Samson (2018)

With its Dungeons & Dragons-level of swords-and-sandal violence and comic book superheroic protagonist, the story of Samson was one of the few Bible fables that ever held my interest for long.

Samson is the latest live-action realisation of the tale, featuring a good few recognisable names in supporting roles - from Billy Zane as Philistine King Balek to Rutger Hauer and Lindsay Wagner as Samson's parents.

Set around three thousand years ago, the 105-minute movie sees Dagon-worshipping Philistine Prince Rallah (Jackson Rathbone) charged by his father, Balek, with keeping the troublesome Hebrews in check, even though he'd rather his time was spent on more exciting projects elsewhere.

With the aid of his duplicitous consort Delilah (Caitlin Leahy), Rallah aims to manipulate the Hebrew's chosen champion Samson (Taylor James) - through his love for Rallah's handmaiden Taren (Frances Sholto-Douglas) - to curb any rumblings of rebellion.

But things go wrong and Rallah ends up making a worse enemy of Samson, driving the superstrong Hebrew to slaughter the entire Philistine army with just the jawbone of an ass.

Years later, Samson returns to the court of King Balek to try and negotiate a better deal for his still-oppressed people, but the residents of the city haven't forgiven him for the deaths of the soldiers and drive him out...

And into the arms of Delilah, who now claims to turned her back on Rallah since realising how wicked he was.

Samson is a high quality production. The locations (it was shot in South Africa), sets and costumes are incredible, giving the story a definite sense of verisimilitude, even if the acting is occasionally a bit wobbly and the script seems rather forgettable about such key elements as the passage of time.

Taylor James is charismatic enough as the lead, but there's an inescapable feeling that had this been filmed a decade or so earlier the chances are Duane 'The Rock' Johnson would have been in the titular role of Samson.

The film has gotten a lot of stick from reviewers for its quite earnest and pedestrian take on the story, but given that it was made by Christian film company Pure Flix, they weren't going to suddenly start injecting complex sub-plots or musical numbers into the story..

And, of course, it's earnest, it's a Bible story. They're all rather earnest... by definition.

But that doesn't stop co-directors Bruce Macdonald and Gabriel Sabloff from putting some thought into how they would realise Samson's superstrength and giving us standout action scenes along the way (the whole 'jawbone of an ass' sequence and its aftermath are truly cinematic).

Because, like, say, Titanic, we all know where the story is going, Samson's strength is in the telling and - while there are moments it veers towards Monty Python and others when it lurches towards The Scorpion King - it's well-paced and never dull.

It's not perfect, and there are missed opportunities, but I suspect Samson is exactly the film Macdonald and Sabloff set out to make for Pure Flix.

AND THE WINNER ISSSSSSS...

For my money, the strongest comic book of the year was the Judge Death 2025 Mega Special, from Rebellion.

I've always loved the fact that the futuristic, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi world of Judge Dredd also freely embraces the supernatural.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that my favourite villainous characters in the decades-long, ongoing saga are The Dark Judges: Judge Fear, Judge Mortis, Judge Fire and their iconic poster boy, Judge Death.

This year's Mega Special, published to celebrate 45 years of Dredd's demonic nemeses, showcased all four of the Dark Judges in their own nightmare-fuelled short stories, beautifully written and illustrated by a variety of creators from 2000AD's stable of talent.

Antony Johnston's ultracreepy Fade To Grey (with art from Lee Carter and letters by Rob Steen), for instance, gave me a whole new appreciation of Judge Mortis

This 48-page magazine, released in time for Halloween, has been the only comic book in 2025 that, once I'd reached the end, I had a powerful urge to simply start again at page one.

Imagine my delight this Christmas when I discovered that Rachel had not only got me a print of that incredibly striking Brian Bolland cover but also had it framed, so that it was ready to hang once the seasonal festivities were in the rear view mirror.

The framed picture has now found a permanent residence on the wall adjacent to my new Dredd-laden bookshelves.

