u/Sean_Aaberg

Part of fantasy is fantastical claims about reality. People are freaked out about these ideas more than ever because the present moment is full of blurred reality & unreality & people’s very real reactions to unreality having huge consequences in the real world. Makes me reading these books & others like Chariots of the Gods & books by Carlos Castaneda, Zechariah Sitchin & David Icke feel quaint & old fashioned. James Churchward developed the concept of the lost continent of Lemuria way back in the 1920s, Lemuria was supposed to be in the center of the Pacific Ocean,50,000 years ago. It was an attempt to explain a lot of similarities between pacific rim cultures, that would go on to be explored by Thor Heyerdahl & his Kon Tiki. Ultimately, all knowledge comes from attempting to understand the unknown & fantasy is a great place to stuff those explorations. For instance, HP Lovecraft included aspects of the Mu research in a bunch of his writings, I think that’s why I looked into the books in the first place.

Jim Fitzpatrick hits a lot of notes as an artist, his main work depicts an heroic, Celtic mythology, which reminds me A LOT of American Cholo art & makes me want to see an Irish incarnation of Teen Angels magazine. He came up doing art for Rock&Roll, starting in the psychedelic days leading up to him doing all of Thin Lizzy’s album covers. You can see those origins in the way he uses color, how the knot work he does is kind of trippy & how there’s a general art nouveau feeling to his work, he also did the poster version of the Che Guevara image that is equally famous as a photo or the poster.

I rewrote my Madness of Lord Scrott story & worked up a cover for it using my new digital airbrush style. It’s wild how different this style is. I’m enjoying the limitations of both my inability to do obsessive line work & the needed simplicity of book covers.

RL Stine is an American author who has written over 350 books. The biggest series that he is notable for is Goosebumps, second only to Harry Potter (also a Scholastic book series) in book series sales. I was too old for these books - they were a definite millennial phenomenon, however I was a fan of his Bananas magazine, which along with Dynamite & Hot Dog formed the power team of magazines you could order from book clubs in school. Goosebumps’ covers were by Tim Jacobus who did 100 covers for the series!

Slime was a big part of the last half of the 80s. Ghostbusters came out in 1984 & Slimer was a hugely popular element, however Mattel had introduced Slime in a garbage can as a toy in 1976 & the origins of slime go back to an American engineer trying to make a synthetic rubber for tires, but instead inventing Silly Putty. I learned to make Slime by mixing Borax with White Glue (& a little paint for color) when I was teaching kid’s art classes down in Eugene (over 20 years ago now). But i feel like the Slime Pit was the big breakthrough toy that brought Slime into kid’s homes. It was quickly followed by Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles & my favorite, Mad Scientist!

it’s wild how different the marketing for video games was when they were public facing, social games instead of what they’ve turned into. This has gone further with people using masks & headphones to leave the house & shut themselves off from the world. I’m not a “things were better then” person, at all, however I am a “do real things” & “engage with reality” person. I think people will acknowledge that mistakes have been made, the conversation needs to be civil & not for high stakes - but it needs to be had.

Flying Buffalo made Tunnels & Trolls, they also made Sorcerer’s Apprentice magazine. I always saw Tunnels & Trolls as sort of a not-as good copy of D&D, complete with a name that was supposed to feel similar. It lacked the things I look for in a good cheap knock off: dramatically cheaper, more way out ideas because of lack of oversight, more way out art because of the “good enough” principle & generally that feeling of freedom like the babysitter is almost the same age as the kids & is overly sympathetic & maybe on acid! Instead Flying Buffalo felt like it had the pretense of Chaosium but not the skills. This is all my “sense” of Flying Buffalo, I haven’t done good research on them yet. But they produced a magazine! Looks interesting.

Gotta love that chrome! There was a time when the development of video games & tabletop role playing games was neck & neck… video games increased in complexity over the decades while TTRPGs stagnated, the next biggest development would be LARPing in the 90s, but one could argue that had been developed by the Society for Creative Anachronism in 1966. Oh, this game? Never played it, but I love the packaging!

