Sketches of Spain, Germany, Italy, Madison…

There is good news on many a front.

In Spain, the Dork Tower website en Espanol is up and running. There’s also a sidebar interview with me, with some really interesting questions from Spanish gamers. I’ll try and post that in English on Monday.

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Also from Spain, La Factoria De Ideas/Distrimagen will be switching from publishing the Dork Tower comic books to the Dork Tower trade paperbacks, starting with “Heart of Dorkiness.” I’m tremendously happy with this news, as the trades seem to do really well in Germany (Feder & Schwert) and Italy (Nexus Editrice). And, from some time spent growing up in France, I always associate the continent with these gorgeous comic book collections.

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Finally from Spain, the Spanish version of Munchkin has shipped, and it just looks tremendous. I haven’t spoken with anyone from the company, but this is a really spiffy edition.

I’m in the middle (I hope) of sorting and filing every Munchkin card ever produced, in every language, which means thousands of the buggers. Suffice it to say, this particular version is VERY easy on the eyes.

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The FTP problems are SOLVED! New cartoons up at dorktower.com once again!

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I also recently was interviewed by a German magazine, called Multimania. Or Legacy. Or something. I suppose I should have asked. But there’s company info here, and they just sent me the PDF of the piece.

It’s at press now. When that hits, I’ll post a translation here.

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Fingers crossed, I may be at Spiel, in Essen, after all…

In part, it’s because I miss the show. But also, I want to be back in London as soon as possible, and this seems like a good way to spend a few days there, as well.

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I’m hoping my GOOD FRIENDS at a certain vampiric game company realize that today’s Pyramid Online toon is ONLY A JOKE!

Seriously.

I love you guys, and all your stuff! Serious props. You KNOW that…

One should never make sport of a company that can sic werewolves on one, y’know…

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“10 Days in Europe” is all done, and though the game won’t ship until October, I’m eagerly looking forward to it. The 10 Days series is among my favorites. The fun thing is, most people have no idea that I did the illustrations and graphic design on it. Occasionally, I’ll run across some comment about my “fun, but limited” artistic style, and I want to throw some Out of the Box game these writers’ ways. With only a couple of exceptions, I’m really proud of my work on the Out of the Box games.

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Super Munchkin is now shipping!

This makes me werra, werra heppy…

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“Go, Dork Go!: The Collected Dork Tower Volume VIII” is at press, and should ship in a few weeks. It would have been grand to have had this for Comicon and Gen Con, but I’ve been so swamped with work, I’m just glad it’s done.

Also, the reprints of Dork Covenant (fifth) and Understanding Gamers (second) are both at press. This puts Dork Covenant around 20,000 copies, in its various printings, believe it or not.

Massive thanks to Jeff and Hal for their help.

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Feder & Schwert should have “Dork Side of the Goon” out in German soon, and I just sent the “Heart of Dorkness” files to Nexus, in Italy. The Italian versions of Dork Covenant and Dork Shadows are unbelievably pretty things, by the way.

I’m trying to touch up my Italian before the Lucca show in October, but it’s hopeless. When my dad worked in Milan, the family would summer there, and I was young enough to absorb enough of the language like a sponge.

These days, my mind is more sieve-like than sponge-like.

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Anyone use Garage Band?

I’m just starting playing around with it, trying to make some mixes for my ever-lovin’ compilation CDs (now up to Songs for Swinging Muskrats Vol. VII), but I’m not sure how to convert the outputted files (is that even a verb) back to MP3s…

I’ve got this seriously grand coupling of Kelis’ “Milkshake” and Al Stewart’s “In Brooklyn” that you just GOTTA hear…

No. Seriously. Al Stewart is the roxxor.

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What’s that, you say? You haven’t seen the final list of tracks on Songs for Swinging Muskrats, Volume VII?

Here it is. I’m comfortably sure I’m done fiddling with this one…at last.

Armenia City In The Sky – Petra Hayden
The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1 – Neutral Milk Hotel
Vertigo – U2
Song Against Sex – Neutral Milk Hotel
Krafty – New Order
Run Baby Run – Garbage
Medac – Petra Hayden
Stoney End – Barbra Streisand
All the Way from America – Joan Armatrading
Two of Us – Aimee Mann and Michael Penn
I Want To Live In A Dream – Clearlake
Girl – Beck
Stuck In The Middle With You – Stealers Wheel
Ten Feet Tall – XTC
Advert – Blur
The Sporting Life – The Decemberists
Rebel Rebel – Seu Jorge
Rebel Never Gets Old – David Bowie
Let Me Be the One – Matthew Sweet
The Sweetest Punch – Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach
Queen Bitch – David Bowie

The retro tracks play very well alongside the newer stuff. I was a bit worried this compilation wasn’t working out the way I wanted it to, but now it flows pretty well. Although there is a Magic Numbers cut I was trying to track down for it, for the most part, I’m pleased with this.

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The Madison Mallards are back in town tonight, after being on the road for almost three weeks. They got stomped by the LaCrosse Loggers last night, the first time LaCrosse has beaten them all season. This seems indicative that the 17-day road trip is taking its toll, so I’ll be on hand at Warner Park tonight to help pump up the local heroes in their first appearance in almost three weeks.

In fact, if anybody needs me this weekend, I’ll either be working, or at every Mallards game I can get tickets for.

Go Mallards!

John

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