RPG Lessons Learned From Delicious In Dungeon

This neat little feature is from a YouTuber I was previously unaware of, Beghast, but I thought they raised some interesting points.

Before I went all-in on anime earlier this month, Delicious in Dungeon was already one of my favourite shows because of its obvious Dungeons & Dragons connections and inspirational scenarios.

The Silent Flute aka Circle Of Iron (1978)

Cord (Jeff Cooper) is a dunderhead barbarian martial artist who "lives by his own rules". It's this attitude that gets him kicked out of a tournament to select the next warrior to go on the quest to find the Book of All Knowledge, which is held by the powerful and mysterious Zetan.

Nevertheless, Cord sets out on the journey anyway and when the actual Chosen One falls at the first challenge, Cord takes up his mantle and faces a series of tests, and lessons, before he is finally prepared to confront Zetan.

Along the way, he teams up with a Blind Flute Player (David Carradine), who also serves as a reluctant mentor to the zealous Cord.

Several of the obstacles Cord faces are also portrayed by Carradine, including the leader of a tribe of Monkeymen, a nomadic leader called Changsha and the personification of Death as a leopard-human hybrid.

This, and the various Zen lessons that Blind Flute Player imparts to Cord highlight the fact that this is not your run-of-the-mill sword and sorcery flick, despite its mystical setting and the strange characters that the protagonist encounters.

The Silent Flute (also known as Circle Of Iron) was a story dreamed up by Bruce Lee with his friend and student James Coburn and Oscar-winning scriptwriter Stirling Silliphant to bring Lee's personal philosophy to the big screen through a mix of mysticism, humour and martial arts.

Jeff Cooper makes a charming, if slightly stupid, lead but as with the protagonist of many Buddhist anecdotes he must take the wrong path first to learn from his mistakes.

He is balanced well by Carradine's Flute Player - whose appearance here is a clear influence on Tarantino's Kill Bill - who gets to deliver great lines like "tie two birds together and they will have four wings, but they cannot fly".

While The Silent Flute has its share of fights and fisticuffs, that isn't the raison d'etre for the movie and the philosophising could frustrate some who've come along to see people get the snot kicked of them.

Those viewers will probably find the ending particularly obtuse as it's possibly not the sort of high-brow noggin-scratchin' they were hoping for from a martial arts flick that boasts both Carradine and Lee in the credits.

The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)

During Napoleon's invasion of Spain a pair of officers - one French, one Spanish - discover an elaborately illustrated book in an old tavern in the town of Saragossa and are mesmerised by its pictures and the story it tells.

The book chronicles the adventures of the Spanish officer's grandfather, Captain Alfonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski) of the Walloon guard, as he tries to find his way through the dangerous, demon-haunted Sierra Morena.

His journey is continually interrupted by seemingly random encounters which spiral off into their own adventures.

The first half of the film - yes, there's an interlude as the whole epic is almost three hours long - primarily revolves around a haunted inn, the Venta Quemada, where the captain first meets a pair of gorgeous, seductive Muslim princesses, Emina (Iga Cembrzyńska) and Zibelda (Joanna Jędryka), who claim he is their cousin and try to get him to convert to Islam.

Further encounters include bandits who may - or may not - have already been executed, a holy man who is trying to drive a demon out of a disgraced nobleman, the Spanish Inquisition (nobody was expecting that), and an occult cabalist who leads Alfonso to the relative safety of his castle.

The second half of the film is dominated by a monumental, intertwining, tale of feuding merchants told to Alfonso at the cabalist's castle by a visiting gypsy-king (Leon Niemczyk), that eventually ties back to Alfonso himself through his duel-happy father (Slawomir Lindner).

Many of the stories told in The Saragossa Manuscript - and especially the lengthy story of the merchants - involve the characters in the stories telling stories themselves, and sometimes even the characters in their stories also tell stories, meaning the film eventually becomes a multi-layered Russian nesting doll of tales within tales within tales. And, of course, the whole thing is a tale in itself, in a book (which becomes a crucial part of the narrative in the latter stages of the film).

