Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Russ Nicholson

There are just 8 days left to buy your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest. One of the headline guests at the event is the man who first established the look of the Fighting Fantasy world, Russ Nicholson.

His interweaving pen and ink illustrations have adorned FF gamebooks since 1982 and Russ even has a brand new piece of artwork in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks which is launching at Fighting Fantasy Fest (and where the softback edition will be on sale for the first time).

His work for FF includes the gamebooks The Citadel of Chaos, Masks of Mayhem, Magehunter and Deathmoor. He also illustrated Steve Jackson's novel The Trolltooth Wars, Ian Livingstone's Adventures of Goldhawk, and both the AFF books Blacksand! and Allansia.

So head over to the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Ealing, West London, on Sunday 7 September, and get your copy of YOU ARE THE HERO signed by Russ himself!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Guests of Honour, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone

There are now just 2 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

 Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, and the launch of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for two individuals who, since their humble beginnings at Altrincham Grammar School, have grown to become veritable gaming legends in their own lifetime - Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone!

Earlier this year, Steve and Ian were inducted into the UK Games Expo Hall of Fame, adding yet enough award to the prestigious collection the two of them have between them (including a Professorship and a CBE).

Steve and Ian are the Guests of Honour at this September's Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - the first dedicated FF convention in the world - where they will be speaking about the history of Fighting Fantasy, as well as running an auction, and another very special surprise event! And best of all, attendees at the con will be able to hang out with them at Port Blacksand's Black Lobster Tavern!

Also appearing on the day is Russ Nicholson, the artist who illustrated Steve and Ian's first ever gamebook - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - as well as Steve's first solo outing, The Citadel of Chaos. So buy your ticket today (before it's too late) and come and meet the guys on Sunday 7 September. You might even be persuaded to buy them a pint. ;-)

There's never been an event like it, so book your place at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 today! And tell all your friends!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Malcolm Barter and the Fighting Fantasy Exhibition

There are now just 3 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

In yet another coup for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, The Forest of Doom artist Malcolm Barter is going to be joining us at the DoubleTree Hilton, Ealing, on Sunday 7 September.

Malcolm's unique artwork appears in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which has a whole chunk of one chapter given over to Ian Livingstone's The Forest of Doom and which will be launching at the event. So why not come along and get Malcolm to sign your copy on the day?

Another of the highlights of the day is going to be an exhibition of rare and unique items from the history of Fighting Fantasy - everything from original artwork, to miniatures, to hand-written manuscripts!

There's never been an event like it, so book your place at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 today! And tell all your friends!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring guest artist John Blanche

There are now just 4 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

In what has to be quite some coup for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, Sorcery! and Clash of the Princes artist John Blanche is going to be joining us in Ealing on Sunday 7 September.

Yes - the John Blanche, whose mind now works feverishly to create the quasi-Medieval worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

John's unique artwork appears in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which has a whole chapter given over to the Sorcery! series, and which will be launching at the event. So why not come along and get John to sign your copy on the day?

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Leo Hartas and a Warlock's hoard of goodies

There are now just 5 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

One of the artists joining us on the day is the man responsible for a host of beautiful maps - everything from painted charts of Gallantaria to black and white plans of Allansian towns - Leo Hartas!

There are several pages given over to Leo's exqusite cartography in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which will be launching at the event. So why not come along and get Leo to sign your copy on the day?

Attendees who snap up a full price ticket now will also receive a goodie bag, stuff full of goodies, including the following:

• A Fighting Fantasy gamebook (with the first 100 to buy their tickets receiving the highly sought after 25th anniversary edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, signed by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone).
• A Pax Britannia novel by Yours Truly.
• A download code for a Tin Man Games app.
• A limited edition poster.
• The highly collectible 'Adventurer's Backpack' itself.
• A commemorative convention programme.
• And a 32mm miniature of Zagor the Warlock, especially sculpted for this event by Paul Muller and cast by Otherworld Miniatures.

In addition to all of the above, every attendee buying a full price ticket will be entered into a raffle to win the chance to have their name appear in a forthcoming Tin Man Games Fighting Fantasy app!

So what are you waiting for?

