time it’s being brought out as both a mass-market paperback and an ebook in partnership with Open Road Media.

The book was edited by Max Brooks of World War Z fame, who’s about as big a GI Joe fan as you’ll ever come across. My old pal Jeff Conner did a great (uncredited) job setting it all up as well. The book features stories from Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swierczynski, Dennis Tafoya, John McGoran, and John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow, and it features interior illustrations by Michael Montenat. The stunning cover comes from Gabriele Dell’Otto.

My story, “Just a Game,” posits that Destro has been laundering money through the unregulated economies of MMORPGs, and it’s up to a team of Joes to put a stop to it. This brings Duke and Scarlett to Siberia along with Barrel Roll and the geeky Braintrust, who’s perhaps better suited to driving a desk than a special op. I had a ball playing in this universe, and if you’re a fan of GI Joe, or even just sharp stories of international intrigue, you’ll enjoy the book.

When Robin Laws asked me to pitch him a story for The Lion and the Aardvark – one of two books from his Stone Skin Press I have a story in – he called it Aesop 3.0. He wanted short and sweet story with clear messages, post-modern fables for a post-modern age.

I wrestled with a number of different ideas for the story, and I wound up throwing them all out. None of them quite fit.

Then I sat down and just wrote one. They’re short things, after all, only a page or two at best, and I emailed it to him.

It’s called “Cow and Dog.” It’s about the cow (who has one calf) and the dog (who has a litter of them) and how they deal with the ways this requires different things of them as parents. Robin loved it, so it’s in the book.

The book features a cover by the multitalented Jim Zubkavich, best known these days for writing his fun fantasy comic Skullkickers. Besides “Cow and Dog,” it’s packed with dozens of tight little stories by dozens of authors, including Emily Care Boss, Richard Dansky, Graeme Davis, Ed Greenwood, Dave Gross, Rob Heinsoo, Will Hindmarch, John Kovalic, Nick Mamatas, Sarah Newton, Sandy Petersen, Epidiah Ravachol, Aaron Rosenberg, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, Greg Stolze, Monica Valentinelli, Chuck Wendig, and Jim Zub(kavich), among many others.

This is next on my reading list, and I cannot wait to crack it open and dip into this blizzard’s worth of snowflake tales.