An earlier work than The Hourglass Sanatorium, from director Wojciech Has, The Saragossa Document (aka Rekopis Znaleziony w Saragossie) lacks the assured, smooth pacing of the later work and, at times, feels more like an exercise in clever film-making.

On the other hand, even with its multi-layered narrative and larger-than-life tale-spinning characters, the overarching story of The Saragossa Document is generally easier to follow than The Hourglass Sanatorium.

It only really steps into surrealism during the closing stages as Alfonso feels his sanity slipping away as he attempts to grasp the reality of everything that has befallen him - if anything actually has, as it it could all have been a dream... or a foreshadowing of an adventure Alfonso is about to have.

This is a film that requires attention, not only to keep track of whose story is being told at any one time, but also of events going on in the background and little clues that eventually explain what might be going on with the princesses and their involvement in Alfonso's life.

I have to confess that when Alfonso is eventually told what is going on, even though it explained some brief incidents that otherwise just came across as odd, I felt a bit cheated.

Of course, the film still has another trick up its sleeve by once more pulling the rug out from under Alfonso and us, so we are left wondering whether it really was the truth or some further demonic torment of our honourable protagonist.

The Saragossa Document is the sort of work that film students' wet dreams are made of. I'm sure there are numerous theses gathering dust in university libraries trying to peel back the multi-layered onion that is the quite unique narrative structure of this story.

MUSICAL MONDAY: Sailor, Sail On (Atarashii Gakko!)

A new single has dropped from my favourite girl group, the amazing Japanese quartet, Atarashii Gakko!

Below you can see a live performance of the song:

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)

In pre-Second World War Poland, a young man, Józef (Jan Nowicki), travels to a run-down sanatorium in the country to visit his dying father, Jakub (Tadeusz Kondrat), only to be told that his father is dead.

However, the strange properties of sanatorium mean that, like Schrödinger's cat, he is also still alive. From there Józef sets off on a surreal journey into his memories, where the Jewish community he grew up in becomes interwoven with the rooms - and residents - of the sanatorium as he tries to come to terms with his guilt over leaving his father in such a place and the events that led to his father's incarceration in the first place.

The Hourglass Sanatorium (aka Sanatorium Pod Klepsydra) opens on a strange train where all the passengers, bar Józef, appear to be corpses and this unnerving Lovecraftian Hammer Horror feeling continues up until the scenes where Józef meets his father.

At first it appears as though our perfectly-normal protagonist is simply taking his increasingly peculiar surroundings in his stride, but quite suddenly we realise that Józef is as out-of-sorts with normality as everything else that is unfolding before our eyes.

Apparently based on a series of short stories by Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz, the film quickly dispenses with such mainstream concepts as a narrative plot and instead swims dream-like through a cycle of reality-blurring vignettes that whisk Józef from swamplands overrun by soldiers to lost loves of his youth.

The dialogue and scene structure has a strong William Burroughs 'cut-up' vibe going on and much is reminiscent of Naked Lunch (the book more so than the film, but without the sexual obsessions) mixed in with Jacob's Ladder, Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and, if I really reach, Rob Zombie's House Of 1,000 Corpses and Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.

However, this isn't a horror film so much as magical realism; an exercise in trying to capture on film a concept that this is ultimately indescribable, the experience of visiting a place where time works in ways alien to our normal perception.

Visually hypnotic and lyrically directed by Wojciech Has, The Hourglass Sanitorium is the strangest film I've seen in a long while, but it flows so beautifully and provocatively that you're soon convinced it's either incredibly meaningful or else the cast and crew were simply making it up as they went along.

Best Westerns of This Decade (So Far)

The Just Westerns YouTube channel shares a breakdown of its top Western films and TV shows released between 2020 and 2025.

There's plenty of great material here to add to your "must watch" list.

ADVENTURE HOOK: The Tourists

Photo by Andrew Lvov on Unsplash

A Dungeons & Dragons-y adventure hook presented in the style of The Knights Of The Dinner Table's Bait & Tackle column.

