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Monday, 26 August 2013

Ferry familiar

If you identified where that cover of the new edition of Way of the Tiger book six came from, award yourself a virtual no-prize. It is, of course, taken from Russ Nicholson's illustration of the masked goldolier Stug the Careworn, vestigial spirit of the once-mythic Charon, who was encountered in The Battlepits of Krarth.

I can in fact reveal the real artwork for Way of the Tiger book six (the new hardback edition) and I think you'll agree that it is pretty freakin' awesome. I never found giant spiders scary before now...
There are more updates and interviews regarding Megara's Kickstarter campaign coming up in a few weeks, including a message from Richard S Hetley, Megara's US boss, who is running the campaign. But first, this Friday, there'll be news of another classic gamebook returning in print - a "lost" Fighting Fantasy book, no less.
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18 comments:

  1. Vinnie26 August 2013 at 19:15

    Is there going to be a Way of the Tiger + Blood Sword crossover? That would be awesome.

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    1. Dave Morris27 August 2013 at 00:33

      Different universes - Orb and Legend. It would be like mixing Star Trek and Dr Who. Oh, somebody did that? Well, they're idiots.

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  2. Jiminy26 August 2013 at 20:09

    Grade A Russ classic, right there. So... hang on a second; is that painted version going to be used in the potential Blood Sword books?

    On another note, that is one huge spider. Reminds me a lot of the original Blood Sword covers!

    And another thing; those new covers for "Critical IF" are looking very cool.

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    1. Dave Morris27 August 2013 at 00:31

      I know what you mean - it's that whole vibe with a GIGANTIC monster and teeny tiny heroes.

      Critical IF do look very fine indeed. There's no such thing as a bad Jon Hodgson cover.

      As for full-color reissues of Blood Sword - if the Kickstarter gamebook bubble hasn't burst by next year, we will give it a go.

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  3. Anonymous27 August 2013 at 09:37

    The Keeper of the Seven Keys!!!!!

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    1. Dave Morris27 August 2013 at 10:52

      That's next on the list after WOTT book 7 and The Good The Bad & The Undead and Fabled Lands books 7-12.

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    2. Mike H28 August 2013 at 10:18

      The crazy thing is Dave that one day all those books will be completed and some of us will be right back here demanding Keeper and talking about 'legally binding blog agreements'!

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    3. Dave Morris28 August 2013 at 15:50

      I just need that winning lottery ticket, Mike, and we're away :-)

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  4. Milk30 August 2013 at 05:27

    Wow. A lot has happened in the year and a half since i stopped reading this here blog (hi Dave by the way, you probably don't remember me, long time fan here). Glad to see reprints of "you guys" old titles are still happening. I already have these books and, unfortunately, i'm afraid i'm a rather nostalgic collector type who values the original printings most (yes i realise a lot of improvements have been made in those new ones, look, i'm not saying that originals are BETTER :-p, i'm just saying, they're the ones i read as a kid/teen), but this is otherwise a good thing for gamebooks and gamebook enthusiasts. This is also encouraging for someone who has recently resumed the writing of his own (totally overblown...probably in both meanings of the word too) gamebook. I mean that there is still an interest for this sort of old fashioned things.

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    1. Dave Morris30 August 2013 at 08:31

      'Course I remember you, Milk. But tell me this: how come you stopped reading for a year and a half?

      I don't really get nostalgia myself. Matt Smith is my favourite Doctor, for instance. So I'm more interested in doing new things - but not so much that I'm not willing to put in the editing & revision work necessary on projects like the Virtual Reality and Golden Dragon reprints. Some of those you can still get the original editions pretty cheap, but Twist of Fate is on Amazon at $150... Nostalgia comes at a price. :-)

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    2. Milk30 August 2013 at 14:30

      It's a rather strong trait in me and i suspect, in my generation as a whole. As my girlfriend always tells me..."the past is a room full of treacle"... Anyway I say this but the odds that I will not be able to resist getting your new reprints are high. Because there's the word nostalgic and COLLECTOR in my above sentence. I still plan to get those fabled lands one. There is no doubt that Virtual Reality was in much need of a reprint. I have neither Twist of Fate or Heart of Ice. The most i paid for a gamebook was something like 80$ and that already seemed outrageous enough (it was for the last book of a french original series, of course the book itself is reputed as being the worst of the series...but it's rare)

      As for why I stopped reading for a year and a half, well, life happened. And most of my "hobbies" and interests had to be put on the back burner (incidentally this is also the approximate length of time during which i stopped writing my gamebook). Not a particularly fun time.