When Magic the Gathering initially came out I was at a point in my life where the main thing I cared about was alcohol, the second was Punk & that was really about it. I played Warhammer Fantasy & 40k but I played Orcs - probably the least strategic & most chaotic army - my main vocal criticism of Magic was that I didn’t like the art but I also really didn’t want to learn a game where each card had its own rules. Too much! Orc headache! Decades pass & I finally give the game a chance & I actually enjoy playing (I play every week with my family) & I discover that Magic has had so many different artists on board, there is no specific style. (Maybe that was part of my issue, I expect aesthetic control from any project!) Among the many artists that have done cards for Magic is Phil Foglio - an artist that already won me over with his work on the Robert Asprin Myth Adventures books & comics - his work captured the goofy expansiveness of those books which then opens up to his work with the equally goofy expansiveness of MTG.

First off I love how TSR produced both DUNGEON & DRAGON magazine. I only used premade adventures a couple times in playing any role playing games - but I read through them as often as i could. I loved the idea of adventures, & as soon as i realized that you could apply the basic framework of adventures to real life (I think my first experience with this was with the Church of the Subgenius) & then through Punk zines (like Cometbus) - I was like, “I don’t care about games anymore, now that real life is more engaging!” So, I’m speaking highly about the general concept of adventure, this magazine was mid, the covers are fun - but the general idea of a magazine full of adventures is awesome, the idea that you can adventure in real life is more awesome. Tally ho! Onward, to adventure!

The box art on these old fantasy play sets is awesome, unfortunately the artist is unknown. Luckily for us, his color palette seems to be based on Erol Otus & pulp magazine covers - the perfect colors for catching (at least my eye!) viewers. My point in posting this stuff is to bring these elements into the now. I want these to be an option for (the few) children of today, & tomorrow & for this kind of stuff that strikes that deep chord within you today, for non-collectors for whoever. That’s what I’ve done with DUNGEON DEGENERATES in general, recreated what hits me in the heart & with GOBLINKO in general is constantly thinking about creating things that NEED to exist!

I saw a show of these hosted by Wyrd War here in Portland & I had seen these paintings online, but seeing an art show dedicated entirely to these Ghanian Movie Posters changed me. These posters were developed in Ghana in the 80s to advertise the traveling movie set ups that emerged with the advent of video. Guys would travel from village to village with a TV, VCR & a stack of movies & local sign painters would create their own movie posters to get people in the door. These paintings are done on old flour sacks that are taped off to prevent frayed edges & the style has gotten more lurid & extreme as Western collectors & the art world has looked into this world which now doesnt even have a connection to the traveling movie world which ended back in 2000. Nowadays, Chicago”s Deadly Prey Gallery has been largely responsible for promoting this art form. I learned from it that you should turn the volume to 11, cut out the boring bit’s & everything is improved by bulging biceps & uzis!

Fantasy movies were always hit or miss for me, they had to be just right or they pissed me off so much. I saw the potential in fantasy so well that when it wasn’t met I was so disappointed. However, high standards are what made me push for DUNGEON DEGENERATES to have a degree of fantastic exploration that goes above & beyond. All the new Hand of Doom stuff is live at GOBLINKO now!

HP Lovecraft wrote an incredible essay called “Supernatural Horror in Literature” back in the time when horror, fantasy & sci-fi were all just emerging from the realm of imaginative fiction. I read it probably twenty years ago, in an era of increasing rigidity around genre & genre splintering (& it’s just gotten worse as people pander to the algorithm), it was refreshing to understand these things as all coming from the same source! In that, I love old video boxes, especially as this art form of grabbing people’s eye in the video store & the little micro languages that speak to the contents of the movie & the emotions that they might unlock! Also, all the new DUNGEON DEGENERATES - Hand of Doom stuff is live in the GOBLINKO shop, have a look!