SETTING: Town/City

BAIT: Having been reasonably successful as tunnel grubbers and earned themselves a reputation as adventurers, the group is approached by the servant of a local well-to-do nobleman (or even the king/emperor, depending on your campaign setting) with an offer that's too good to refuse.

In return for a ridiculously large sum of money, the servant's master wants the adventurers to take his son (and some of his friends) with them on their next underground expedition.

The reward will only be paid on the safe return of the princeling and his chums, provided they have some trophies to show for their troubles.

TACKLE: The young nobleman/prince, and his 1d4-strong entourage, are decent enough fellows, but total incompetents. More Bertie Wooster than Dennis The Menace. Despite insisting that they be first into battle with any 'exciting' monsters (i.e. exotic creatures rather than commonplace humanoids), they will be rubbish in combat (dropping their weapons, stumbling etc), prone to creating noise at inopportune moments ("Fool of a Took!") and a general nuisance to the party.

However, should the adventurers try anything stupid like kidnapping the young prince and holding him to ransom, they will incur the wrath of the entire region and almost certainly find themselves hounded by a massive armed force (as will happen if any of their charges are killed or severely crippled; cuts and bruises are expected, but anything more will be deemed a breach of contract).

Of course, if all goes to plan, the player-characters will not only earn themselves a pretty penny but gain a useful ally (and possible drinking buddy) in the princeling and his cronies.

DUNGEON MASTER TIP: It might be an idea, at least in combat (although not role-playing) to allocate each member of the prince's group to one of the players - so that they are responsible for making their die rolls. The prince and his entourage are, naturally, first (or zero) level characters and only interested in fighting beasties that will make good trophies if their heads are mounted on the palace walls.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: When Jeff Dee Drew The Acrobatic Flea

Dreams do come true.

Over the years many, many amazing artist friends (and DC artist Des Taylor) have kindly turned my signature Villains & Vigilantes character into works of art.

However, I never could have imagined - when I was sketching out the character back in the early '80s for Steve's original campaign - that one day I'd be able to see him drawn by the definitive V&V artist (and the game's co-creator): Jeff Dee.

This came about as one of the rewards for backing the Villains & Vigilantes Third Edition (aka The Mighty Protectors) Kickstarter back in late 2016.

This incredible work of art arrived at my front door in August 2020 and I was as ridiculously pumped then as I still am today by it.

My favourite RPG character... drawn by Jeff Dee... world-renowned Dungeons & Dragons artist from the golden age of TSR modules, comic book artist, and co-creator of the game that Steve, Pete, Nick, and I played endlessly in our youth.

I still can't quite believe it.

Prairie Rascals (2025)

Arkansas, 1871: When Annie Harper's homesteader husband is murdered by desperadoes on the trail of hidden gold, she sets out in search of revenge - and the money. A Western adventure from Bonehill Films, starring Rosanna Lambert, Laura Frances Martin, Mylo Sermon, Amanda Lindseth, Nicholas de Jasay, Louis John Brzozka, Xanthe Baylis and Nick Riddle.

The latest cinematic offering from author and illustrator Philip Reeve - after his 2023 Arthurian offering Gwenevere - Prairie Rascals is a delightful, thrilling 50-minute tale of desperate treasure hunters in the American West.

Trapped in a loveless marriage, Annie Harper (Rosanna Lambert) is more annoyed at being left to bury her murdered ne'er-do-well husband Frank (Louis John Brzozka) than she is saddened by his loss.

Frank robbed the Confederate Army during the Civil War and hid a chest of loot at a secret location.

The psychotic Hannigan Sisters - Cat (Laura Frances-Martin) and Belle (Amanda Lindseth) - have got wind of this and relieve him of his "treasure map" before putting several bullets in Frank and setting his cabin alight.

With the local sheriff (Arran Hawkins) being too afraid of the sisters to raise a posse and pursue them, Annie decides to take the law into her own hands, stealing the sheriff's hat, gun, and horse.

