Triptych: I'm Going On An Adventure!

"A Grand Affair" by jss743

"Go On An Adventure" (t-shirt) by FamousAfterDeth

"The Greatest Adventure" by Jeff Langevin

Triptych: The Ka-Tet of 19

"Dark Tower: All Ka-Tet Characters" by Bensmind

"The Ka-Tet of 19" by Brandon Wilhelm

"The Nineteenth Inning" (t-shirt) by Lost Hero Collective

Showcase: Joey Spiotto's Little Video Game Books

"My and My Big Daddy"

"The Cake Is A Lie"

"The Littlest Dragonborn"

[Joey Spiotto on Blogspot]

Triptych: The Kwisatz Haderach

"The Sleeper" (t-shirt) by Dearden Design

"Gordon Fremen" (t-shirt) by Synaptix

"CHOAM Logo" by Karlangas

Triptych: The Wonderful Land of Ooo

(Click for full-size)
"Adventure Kong" (t-shirt) by BazNet

(Click for full-size)
"Choose Your Own Adventure Time" by Das Chupa

(Click for full-size)
"Adventure Time: Land of Ooo Katamari" by Marcos Henríquez

Triptych: Billy Bumbler

"Nineteen" (t-shirt) by Megan Lara

"Tower of Darkness" (t-shirt) by Mike Handy

"Deschain" (t-shirt) by John Midgleyp>

Showcase: We Are Ka-Tet

"Roland de Gilead"

"Jake & Oi"

"Susan"

"Father Callahan"

"Alain & Cuthbert"

If you've never read Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, make a point of doing so. Seriously, it's good shit. It'll make you think differently about Stephen King and casts the entirity of the rest of his work in a new light.

[ehnoi's DeviantArt]

Otherland MMO

Tad Williams' 1996-2001 Otherland quadrilogy is a remarkable, under-the-radar series that absolutely blew me away when I discovered it a few years ago. The breadth of the series is epic and incredibly expansive, and is a narrative that should by all rights be mentioned in the same breath as The Lord of the Rings or Dune; it's a contemporary, technological Hero's Journey that touches on everything from how identity is informed to the role of social stratification in online interaction to the flexibility of the concept of mortality. It's an adventure story, first and foremost, and one that is relevant and recognizable to a post-millenium audience, but at heart deals with our changing construct of reality thanks to the implementation of technology in our lives, just as succinctly as The Lord of the Rings dealt with the role of technology in world war, or Dune addressed the intersection of technology and ecology.

Unlike The Lord of the Rings, Otherland is not so much metaphorical as it is reflective; unlike Dune, the technology and society presented are conceivable, identifiable extrapolations of their modern day equivalent. I say that Otherland should be mentioned alongside those two series; strangely, however, it is not, and in fact most people haven't even heard of it. Hell, I hadn't heard a thing about it until I happened to pick up the first volume of the series in a used bookstore on a whim. Now that I've read it, I'm astonished that it hasn't gained more of a foothold in people's awareness, but sadly it seems to have been relegated instead to that gigantic slush heap known as "mediocre genre fiction". Believe me when I say that there's nothing mediocre about Otherland.

The quick-and-dirty byline is this: Otherland is an epic adventure about videogames. In Otherland, the Net has become a sort of Ur-game, the ultimate Massively Multiplayer Online game that acts as a container and jumping-off hub for all other games, from medieval fantasy (think World of Warcraft) to cyberpunk (think Shadowrun, or Deus Ex) to historical adventure (think Assassin's Creed) and all points in between. There are game-worlds based on literature (Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, War of the Worlds) and on existing MMO archetypes (Middle Country, the most popular game on the Net, bears a strong resemblance to WoW). There are science-lab gameworlds and private, PSN Home-style gameworlds and illegal hacker gameworlds. The vastness of the Net is made immediately apparent, and as the story progresses, it becomes clear that with a world this large, there are naturally going to be a lot of dimly-lit corners and a gargantuan, subterranean mechanism keeping things running smoothly. It's this exploration of what's behind the walls and beneath the floorboards that makes Otherland such a fascinating tale.

At any rate, I bring all of this up not only because Otherland is a series of books about videogames and that's the sort of thing I like to talk about here, but because it was recently announced that Otherland is being developed into a real, honest-to-God MMO game, as evidenced by the trailer above. And while we're a few decades away from being able to fully immerse ourselves in a realistic gameworld, this version of Otherland takes a unique approach to the MMO mechanic by introducing a metatextual element: players can travel from gameworld to gameworld (there are three unique worlds at launch - the Mars Market, the medieval-themed Eight Squared, and the heavy sci-fi, matrix-like Lambda Mall - but I'm certain more will be added as time goes by) and there seems to be a focus not only on your standard PvP and combat gameplay but also on creating your own gameworld by collecting and using 'eDNA'. To this end, it seems like a cross between EVE Online, Everquest and Second Life.