Iain McCaig, who illustrated Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves, has a number of pieces of work in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, including two especially commissioned for the book and his first FF-related illustration work in years!

Fighting Fantasy Fest - Featuring artist Tony Hough

There are now just 9 days left for you to purchase your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, so best buy yours before it's too late.

One of our artist guests at the event is Tony Hough, who has been illustrating Fighting Fantasy gamebooks since 1991, including two of my own gamebooks - Knights of Doom and Bloodbones. He has also contributed brand new filler pictures to YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which is launching at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014.

Come along on the day, and not only could you get Tony to sign YOU ARE THE HERO for you, you might also be able to buy an original piece of FF art from his portfolio. Now that would be some collector's item!

Tony's art features a number of times in YOU ARE THE HERO, just as does the work of Les Edwards - the man who painted both different versions of the UK cover of Caverns of the Snow Witch - and so does the artwork of the artists responsible for the internals black and white illustrations on Caverns, Edward Crosby and Gary Ward.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Russ Nicholson

There are just 11 days left to buy your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest. One of our guests at the event is the man who first established the look of the Fighting Fantasy world, Russ Nicholson.

His interweaving pen and ink illustrations have adorned FF gamebooks since 1982 and Russ even has a brand new piece of artwork in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks which is launching at Fighting Fantasy Fest (and where the softback edition will be on sale for the first time).

His work for FF includes the gamebooks The Citadel of Chaos, Masks of Mayhem, Magehunter and Deathmoor. He also illustrated Steve Jackson's novel The Trolltooth Wars, Ian Livingstone's Adventures of Goldhawk, and both the AFF books Blacksand! and Allansia.

So head over to the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Ealing, West London, on Sunday 7 September, and get your copy of YOU ARE THE HERO signed by Russ himself!

Of course, whilst Russ produced the internal black and white illustrations for The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Peter Andrew Jones painted the cover, and he also painted the cover of FF #11 Talisman of Death.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring the official book launch of YOU ARE THE HERO...

... A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

There are now just 13 days left in which you can purchase your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, which is attracting guests from all over the world (quite literally).

The event will feature the official book launch of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which in turn features the artwork of Jim Burns (amongst many others). Jim provided cover art for Freeway Fighter, not once but twice, and also painted the Legend of Zagor box art.

Jim also has his own art book out. Called Hyperluminal, it's out this September from Titan Books. The softback edition of YOU ARE THE HERO will be out in September too and the first place it will be available is Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014.

Also appearing at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 will be Ian Livingstone CBE, author of Freeway Fighter, along with Steve Jackson, co-creator the the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks.

Steam Golems, Stormslayers and Sunday the Seventh of September

As a result of being tagged in a recent post on the British Steampunk Community Facebook page, I discovered Mini Art Studio's Steampunk miniatures, amongst which I found this Security Golem...

After reminding me that I need to write a piece for SFX magazine about Ted Hughes' The Iron Man, the miniature made me think of my own Steam Golem from Stormslayer...

Stephen Player, the artist who illustrated Stormslayer, teaches an illustration class and has used the art brief for the book with his students. As a result, every once in a while new interpretations of his original illustrations appear online, usually over on DeviantArt, such as these...

The last of these images is by the artist Emerson Tung. Emerson also created an alternative image of the Eye of the Storm (the giant fish-shaped brass flying machine) from the book, which appears in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

And of course YOU ARE THE HERO is going to have its official launch at FIGHTING FANTASY FEST 2014 on Sunday 7 September. Buy your ticket now and become a part of Fighting Fantasy history yourself.

John Blanche and Leo Hartas to attend Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014

Joining the already impressive roster of guests attending Fighting Fantasy Fest on Sunday 7 September 2014 at the DoubleTree Hilton in Ealing, West London, are Leo Hartas, the Fighting Fantasy cartographer, and John Blanche, the man who illustrated Steve Jackson's legendary Sorcery! series.

Both Leo's maps and John's artwork appear in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, and if you're coming along to Fighting Fantasy Fest, you could ask them to sign the book for you. If you're not already attending Fighting Fantasy Fest, you can buy your ticket by clicking this link.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Goodies galore!