Heading after the wicked sisters, Annie meets romantic, pacifist, greenhorn Charles Doolittle (Mylo Sermon) stripped to his long johns and tied to a tree.

A dilettante from the East, on a "walking tour" of the West with his gruff guide Muldoon (Nicholas De Jasay), Charles was completely unprepared for the likes of the Hannigan Sisters and found himself robbed and trussed up.

Wanting recompense for his predicament, Charles falls in with Annie on the trail of the sisters... and the buried treasure.

As with the majority of Philip Reeve's sci-fi and fantasy novels, Prairie Rascals is dominated by strong female leads, without shying away from the Western genre's requisite gun fights, heel turns and plot twists.

Released this week to the general public via YouTube and filmed in Dartmoor National Park, in England's West Country, Prairie Rascals was written by Philip Reeve and Brian Mitchell, and directed by Philip and his wife, Sarah.

Philip even wrote the lyrics for Ballad of the Prairie Rascals, which plays over the end credits. The music was by Brian Mitchell and vocals by Glen Richardson.

A jolly country-and-western ditty, the ballad serves as a "what happened next..." for the surviving characters and really makes me want a sequel to Prairie Rascals.

With many of the actors here also having appeared in Gwenevere, it's clear that Philip is attracting a great troupe of performers to his Bonehill Films.

Long may they continue to produce such wonderful little movies.

• You can read Philip's "behind-the-scenes" insights on the production here on his blog, Station Zero.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS - FROM MYSELF, RACHEL & ALICE

As usual, in lieu of mailing out Christmas cards, we've donated two places to Crisis at Christmas and sent out digital cards instead.

The picture for this year's "electronic card" shows off Rachel's new doll's house Christmas tree, with her 1/12th version of Alice next to it, along with some tiny treats, presents and baubles.

I hope, wherever you are, the holidays are treating you well and letting you recharge your batteries for whatever 2026 has to test us with.

Why NORAD Has Been Tracking Santa For 70 Years

Whatever Happened to Tommy Shelby?

Mission: Accomplished! It Must Be Christmas!

Here we are: Christmas Eve. The time has come for the final tally of the roleplaying game dice that came in my specialist advent calendar this year.

We ended up with a very ordered spread:

• 3d4
• 3d6
• 3d8
• 3d10
• 3d12
• 3d20
• Metal d20
• 3d% (that is, d10s with faces marked 10, 20, 30 etc)

And a pin badge along with, today, a plastic miniature of a mindflayer/illithid

This novelty advent calendar was - unsurprisingly given its contents - the perfect pre-Christmas present from Rachel... and has definitely set a precedent for future festive favours.

The standout piece has to be the hefty, spikey, metallic d20. Unfortunately, some of its delicate numbering is nigh-on illegible to my old man's eyes and I can't help feeling it would work better as a slingshot projectile for taking down Biblical giants from Gath.

CHRISTMAS AT THE CASTLE!

Just getting in there on its final day, Rachel, Alice, and I ventured out to Tonbridge Christmas Fest at the castle (and, no, I'll never tire of living in a town with a 13th Century castle) this evening .

We'd originally planned to go at the weekend but rain stopped play, and we decided it would be sensible to go once the torrential downpours had passed us by.

This evening's jaunt also happened to be my first trip out into the wild using just my old walking stick - rather than other, larger, walking aids - since June.

So, how better to celebrate that milestone than by embracing the spirit of Christmas?

The fair was a lovely little mix of food stands, carnival games, and geegaw sellers.

Rachel was most keen that we be there at 4pm for the daily spray of artificial snow.

We may have made tactical use of elbows and legs to get to the centre of the mosh pit under the snow fall - but it was worth it (even if I had flashbacks to attending a foam party in a nightclub during my hedonistic university days). 

As well as picking up a couple of bags of fudge (apparently it's the law that if you see a stand selling fudge you have to buy some), we also dined on foot-long sausages in baps from a food stand selling German sausages.