Otherland is going to be free-to-play, and I can guarantee you that once it's released, I'll be giving it a more-than-cursory playthrough. Familiarity with the novels on which it's based doesn't seem to be a requirement, but I recommend that you read them anyway. It's a colossal, epic story, so if that's your thing, you won't be disappointed.

Triptych: The Spice Will Flow

"Gordon Fremen" (t-shirt) by Synaptix

"I'm On A Sandworm" (t-shirt) by Tom Kurzanski

"Visit Arrakis" (t-shirt) by Jack Lightfoot

Triptych: What The Math?!

"Tollbooth Adventures" (t-shirt) by Karen Hallion

"Adventure Time x Tintin" by Francisco Perez

"Super Adventure Brothers" by Victor Louis Maury

Boy, people sure love mashing up oul' Finn and Jake with other things that they like.

Triptych: So Many Pilgrims

"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Minimalist Poster" by Martin Lucas

"Duke Pilgrim" (t-shirt) by Rippletron

"Unstuck In Time" (t-shirt) by Apalooza

That last one is pretty obscure, so I'll give you a hint: it starts with S and ends with -laughterhouse-Five.

John Dies At The End

Somewhat unrelated to the usual fare here at Apocalypse POW!, but I recently read Jason Pargin (A.K.A. David Wong)'s novel "John Dies At The End", and it was phenomenal. Sort of a cross between Lovecraft and Hunter S. Thompson with a dollop of Bret Easton Ellis thrown in for good measure, it's violent and trippy and altogether hilarious, and I can't recommend it enough.

Well, it turns out that it's being adapted into a film by Don Coscarelli, the man behind Bubba Ho-Tep and the Phantasm series, featuring Paul Giamatti as skeptical reporter Arnie Blondestone and Clancy Brown as (an apparently very badass) Dr. Marconi. There's no release date lined up just yet, but I can assure you that I'm pretty excited for it. Based on the trailer, it looks like it will hew pretty close to the source material, and while it has a kind of B-Horror movie vibe to it, that's sort of Coscarelli's wheelhouse and I expect he'll manage to do great things with it.

Anyway, just wanted to share that. Back to our regular programming.

Double Triptych: This Is My Broomstick!

"This Is My Broomstick" (t-shirt) by Iordanis Lazaridis

I've posted a similar design before, but I just really like the whole Harry Potter\Army of Darkness mashup thing: "This is my broomstick" cracks me up every time I see it. I would own both of these shirts if I could.

"Diagonally" by Evan Wakelin

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (movie poster) by Eric Palmer

"Harry Potter" by Steven Wells

"Voldemort's Targets Series: Harry Potter" by Maryanne Cury

"Harry Potter and the Beer Series, #1: The Sorcerer's Stout" by Anita Brown

The Return of iam8bit: SUPER iam8bit

"MK Kalamari" by Jose Emroca Flores


"Plight of the Koopas" by Derick Maasen


"'Zeruda no Densetsu" by Carlos Ramos


"Portrait of Rockman" by Chris Sanchez


"Absolute Power" by Tim Shumate

Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight is doing a sequel to their legendary iam8bit show, entitled SUPER iam8bit! If the promotional pieces that G1988 have released are any indication, SUPER iam8bit should be absolutely outstanding.



It appears that G1988 is also releasing the second volume of videogame-inspired art to coincide with the show. I was a huge, ginormous fan of the first volume, entitled simply "i-am-8-bit: Art Inspired by Classic Videogames of the '80s" and will definitely be grabbing Volume II once it's been released.

SUPER iam8bit starts August 11th, 2011 at Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight in Los Angeles. You can buy the first iam8bit art book here, while the second book should be sold hereabouts whenever it's out.

The Great Gatsby (NES)

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring your attention to this great "Gatsby" flash game (see what I did there?) done up in the style of an old Nintendo platformer. Particularly impressive is the attention to detail the creators (Charlie and Pete) have put into not only the game but also the faux promotional materials and manual for the game.

[The Great Gatsby for NES]

Scott Pilgrim Levels Up

It would be overly simplistic to state that Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim is a comic series about videogames... But on the other hand, it's not NOT about videogames, either. Games are just one of a number of themes woven into Scott Pilgrim that make my nerdy little heart race with glee every time I read it. There's the fact that Scott and his friends are (mostly) Torontonians, so there's any number of casual shout-outs to daily Canadian life (Scott regularly wears a t-shirt emblazoned with the CBC logo, for example.) Or the whole struggling, self-important indie band thing, as epitomised by Scott's band Sex Bob-Omb or rival band The Clash At Demonhead, amongst others. Or the near-constant stream of pop-culture references - Amazon.ca, Trainspotting, The Shins - that never come off as forced or overly cute.

