Breaking News! Iain McCaig to produce brand new original artwork for YOU ARE THE HERO!

Iain McCaig, legendary Fighting Fantasy artist and the designer of Darth Maul (almost other things), is to produce a pair of brand new black and white illustrations for YOU ARE THE HERO - the definitive history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.


Iain (one of Ian Livingstone's favourite artists) was responsible for four gamebook covers - The Forest of Doom*, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon, Island of the Lizard King - four novel covers - Firestorm, Darkthrone, Skullcrag, Demonlord - and all of the art in Ian Livingstone's Casket of Souls. (Of course he also produced the iconic internal illustrations for both City of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon.)

Iain is going to work on the new drawings over the next two weeks, but if you were me, what would you ask him to illustrate?


* Recently re-released in app form by Tin Man Games.

YOU ARE THE HERO custom dice

The Adventurer’s Gaming Sets (that come with the WEREWOLF reward level and above) will include a pair of custom-made YOU ARE THE HERO dice. I am ready to commission these dice, but I have a question for you all...

The dice will have five normal faces and one featuring the YOU ARE THE HERO shield logo.

The question is, should the logo replace the 1 spot (as it is one shape itself) or the 6 spot (as, generally, YOU ARE THE HERO if you roll a 6)?

To have your say, regarding which face should be replaced by the YOU ARE THE HEROshield, head over to the YOU ARE THE HERO Facebook page by clicking this link and vote on the poll that's been posted there.

You only have until midnight (BST) on Sunday 16/Monday 17 June to have your say! Vote now!

Brand New Artwork!

This week, Russ Nicholson sent me a brand new image of Zagor the Warlock, and I thought you might like to see it.

This is the piece I commissioned for YOU ARE THE HERO. It will appear in the book and is also one of the images Ghoul level backers can choose as their reward.

Just to whet your appetite... The Warlock of Firetop Mountain rises...

The Warlocks gather...

Today, the Warlock level backers gathered in Wimbledon, to have lunch with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

Steve Jackson, Andy, Liren, Ian Livingstone, Steven, Thomas, and Jonathan Green.

The Warlocks (also known as Andy, Liren, Steven and Thomas) met at the offices of Eidos/Square Enix where they were able to get books signed by Steve and Ian. They also received a few extra gifts from their idols (including signed FF gamebooks).

Steven with just a few items from his extensive Fighting Fantasy collection.

Steve Jackson and Thomas, the Warlock of Denmark.

Andy, Steven and Steve Jackson consider the intricacies of the solution to The Tasks of Tantalon.

 

Steve and Ian were very impressed with the distances people had travelled for today's lunch. Andy had come from Hampshire and Steven from Hastings, but Thomas had flown in from Denmark especially, while Liren had come over from Taiwan!

Liren, the furthest travelled Warlock, with Ian and Steve, and the book that started it all.

The party then headed to a local restaurant for lunch, where many questions were asked, stories were told, and toasts were made (one to Fighting Fantasy, of course). Topics under discussion included the solution to The Tasks of Tantalon, the design of the Maze of Zagor, one backer's desire not to drink wine in case he ended up on a slave galley on the seas of Titan, using the Res spell from Sorcery! to ensure that we would all be around to celebrate FF's 60th anniversary in another 30 years, hanging out in Port Blacksand, favourite FF artists (all of whom have work appearing in YOU ARE THE HERO), favourite gamebooks, F.I.S.T. (a telephone RPG), and Steve Jackson's favourite games. Steve even wowed us with his own sorcerous trick involving a knife.

The Warlocks, along with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, celebrate 30 years of Fighting Fantasy over lunch (not at the Black Lobster in Port Blacksand, unfortunately).

All that remains for me to say is thank you to Steve and Ian for giving up their time so that the lunch could happen, and to the Warlocks themselves for their support and their company this afternoon. I had a great time and it certainly inspired me to keep plugging away at the book...

Legend of Zagor, YOU ARE THE HERO artwork commissions and Derek the Troll

It may surprise you to hear that until this week, I had never owned or even played the Parker board game version of Legend of Zagor, written by Mr Ian Livingstone himself. But now, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, eBay and YOU ARE THE HERO, I have acquired a copy and even tried it out with my own little minions this weekend.

 The game in progress.

Salazar the Wizard prepares to enter the Halls of Fear.

Legend of Zagor came out in 1993, the same year that my first ever book (and Fighting Fantasy gamebook) Spellbreaker was published. I remember seeing it for sale at the time - just the once - but being a student, I wasn't in a position to splash out and celebrate my publishing success with a copy of the game. Now, of course - twenty years and forty-five books later - it's another matter entirely. This time I can justify the expense as I've had to buy the game 'for research purposes'. (At least that's what I've told my wife. ;-)

 The story intro to the game.

Anwar the Barbarian's Character Sheet, with artwork by Martin McKenna.

You can expect to find a chapter dedicated to the various non-gamebook versions of Fighting Fantasy adventures in YOU ARE THE HERO.

In other news, this week I also commissioned three artists to produce brand new artwork for the book. They include Martin McKenna, who's producing the cover, Russ Nicholson, who's producing some new internal art, and legendary UK comics artist and writer Lew Stringer, who will be writing a brand new Derek the Troll strip for YOU ARE THE HERO.

Mark Stoneham's Gamebook Companion App

When I was running the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter at the end of last year, Mark Stoneham got in touch and very generously offered codes for his Gamebook Companion iOS App for the COMPANION reward level.

This was very well-received and all the COMPANION rewards got snapped up very quickly. But if you missed out on one of these, you can still download the app (for a frankly embarrassingly cheap 69p) from here.

Happy gaming!