Tickets for FIGHTING FANTASY FEST 2014 - the world's first ever convention dedicated to Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks - are on sale now. Guests of Honour Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone will be giving a talk about how FF first came to be, artists Chris Achilleos, Russ Nicholson, Malcolm Barter and Tony Hough are guests, and the event will also feature the official book launch of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. But that's not all...

Every full price paying guest will also receive a complimentary Adventurer's Backpack. (We want everyone who attends FIGHTING FANTASY FEST to feel like a VIP.)

So what's in this Adventurer's Backpack? What, you mean apart from a collectible convention programme, Tin Man Games app download code, a poster and the bag itself (which is sure to become a collector's item in its own right)?

How about a limited edition metal miniature of Zagor, the Warlock of Firetop Mountain himself? How about a Pax Britannia novel by Yours Truly? And how about a Fighting Fantasy gamebook? Not only that, but if you're one of the first 100 people to buy a ticket for FIGHTING FANTASY FEST that gamebook will be none other than the much sought after, limited edition hardback of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, including a solution and map, and a host of other fascinating snippets of information.

And as if that wasn't enough to tempt you, everyone who buys a ticket for FIGHTING FANTASY FEST will be entered into a draw to win the chance to have their name appear in a forthcoming Fighting Fantasy app from Tin Man Games.

Aside from the Adventurer's Backpack, and the money-can't-buy prize on offer, we also have all of the following planned for Sunday 7 September 2014:

• Arion Games will be running sessions of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG
• Tin Man Games and Inkle Studios will be talking about their app adaptations of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks and Steve Jackson's Sorcery! epic
• Trade stands
• Book signings
• Panels and talks
• An exhibition of rare Fighting Fantasy memorabilia
• A Fighting Fantasy auction

Among the items being auctioned at FIGHTING FANTASY FEST will be two swords, currently owned by Ian Livingstone, made to promote the Deathtrap Dungeon video game, and seen here in the hands of the Warlocks of Firetop Mountain.

If you think this sounds like something you would like to be involved in, don't delay - click this link and purchase your ticket today!

Malcolm Barter now attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014

I am pleased to be able to announce that The Forest of Doom artist Malcolm Barter is also going to be attending FIGHTING FANTASY FEST 2014 on Sunday 7 September.

Malcolm's illustrations of the Fire Demon, Yaztromo's Tower, the Werewolf, and the like, are well known to Fighting Fantasy fans, and have recently had colour added for the Tin Man Games' app version of the gamebook.

If you first experienced Malcolm's work when you were a child, you could introduce your own child to the man himself, by purchasing one of the Adult and Child tickets that are now available (in strictly limited numbers).

To find out more, click this link.

Edward Crosby and Gary Ward

Anyone who's ever read Ian Livingstone's Caverns of the Snow Witch has surely marvelled at Edward Crosby's and Gary Ward's woodcut-style artwork. But how did they actually produce the images?

Well, you'll have to wait until YOU ARE THE HERO is published to find out, but in the mean time, here are some roughs of those original illustrations that Gary Ward sent through to me today. Enjoy.

Check out Eddy's online portfolio here.

The Art of Allansia

One of the things I used to love about writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks was working with the artists. I would slave away over the manuscript for a couple of months, and during the process write an art brief for all the wonderful illustrations that would appear in the book. And there were just so many! Between 25 and 30 usually (and not including the filler pictures or cover)!

Well I'm at that stage with YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks now, negotiating with artists about which of their pictures I can reproduce in the book. So far Martin McKenna's cover art is in (and it's awesome), as are Iain McCaig's updates for Zanbar Bone and the Bloodbeast (they are also awesome), and Russ Nicholson has produced a brand new portrait of Zagor the Warlock for the book. (Guess what - it's awesome!)

YOU ARE THE HERO will also definitely feature art by Rodney Matthews, Pete Knifton, Malcolm Barter, Kev Crossley, Greg Staples, David Gallagher, John Blanche, Alan Craddock, Tony Hough, Nicholas Halliday, Stephen Player, Gary Ward and Edward Crosby, and cartographer Leo Hartas. And those are just the ones I can tell you about at the moment!