But this is a blog about videogames, and if there's one thing Scott Pilgrim's got in spades, it's videogame love.

To date, O'Malley's released five of his intended six-volume Pilgrim opus, charting Scott's epic quest to defeat his girlfriend Ramona Flowers' seven evil ex-boyfriends (I'm wildly speculating here, but presumably the final volume will come out concurrently with or just prior to the theatrical release of the movie adaptation this August - but more on that in a sec.) In both concept and execution, it's pretty much a comic-book translation of the definitive videogame storyline: the hero must tackle and beat X number of level bosses, go up against the Big Bad, and win the heart of the princess in the end. It sounds incredibly precious, and make no mistake, it is - but O'Malley knows what he's doing, and over the course of the five books to date, he's thrown so many curveballs into the proceedings, and dealt with so many identifiable, grown-up trials and tribulations (like scraping together enough rent money to hang onto your shitty apartment for another month, or navigating awkward and often soon-to-fail relationships) in an admirably deft and even-handed manner, that it's anyone's guess where the story will end up.

Of course, at heart Scott Pilgrim IS about videogames, and there are clever little touches throughout to remind the reader of this fact. Besides the band names, the ex-boyfriends literally drop coins (actual pocket change) and items after they're defeated, and characters transform from average 20-somethings to cartoonish, insanely skilled fighters at the drop of a hat. They operate within a universe that's half-reality, half-videogame, and Scott himself is the quintessential videogame protagonist. And in a weird way, all of this makes perfect sense and actually lends the book a kind of heightened realism (at least for colossal nerds like me): how many times have I gotten through a rough day at work by thinking of it as XP grinding so I can eventually level up, or justified dropping $100 on a textbook by looking at it as providing +1 to INT?

Yeah, it's nerdy. Laugh all you want, but you do it too - we've all been deeply influenced by a lifetime of growing up playing videogames. And the great thing about Scott Pilgrim is that he doesn't just think this way: this is the way his world actually works.

Unless you've been living in a Hutterite colony for the past year and this is the first opportunity you've had to escape the watchful eyes of your elders and get onto the internet, you're probably aware of the upcoming adaptation of Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which - barring global catastrophe - should hit theatres August 13th of this summer. Edgar Wright (who, besides having directed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, was the co-creator and director of the brilliant nerd-love British series "Spaced", which if you haven't seen... you should) is directing, lovable geek George-Michael Bluth is playing Scott Pilgrim, John McClane's daughter is playing Ramona V. Flowers, and the likes of Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, and the incorrigable Jason Schwartzman have been cast as various Ex-Boyfriends (the screenplay was penned by one Michael Bacall who, despite having no major studio credits to his name thus far, is following up his Pilgrim script with a fictional adaptation of the documentary The King of Kong for New Line Cinema - good enough for me.) And it was, appropriately enough, shot in Toronto, which makes it one of the few high-visibility American films I can think of both filmed in and unabashedly set in a Canadian city (seriously, can you think of any? At all?)

There are a ton of movies out this year based on both comic books and videogames. On the one hand, we've got Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass, Jonah Hex, and The Losers, while on the other, there's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Resident Evil: Afterlife, not to mention the rumoured Mortal Kombat remake. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World stands as the only adaptation slated for 2010, however, that falls comfortably into both categories, and frankly (based on the admittedly-miniscule amount of information that's trickled out thus far,) it's probably the one film I'm most excited about, in a cautiously optimistic sort of way.

AND, because the world apparently is a beautiful place, Ubisoft Montreal is currently developing a videogame adaptation of Scott Pilgrim. Whether it'll hew closer to the film or the graphic novel (or equal measures of both) remains to be seen, of course, but in an interview with Comic Book Resources, Bryan Lee O'Malley has gone on record to state that it'll be a classic, retro side-scroller beat-'em-up.

Just as it should be. A videogame based on a movie based on a comic book inspired by videogames? It's almost enough to make a guy religious.

***

All five volumes of Scott Pilgrim are available in paperback from Amazon.ca for $11.26 each (Canadian funds). That means you can get all five for around $60 Canadian, including shipping! That's how much you spent on Brütal Legend! This is a much better investment, trust me.

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Vol. 1)
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Vol. 2)
Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness (Vol. 3)
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (Vol. 4)
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe (Vol. 5)