So you can often times tell who your real friends are when you have to go somewhere for a while. This was the case recently as we had some friends throw us a going away party. Sunday was a time for Robicon…The small gaming convention thrown in honor of my wife and myself.

Oh… Did I mention that we are both deploying to Iraq?

So on Sunday we got up to see Tom, Jill, Tracey, Frank, Kira, and Dimitri (As well as the Bisbee Cats) for a day of gaming as well as to hang out with old and new friends. The first game was played with the Savage Worlds system and played in Pulp Style as the Nazi’s and the Chinese fought against the heroes for a power that could save or savage the world. The heroes came out on top (sort-of) and we saved the day with some clever “Slight of HAND” (sorry for the inside joke…you had to be there). The second game used the same rules and spun off into a world nearly destroyed by elves. This apocalyptic landscape saw our heroes undertake a mission to save a lost researcher. This mission brought us amidst alien natives and a being from outside of reality. Great fight and good beer!

While we are away, a good friend stepped up to the plate to care for our pets. We were worried about this in the beginning, as both our families would have a hard time doing so. I won’t be able to thank Brian for taking this on but I am sure I can come close.

So what is going to happen to Hazard Studio? Nothing. I am going to need something to do to work out the stress of being in a hostile country so any and all projects will be gleefully accepted. I had a feeling that this would be coming so me getting ready to go and making sure that we have everything that we need was pretty much being taken care of.

If you are a regular reader… Thanks for all the support you have given up until now. If you are just joining us… Please stay tuned as writing and drawing with me is truly about to become Hazardous!

Regards,

Walt

Special Thanks to Tom who provided us with this weeks Picture!

Oh My LAWD!

I seem to be saying that a lot these days. Everyday some one says or does something that raises my eyebrows and either makes me want to laugh or cry. Driving on the road is usually good for one, as I can’t seem to escape the multitude of idiocy that the Department of Motor Vehicles issues licenses to (deep calming breath). On the other side… I have my pets that usually have me laughing beside myself. I was doing laundry yesterday and turned to grab a cup of coffee. When I turned back… I was astounded to find my Jack Russel Mix standing on top of some laundry trying to see if the bag of cat food we had emptied into the food bin earlier was in deed…empty. Silly Puppy.

So in case you have been living under a pop culture rock…The Halo 3 Beta came out yesterday and it is loads of silly gooey fun! For those that bought the game Crackdown for the Xbox 360, the initial releases had the beta download link coded into the game. Pop it in on the designated date and watch what happens. It is going to be very hard to get anything accomplished with this going on… I guess it beats being addicted to drugs.

I am currently trying to decide the best course of action for some new features for the web site. One of the things I am contemplating doing is to have a weekly comic strip. With the many projects I have going on at the moment (as well as the absolute lack of help from anywhere). A weekly strip would be a big undertaking for me as I would have to do the story and art and color and ink myself. Not a bad gig if it is the only thing you have going on. If you are doing it on the side as a part of your life… a weekly strip could take more than a week to do. Stupid real job and responsibilities.

I should have listened to my mom and become a stripper…

She had such high hopes.

Regards,
Walt

The only thing that I have to report is that there is nothing to report! What a great line. I mean… the down side to all this connectivity through the Internet (which spurs on blogging, video spewing, and all sorts of other viral media) is that there is an over abundance of stuff. There is so much new content constantly being generated and maintained that we are very much becoming jaded. I feel it is a good thing to post to the journal every week but sometimes I feel I suffer from, “So what,” syndrome. The symptoms of this condition being that nothing really exciting happened this week and if anything did, I really can’t talk about it.

***Sigh***

A highlight of the week is that we finally got the martial art club store up on the web. We are selling shirts and logo apparel and the usual assortment of drool that comes in from a site like Café Press. All of the proceeds from the sale of the items will go to purchase new equipment when we need it. Now all we have to do is to get people to buy some of the stuff. I did have some people comment on the shop and say that it looks very official (the logos). It appears as though I am now the grand pubah of some new martial art. The fact of the matter is, we aren’t doing anything new. We are just a bunch of guys who grew very sick and tired of the commercial aspect of martial arts instruction. You either have great instructors with poor business plans or poor instructors with great business plans. There are the occasional diamonds in the rough (you know who you are) but the majority is very lackluster. When you have to dummy down a systemized strategy for fighting so that a 42 year old, love handled ridden, soccer mom can feel empowered, you are not teaching martial arts. You might be teaching them self respect and discipline as well as stage / theatre combat… but how to fight and win… sorry. All that drivel aside, you can visit the logo below and check out the gear. Classy!

The one down thing for this week is that the project for FASERIP that a lot of us are waiting on (The Advanced rules redux) has seemed to have stalled. The advanced rules were where the system really shined as many innovations were integrated. Many of us who are waiting to publish material are waiting on that version as they give the broadest ability to adapt to the many genre of superhero fiction. Hopefully, Phil will get a free minute to work things out as of last report he was almost done. While waiting, Check out the different versions of the core system that we posted up on our F.O.R.G.E. page.

Catch ya on the flip side…

Regards,
Walt

No Where to Go But Up

Man…Lately I have the drawing bug. Lots of new art and no where to put it. I guess there are worse things that could be happening. Commissions have been slow as of late as I really have been slacking on that side of the business. It hasn’t been because no one is commissioning but rather I have been focusing on my own projects. I currently have three projects in the hoper at the moments that are requiring my attention (not to mention that there is other silly stuff behind the scenes that are definitely going to put the squeeze on my time for the next year or so).

Thing one is FASERIP compatible and will be going along with the redux of the rules that have been written by Phil Reed of Ronin Arts. Tentatively called Project 121, the product was written using the advanced FASERIP rules and will be published once the advanced rules come out from Ronin Arts. I would love to get this out of the box early but I don’t want to jump the gun and get in even more trouble that I am in at the moment.

Thing two is called Project 13 and was a project that started around last May and has been put back due to one setback or another that can easily be discerned by traveling to the rest of the Blogg. This project is d20 Modern compliant and will be a full setting utilizing d20 Modern as the major Rules with d20 future riding shotgun (along with a smattering of things from here and there. Considering that FASERIP is being constructed as I write this and M&M2ed would also be a good fit… this project is getting a lot bigger, a lot faster than I originally intended). This is my pet project as I really enjoy the setting and how it comes together. People who want to take a peak can go HERE and check it out.

Thing three is called tentatively called The Black Project and I spoke about it earlier in the blogg as space opera meets cinematic action. Running people through the first part of the campaign adventure, I got great reviews and managed to wow the players (after battling a small bout of confusion in the beginning of the game). Small hints about this have been hitting the net as I am shopping around for a publisher (as publishing anything myself would drive me insane).

Other than that and the Super Ultra Top Secret Annoyance that has plagued me for the last month (although some of you out there already know), not much has gone on… However, funny thing happened on the way to the print on demand…

I got a call from Café Press today in that apparently… I am a copyright violator. Yep…It’s true… They raided my virtual shop ( the one me and the boys opened for official logo apparel for our martial arts club) and locked down a whole bunch of my images due to the fact that a skull logo I had drawn had a resemblance to the one that is used by… THE PUNISHER! I wasn’t worried as he is a sissy and he can’t draw like I can. So rather than seeing the punisher cry a river of lawyers, I changed the logo and will be uploading it tonight. Who says I can’t be caring and sensitive…

Catch you guys on the flip side…

Walt