So exciting times indeed. Now, if you'll excuse me I just need to phone Chris Achellios.

Until next time...

Nightgaunts, Night Demons and Ice Ghosts

It feels like every new day brings an exciting new development to the YOU ARE THE HERO project at the moment. Today's exciting new development came in the post courtesy of Tower of Destruction and Siege of Sardath artist Pete Knifton.

Pete Knifton, you truly are a hero!

YOU ARE THE HERO - Putting out the call

I am so close to finishing the manuscript for YOU ARE THE HERO that you could say I'm at paragraph 395 (to use a gamebook analogy). I have interviewed a great many people about Fighting Fantasy and their experiences of it - and they've had some great stories to tell - but there are still a significant number of creators I have not been able to contact*, despite having trawled the Internet, and called in all manner of favours.

So, if anyone could help me in tracking down and contacting any of the following, I would greatly appreciate it. But time is, as they say, of the essence...

Emmanuel (original cover artist on The Citadel of Chaos)
Malcolm Barter (interior artists for The Forest of Doom)
Duncan Smith (illustrator of Scorpion Swamp)
Gary Ward & Edward Crosby (interior artists for Caverns of the Snow Witch)
Tim Sell (illustrator of House of Hell)
Steve Jackson US (of Steve Jackson Games and writer of Scorpion Swamp)**
Bob Harvey (artist)
Andrew Chapman (writer)
Geoffrey Senior (artist)
Kevin Bulmer (artist)
Bill Houston (artist)
Brian Bolland (artist)
Declan Considine (artist)
David Martin (artist)
Gary Mayes (artist)
Dave Carson (artist)
Martin Allen (writer)
Jim Bambra (writer)
Stephen Hand (writer)***
Keith P Phillips (writer)
Simon Dewey (cover artist on The Adventures of Goldhawk series)
Pete Tamlyn (co-writer of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy series)
Carl Sargent (writer)
Nik Williams (artist)
Chris Moore (cover illustrator for the Wizard Books edition of Starship Traveller)
Richard Corben and R Courtney (cover artists of some of the US editions of FF gamebooks)
Clarecraft (who made a range of Fighting Fantasy figurines)
Richard Scrivener (Puffin commissioning editor on the FF series towards the end of Puffin's tenure)

I know that seems like I lot, but I can assure you I have already interviewed a lot more for the book!

Feel free to pass this on to anyone who you think might be able to help.

* Or who have not returned my calls, if you know what I mean.

** Every time I contact Steve Jackson Games, they seem to think I'm trying to contact Steve Jackson UK (whom I know), despite me repeating repeatedly that this is not the case.

*** I'm really keen to talk to Stephen Hand.

Out of the pit they come...

Any ideas what this might be?

That's right, Iain McCaig has sent through his rough sketches of the images he's producing of the Bloodbeast and Zanbar Bone the Night Prince for YOU ARE THE HERO.

Iain has stayed quite close to the original designs but, as he points out, they are very retro and not at all how he would go about designing either of the characters today. He has expressed an interest in giving them a complete overhaul, and I'd be interested in hearing your views on the subject.

Remember, this is the man who, since illustrating City of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon, has gone on to design Darth Maul, one of the most memorable characters in modern movies, and is currently working on Start Wars Episode 7. And he's offered to give a couple of Fighting Fantasy icons a fresh lick of paint for the new millennium!

(I know, I can't quite believe it either.)

Please let me know what you think by commenting on this post, or via the YOU ARE THE HERO Facebook page, but do bear in mind the final decision will be mine and mine alone. I know which way I'm leaning at the moment, but I'd be interested to hear what you'd like to see too.

Derek the Troll, by Lew Stringer

What's that, you say?

"Is that the new Derek the Troll strip by Lew Stringer, commissioned for YOU ARE THE HERO, a history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks?"

Why, yes it is!

(Well the start of it anyway.)

Return of the Troll

Just to keep all you Derek fans out there frothing...

Derek the Troll WILL return!

Exciting news from Lew Stringer's blog!

Check it out here.