Rachel had a Bratwurst, while I had an absolutely delicious Krakauer (spicy sausage) that I coated in curry ketchup for that true Teutonic experience.

Rachel roasting a marshmallow

Beware the elves!

It's great to be walking with just a stick again

Happy Christmas!!!

MONSTER MASH: The Devils of Christmas

I think by now we're all pretty au fait with the concept of Krampus - and Krampusnacht celebrations - but the Sky History channel website has shared brief introductions to three other twisted, seasonal characters (Knecht Ruprecht, Belsnickel, and Père Fouettard aka Father Whipper aka Spanky) for inspiration and edification.

Climb down this chimney to find out more, then get to thinking how you could adapt these "monsters" to your roleplaying system of choice.

Of course, for those who can stomach such things (and this is definitely not one for the kiddies) if you want a genuinely shocking, contemporary tale of this time of year then you can do no better than checking out 2016's The Devil of Christmas.

This was the first episode (and Christmas special) of the third season of Inside No. 9, one of the U.K.'s finest anthology horror series.

This was my first exposure to the show and by the end I was thinking "what have I just watched?" (in a good way) and found myself compelled to stream the entire show, starting with the first season, on BBC iPlayer.

2026: A Nolan Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s next film, The Odyssey, is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.

The Odyssey stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o, with Zendaya and Charlize Theron.

Matt Damon as Odysseus

The Knight Before Christmas (2019)

Don't expect any surprises when you snuggle down to watch this wholesome, Netflix Christmas magic, time travel, rom-com.

Kindly 14th Century knight Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse, best known from his role in Poldark as Demelza's 'fancy man') is whisked away from snow-blanketed Norwich, England, to a snow-blanketed, proto-Utopian, Bedford Falls-like, small town in Ohio in 2019 and told he has one week - until Christmas Eve - to achieve his "quest".

Upon arrival, he bumps into science teacher Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens) and the two form a fast friendship when she agrees to let him stay in her garden guest house, thinking he is an amnesiac cosplayer whose memory loss was caused by his collision with her car.

Maybe it's meant to be an element of the crone's spell that catapulted him to our time, but Sir Cole adjusts to the 21st Century remarkably - if not ridiculously - quickly.

Neither he, nor Brooke (who soon realises the knight is actually who he says he is) can figure out what his "quest" actually is until the final moments of this 90-minute tale, despite the audience screaming it at the television screen.

While not a film to be thought about too deeply, I would question writer Cara J Russell's choice for the name for the knight. "Sir Cole" too often sounds like "circle", which is really odd and distracting.

Conversely, Cole shares a lot of interesting factoids about his life back in Medieval England, from his youth right through his training, suggesting elements of this movie are subliminally educational.

A formulaic, twee Hallmark Christmas romance, with a script that veers from quirky to cliché, The Knight Before Christmas still manages to be endearingly sweet.

This is thanks largely to its charismatic leads, despite the total absence of any logical sense of "why" or "how" in the ultra-lightweight storytelling.

MUSICAL MONDAY: All I Want for Christmas - A D&D Christmas Carol (Ginny Di)

MUSICAL MONDAY: A TPK Carol - D&D Parody (Ginny Di)

MUSICAL MONDAY: Carol of The Spells (Ginny Di)

Thank you so much to the amazing Ginny Di for this classic track, taking my favourite carol and giving it a Dungeons & Dragons spin!

"The Golden Age of Sci-Fi/Fantasy is 14"

In an old article on his blog about a youthful passion for the Dragonlance novels, Timothy S Brannan shared the wise saying: "The Golden Age of Sci-Fi/Fantasy is 14."

And this is so true.

The things we discover at that age stay with us.

For me, this would be around 1980... the year Hawk The Slayer came out.

I've written often of my love for this most Dungeons & Dragons of all fantasy movies (and probably will continue to do so).

