This coming Saturday April 9 I’ll be speaking at Southern Virginia University. It’s an event organized by Orson Scott Card and will include myself and two other writers. Click the image below for more information.
Vodafone – Movies on your Phone
I love this print campaign from Scholz & Friends NRW in Duesseldorf, Germany for Vodafone. Don’t know exactly how these were used. They’re make great subway terminal posters. Not necessarily a new idea, but a fun one and executed well.
Pampers Swing Cover
A creative team over at Saatchi Saatchi Germany has come up with a cool way to feature a new line of Pampers diapers called Cruisers. The diapers apparently offer greater flexibility around the legs and therefore greater mobility for little tots. So they’re “play” diapers, whatever that means. Personally, I can’t imagine a parent switching diapers just for playtime–and I’m qualified to have this opinion since I have a child currently in diapers–but hey, maybe some parents are looking for a diaper just for play time.
In any event, the guys and gals at Saatchi have made a fabric cover for playground swings. It’s a cool idea, but like most guerrilla ideas, it will likely only get seen by a handful of people. What’s more, I can’t imagine these will stay on the swings for very long. They’ll slip off and get blown around the playground in no time flat. So it’s just as much litter as it is advertising, but hey, it’s a fun idea.
Great review for Dragon Age #1
So the first review I’ve found for the first issue of Dragon Age is very positive. Many thanks to Jason Kerouac over at Panels For Pages. Jason gives the comic four stars, well actually four hurlock assassins, which is just as good as stars, I guess, only meaner. I mean, stars won’t stab you in the back and trample over your bleeding corpse like hurlocks are prone to do. Anyway check out the review. Jason calls it a “fantastic tale.” Hoorah.
My interview with Comic Book Resources
Comic Book Resources just posted an interview I did regarding the upcoming release of Dragon Age. It highlights how the first issue was created and how Scott Card and I collaborated on the story. I also discuss how we interacted with the game team.
Check out the interview here.
Preview Dragon Age #1 (Now Available)
The biggest role-playing game of the year is now the biggest comic book of the year. Well, at least I hope it’s the biggest comic of the year. Dragon Age hits store shelves in just a few days, and I think fans of the game are going to love it. I can’t say enough how thrilled I am to be a part of this project. The game team at BIOWARE has created an incredible universe. The magic system, the creatures, the mythology, the history of the world. It’s all blow-your-mind type stuff. When they first handed Orson Scott Card and me the game bible to read, I was floored. It was like: Wow, these guys think of everything.
What’s great about the comics, from a writer’s point of view, is that the game team encouraged us to create our own story with our own heroes. So we didn’t have to build a story out of the characters they had designed for the game. We got to start anew. For a comic book writer, this is a dream come true. Most writers are given both the mythology and the hero, be it Spiderman or Batman or whatever. But we got to start over, hero-wise. We got to design our own. Granted, these heroes had to be possible within the established mythos. We had to be true to the rules of the universe. But that was fine by us; that made creating the stories that much easier. Once you know the rules of the universe, a story quickly emerges.
And I should also say that you don’t have to know a thing about the game to get into the comics. This is a totally new story, and we reveal the mythology as the story unfolds. So non-gamers, get out your comic-book money. You’re invited to this party too.
Our editor at EA Games, Rob Simpson, has been amazing. Super talented guy whose feedback has been invaluable throughout this process. I look forward to working with Rob for many issues to come.
I also can’t say enough about all the artists on this book. Mark Robinson. Jason P. Martin. Humbertos Ramos. Raul Trevino. Edgar Delgado. These guys drop your jaw with everything they do. It’s absolutely amazing looking. I couldn’t be happier.
So whether you’re a fan of the game or not, get off you toof on March 31 and head out to the nearest comic book shop.
Here’s a preview.
Writers: Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
Penciler: Mark Robinson
Inker: Jason P. Martin
Colorist: Rul Trevino
Cover art: Humberto Ramos
Cover color: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Richard Starkings