You’d call yourself NECROLORD too if you were named Kristian in the church-burning heyday of the Scandinavian Black Metal scene. Necrolord painted tons of beautiful, iconic covers for Black Metal albums from Bathory to Emperor, emphasizing the gothic moodiness of the Scandinavian scenery, via the cover for the AD&D “Temple of Elemental Evil” module, speaking of which I can see these guys playing evil Vampires in their RPGs & then that bleeding out into their real lives.

Having each He-Man figure come with a mini-comic was a beyond awesome move. The comics gave you a lot of background for the figures, especially since the cartoon wouldn’t come out for another year. The initial concept was much more like Conan. He-Man was a tribal barbarian, Gray Skull was an ancient, eldritch fortress that was neither good nor evil, it was weird & powerful. This is the way it was until Filmation made He-Man into a Superman character with a nerdy, weak prince identity from which he turned into He-Man. Luckily, the comics are what imprinted on me, the cartoon no, but the music & colors did!

Having each He-Man figure come with a mini-comic was a beyond awesome move. The comics gave you a lot of background for the figures, especially since the cartoon wouldn’t come out for another year. The initial concept was much more like Conan. He-Man was a tribal barbarian, Gray Skull was an ancient, eldritch fortress that was neither good nor evil, it was weird & powerful. This is the way it was until Filmation made He-Man into a Superman character with a nerdy, weak prince identity from which he turned into He-Man. Luckily, the comics are what imprinted on me, the cartoon no, but the music & colors did!

The Christmas of 1982 i awoke to Castle Grayskull, Battlecat, He-Man, Skeletor & Mer-Man. It was the most overwhelming Christmas memory ever. I think Santa had good royalties that year. But I gained a lifelong obsession with a toy, a SKULL CASTLE, that will last my entire life. Before the cartoon, in the early days of He-Man, the whole thing was darker & He-Man was more like Conan not the Superman-esque transforming prince. Each figure came with a comic, I only had Smurfs & Garfield comics, these were amazing (I’ll have to do a post on those soon)… when I designed Brüttelburg for DUNGEON DEGENERATES, I wanted it to evoke the same feelings as Castle Grayskull, Ian Miller’s drawing of Gormenghast & Sanctuary from Thieves World, plus whatever the city is called in Battle Angel Alita. Lowlife, a DUNGEON DEGENERATES TTRPG digs deep into Brüttelburg in a way that Hand of Doom can’t. Today is the last day so make sure & check it out!

The Christmas of 1982 i awoke to Castle Grayskull, Battlecat, He-Man, Skeletor & Mer-Man. It was the most overwhelming Christmas memory ever. I think Santa had good royalties that year. But I gained a lifelong obsession with a toy, a SKULL CASTLE, that will last my entire life. Before the cartoon, in the early days of He-Man, the whole thing was darker & He-Man was more like Conan not the Superman-esque transforming prince. Each figure came with a comic, I only had Smurfs & Garfield comics, these were amazing (I’ll have to do a post on those soon)… when I designed Brüttelburg for DUNGEON DEGENERATES, I wanted it to evoke the same feelings as Castle Grayskull, Ian Miller’s drawing of Gormenghast & Sanctuary from Thieves World, plus whatever the city is called in Battle Angel Alita. Lowlife, a DUNGEON DEGENERATES TTRPG digs deep into Brüttelburg in a way that Hand of Doom can’t. Today is the last day so make sure & check it out!

Brian Froud’s work was an integral part of my childhood as he did the conceptual work for both the Dark Crystal & Labyrinth. I was already a huge fan of the Muppets, so Henson’s animating spirit giving life to Froud’s work was just amazing & we should consider ourselves lucky that these things exist. His work totally picks up from where Arthur Rackham & John Bauer left off - exploring this muddy, mossy world of Faerie. Left to his own devices his work is a little soft, but forced into the good vs. evil narrative of a Hollywood movie he shines, his darker creatures are amazing. As a bonus find the Goblins of Labyrinth book that he did with Terry Jones (of Monty Python), it’s so funny!