At the dawn of the '80s, I was already engrossed in the stop-motion worlds of Ray Harryhausen fantasy movies (his last, Clash of The Titans, would come out in 1981), and this was also the era of the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back (which came out in 1980).

I was reading mainly sci-fi (Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy, Stainless Steel Rat etc), if I recall correctly (inspired by the galaxy far, far away), but my young gaming hobby had propelled me to the works of Fritz Leiber.

His Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser stories would come to influence my Dungeons & Dragons adventures as much as Harryhausen's Sinbad at that time.

I was always a player - rather than a Dungeon Master - in my early years, so was interested in character ideas, rather than grander plots and world-building (not that I didn't appreciate them at that time, but they just weren't as useful from a gaming perspective).

I had yet to stumble upon the stack of New Teen Titans in a second-hand book store in Tunbridge Wells and become a fully-fledged comic book collector, but I still dabbled in that medium.

2000AD was my publication of choice at that age.

And, of course, all these things still hold sway over me and continue to influence my gaming and broader hobby interests.

I don't think I realised, until just now, quite how important the art we discover at that particular age is in shaping the sort of person we grow into in our adult life and our hobbies, passions, and interests.

Fantasy Box Office Bombs That Were Actually Really Good

The brilliant Luminism channel brings us a pair of featurettes examing great fantasy films that managed to bomb at the box office (often due to a marketing failure by studios unable to grasp genre pieces).

Horror Novel Pits Conan Against Darkness From His Past

Remember how the other day I said one of my plans for 2026 was to read the new Conan The Barbarian novels published by Titan? Well, another one has been announced and so gets added to the list.

Conan: The Brides of Crom, written by John Langan, the Bram Stoker Award winning author of the supernatural horror novel The Fisherman, is scheduled for publication on July 21.

On the day he was born, warriors attacked Conan’s village in Cimmeria, kidnapping children before fleeing. The villagers pursued the raiders and exterminated them to a man. But they were too late. The children were already dead.

Fourteen years later, Conan and his cousin Ruardih visit the site of the massacre, finding strange artefacts and feeling a dreadful unease as they near the cursed village. Upon their arrival, they are greeted by the corpses of the damned.

Despite the portents, Conan and Ruaridh continue exploring the village. Met with bizarre and arcane creatures, they will stumble upon darknesses that should not have been revisited.

What is this strange place? Who were the mysterious raiders who attacked the village? And why did they sacrifice innocent children? The answers lie deeper in the mountains, and Conan will chase them into the dark, whatever the cost.

Archie & Pals Retaining Their Youthful Looks At 85

In March, Archie Comics is releasing a "jumbo comic magazine" celebrating 85 years of the wholesome adventures of Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, and Betty Cooper (Veronica didn't appear until the following year!).

The publishers publicity blurb for the 112-page book reads as follows:

"Archie Comics is proud to present a jumbo-sized magazine celebrating 85 years of heart, humour, and hijinks! This magazine will collect some of the most important (and hilarious!) stories in Archie’s history, featuring your favourite characters from the worlds of Archie, Sabrina, Josie & the Pussycats, and more! This is a collector’s edition you can’t miss!"

The Dan DeCarlo/Rosario “Tito” Peña cover depicts the icomnic image of Archie sharing a milkshake with Betty and Veronica.

Return To Planet of The Apes For Comic Book Giveaway

As part of Comics Giveaway Day - an "alternative" to the established Free Comic Book Day but occurring on the same day - Marvel, having remembered it has the Planet of The Apes license, will be releasing a new story for our simian superstars in a book showcasing 20th Century Studios sci-fi.

Saladin Ahmed presents a tale set on a planet that’s already succumbed to Xenomorphs! And in Jordan Morris’ story, a Yautja warrior stalks one of Earth’s greatest fighters. All this and a return to the Planet of the Apes!

This free comic will be available in participating comic book stores on May 2 (which is also Free Comic Book Day).

