If you’re in Seattle, please stop by! I’ll be at booth SP19 in the small press section, with H.P. Lovecraft comics, Dreamlands posters, mugs, King of RPGs necklaces, my corporeal body, and all my other stuff. And I’ve got something new for the convention: a new 24-page King of RPGs mini!

King of RPGs: Secrets of Neo-Pegana is a sketchbook & data book of information on Neo-Pegana, the Mages & Monsters campaign setting ran by Theodore Dudek in King of RPGs vols. 1 and 2! (You don’t he was just making it up as he went along, did you?) Full of info & sketches, this book is the ultimate guide to the world of Gharazak, Moggrathka, and the gods Ya, Ha and Snyrg: a world of dragons, swamp elves, skull elves, Nergalians, Houyhnhnms, and many strange races and deadly monsters. Plus info on the never-released King of RPGs video game that Victor and I worked on in 2011! Basically, this is a behind-the-scenes look at the world-within-the-world of King of RPGs.


Of course, that’s not all I’m doing at Sakuracon. I’m also going to be running the latest version of MANGAKA: The Fast & Furious Game of Drawing Comics! I’ll be running two games of Mangaka, each in Room 604 (the Tabletop Gaming Room), on Saturday and Sunday:

MANGAKA: THE FAST & FURIOUS GAME OF DRAWING COMICS
Draw the world’s greatest comics… or die trying!!
In a faraway land (Japan), powerful, godlike figures (manga artists) vie for supremacy. You are a mangaka, a passionately creative artist struggling in the Japanese comic industry. Will you become a bestselling superstar, or will you live a life of backbreaking toil and fall prey to Alcoholism, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Social Anxiety and Poor Hygiene? Part Fluxx, part Pictionary & Telestrations, MANGAKA is a fast-paced card game for artists and storytellers where every round involves drawing cards and drawing comics. Fulfill your Obsessions, follow Trends, avoid Impairments, and compete with your fellow players to tell the greatest comic stories imaginable, even if you can’t even draw a stick figure!
* SATURDAY, 1:00 PM
* SUNDAY, 1:00 PM

The games will be approximately 2 hours in length, and there’s space for 6 players, so first come, first served! This is the newest version of MANGAKA, completely different from the one I ran at last year’s Sakuracon. I hope you’ll come check it out and try out its mix of roleplaying and comics! (It’s kind of like the flipside of King of RPGs, if you think about it.) See you there!

Today’s strip is an intermission from the main storyline — sorry for the break! I’ll return to “The Hundred Years’ War” next week. The reason for the change in schedule is, this weekend I’m headed to San Francisco for the Alternative Press Expo, one of my favorite comics shows. I’ll be tabling with the Couscous Collective, selling King of RPGs and H.P. Lovecraft comics, including my new adaptation of “The Cats of Ulthar.”

Also, on Sunday, from 3-4PM in the workshops area of APE, I’m going to be running a game of… MANGAKA! This is the game I’ve been working on, on and off, for two years, and the latest version is the best ever! Here’s the official description:

MANGAKA: THE COMIC STORYTELLING GAME
Draw the world’s greatest comics… or die trying! Mangaka is the stepchild of Pictionary, Telestrations and Dominion, a fast-paced card game for artists and storytellers where every round involves drawing cards and drawing comics. Fulfill your Obsessions, follow Trends, avoid Impairments, and compete with your fellow players to tell the greatest comic stories imaginable, even if you can’t even draw a stick figure! For fans of manga, graphic novels, webcomics and anyone with a sense of humor. Pens, paper and cards provided.

Come and check it out! In MANGAKA, no drawing ability is required; time management and overall creativity/storytelling is much more important. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turning out. Come check it out if you’re in the city!

As the writer of King of RPGs I’m deeply sorry that it’s been, basically, a zillion years since the last update. Really, I have no excuse for the delay. I can only hope that, if you see this post, you’ll come back over the next few weeks as we return to a weekly or twice-weekly schedule.

I was also dissatisfied with the direction of the storyline, so (since it’s all been covered in cobwebs for weeks anyway) I made a slight retcon. In the next week I’ll be taking “The Deadliest P.R. Guy in the World” out of its current position wedged among the King of RPGs stories, and onto a separate page for standalone stories which it’ll share with the old King of RPGs Tokyopop pitch pieces. SO—! If you like watching people clean up cobwebby websites, please come back! You may want to stand back, open the windows, and wear a dust mask.

And that concludes THE DEADLIEST P.R. GUY IN THE WORLD, my collaboration with Patrick Macias. Many thanks to Patrick for allowing this ancient (but epic) comic to be unearthed. We return on Wednesday with a new page of King of RPGs!