      And my favorite Doctor is Tennant :-p. When they switched to Smith I dramatically claimed i would never be able to watch Doctor Who again...and ended up liking him. Thing is, as long as they have Moffat and co writing it, i don't think they can have a bad doctor. I suspect i'll probably like Capaldi too.

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    3. Dave Morris30 August 2013 at 14:59

      Well, my original favourite Doctor was William Hartnell, whom I watched rehearsing an episode in 1964. Since then I've had early Tom Baker and Paul McGann as new faves. Nostalgia cuts no ice here :-)

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    4. Mike H7 September 2013 at 02:00

      And Colin Baker at one time too, if my recollection of your bio in one of the FL books is correct. Having a bob each way Dave?

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    5. Dave Morris7 September 2013 at 07:51

      Oh no, Mike, I'm never the sort to hedge my bets. Matt Smith is the Best. Doctor. Ever. (Just not often with the best scripts, barring his first season.)

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  5. Milk30 August 2013 at 18:50

    Paul Mcgann SO got the short shrift. Yeah so he got his revenge by technically appearing in the most stories ever by any Doctor and doing the radio stuff but i would have loved to see him do an actual tv series. I'm a Withnail and I fan for one. And speaking of which..Richard E Grant would have made a fantastic doctor too. If only a bit freakish looking. But so is Capaldi. Anyway, i digress, a Doctor Who blog this isn't. Haven't you ever wished you could write a Doctor Who book or even a TV episode though? I think you favor working with your own creations, but i have a feeling you'd do a great job at it.

    Also, you watched Hartnell rehearse an episode!?!? I'm tempted to use one of my favorite Venture Bros. quote here in an altered version.
    "I watched William Hartnell rehearse an episode in 1964"
    "Wow, what does that make you, 70?"
    "No, just cool"
    (the original quote goes"I was the first one at my school to play the Bauhaus")
    Seriously though, that's amazing. What's the story behind this?

    And my first Doctor was actually Pertwee. No, i wasnt even born when he was doing it, but canadian tv had reruns of old Doctor Who in the late 80's and that's the one the first shown. Pre-2000's definitely the best doctor is Tom Baker. I discovered those episodes kinda late though.

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  6. Dave Morris30 August 2013 at 21:09

    The Dr Who rehearsal is a long story that I must tell sometime. I was really very small at the time. Here's a related moment:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dave-morris/dalek-doctor-who-the-familiar-other-my-mee_b_1483921.html

    No, I'm really not tempted to work on other people's IPs. I never did like doing it, and a string of novelizations of Thunderbirds, Stingray, etc (shows that I loved) and original stories for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only confirmed that feeling.

    Having said that, I worked up a couple of Dr Who plots back in the day. One was a Doctor/Master special featuring the return of the Daleks (of course!) that I tried briefly to get off the ground with Syfy - sans the Doctor; this was pre-RTD. The other was an alt-universe Dr Who, the sort of show it would be if targeted at adult SF fans instead of being family entertainment. That was just for fun. If it had ever got made, I guarantee it would have gone out at 11:30pm on BBC2 - or, nowadays, be relegated to BBC4. Great parts for Robert Carlyle and Sean Pertwee, though.

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  7. darech761 September 2013 at 15:02

    Of all the new cover art for the Way of the Tiger, the giant spider is very evocative of the (SPOILER alert!) ending. That being said, although I do not own the last book due to the cliffhanger (though I did try to pen an ending based on Avenger wandering about the bowels of Orb looking for a way up), I don't remember the title character being wrapped up in spider silk all nicely for the Mother of Nullaq to suck out body fluids... Sorry, yet another stickler for details...

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    1. Dave Morris1 September 2013 at 16:18

      You may be right there. Hadn't Avenger just fallen into the web in the closing paragraph? It's always a problem with heavily illustrated stories because the artist won't have time to read everything. I'm sure David Walters will come up with a plausible explanation, though.

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