Savage Sword of Conan Swings Into Third Year

Main cover art by Alex Horley

Originally conceived as a six-issue mini-series lasting for a year, Titan Comics' hugely popular black-and-white Savage Sword of Conan magazine is now entering its third year of publication.

Buoyed up by blockbuster sales from eager fans, issue 13 is scheduled to arrive in March, featuring the return of the now-classic team of Roy Thomas and Roberto De La Torre for a "mesmerizing" Conan tale.

The magazine will also include a silent Solomon Kane story from writer Enrique Dueñas González and artist James Castillo, plus pin-ups and more.

Alternate cover art by James Castillo

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Tricycle

Back in 2018, at the start of the festive season, Rachel, Alice, and I visited the Christmas On The Home Front event at the museum of Kent Life, and the first thing that caught my eye was an antique tricycle parked outside one of the old houses.

This tricycle, with its solid rubber wheels (rather than those namby-pamby inflatable tyres the kids have these days), was identical to the one I had as a child, in the early '70s.

Was the tricycle that my parents gave me second hand? Quite possibly, as we weren't rolling in money.

I have no recollection of it being some kind of "family heirloom", so I don't know my trike's provenance.

Perhaps tricycle design hadn't evolved since the war years and mine was, in fact, newer?

I'll never know, but I didn't expect to be transported so clearly back to my own childhood while attending a recreation of British life during the war years of the 1940s.

I have fond, and vivid, memories of trying to build a ramp - with a stack of bricks and some hardboard - in the steep drive of our family home in Pembury, to Evel Knievel myself over some imaginary gorge.

Instead, the ramp just toppled over sideways as I rode my trike up it!

Those solid tyres were memorable as well. There was no give in them, so every lump and bump I rode over was vibrated through the tyres, and the bike's metal frame, right into my tiny body.

On the positive side, I never got a flat. So, there was that.

And look how small it is. In my mind, over the years, it has, of course, grown with me, so to be reunited (in a way) with it just brought home how long ago this all was.

Alice isn't interested in my nostalgia

Let's Talk About Stats, Baby, Let's Talk About You and Me

I love stats.

It all dates back to my school days and it's all because of Dungeons & Dragons and the other RPGs I was being introduced to in my formative years.

Those early roleplaying games were a gateway drug to broadening my vocabulary and learning the importance of numbers, percentages, chances etc
 
I may not have been the greatest pupil to ever walk the hallowed halls of my prep school or grammar school, but - on top of my creative writing I was developing at the time - I maintained my obsession with the magic of numbers.

Throw comic books into the mix and suddenly the revelation of Official Handbooks and Who's Whos from Marvel and DC were like catnip to me.

I'm pretty sure I picked up all the original run of DC Comic's A to Z Who's Who of their deep character roster at the time, but it was Marvel's Official Handbooks to The Marvel Universe that really blew my tiny socks off.

Entry from The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2005

These actually went into technical minutiae and even rated characters on strength, durability, fighting skills, energy projection, intelligence, strength etc

This was gold dust for an info-hungry gamer like me. Even if I wasn't looking to adapt a Marvel character directly into an RPG setting (almost certainly 2nd Edition Villains & Vigilantes), there was enough detail (even height and weight!) here to create a character based off of a Marvel character!

Sure, there were official Marvel roleplaying games, but these Handbooks felt like I was getting the details direct from the source.

To this day, I have an eBay alert set-up for Marvel Handbooks, as I've developed a special interest in the later "themed releases", comic book-sized updates featuring current characters from a particular storyline (e.g. the comparatively recent Empyre) or genre (such as 'horror' or Conan The Barbarian) .

People have devoted whole podcasts to these kinds of books (and it's easy to see why, there's just so much to talk about) and smaller companies have also dipped their toe into the "handbook" field (I try and grab them when I see them).

I primarily love comic books for the wild, superheroic, storylines and incredible art, but having these encyclopaedic volumes of facts and figures makes it all the more real for me, building a degree of verisimilitude that I can then port over into my gaming.

Well, that's the idea anyway...  

My treasured collection of The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe A - Z