[UA] Re: Reading List

[Robert Barrett]

Sic scribit James Dyer:
> 
> Recommended Comic Books:
> 
> Hellboy, Dark Horse Comics. Written and illustrated by Mike Mignola. Gothic
> pulp (that's pulp not punk!). Two-fisted demonic superhero battles Baba
> Yaga, werewolves and vampires. Good inspiration for an OTT reality cops game.
> 
"Gothic pulp."  Hey, that's my line! :)

(Seriously, see http://www.english.upenn.edu/~rbarrett/changeling.html for
why)

That said, I have to admit that Hellboy and the Bureau of Paranormal
Research and Defense are the first thing I thought of upon reading
*Unknown Armies*.  If I were run it, I'd probably want to jettison the
*UA* cosmology, but then again one of the strengths of the game is the way
in which John and Greg have made that easy.

For another alternative setting using the *UA* system and approach, run,
don't walk, to your local comic store and acquire as many back issues of
the much-missed Milestone series, *Xombi*.  David Kim is a mild-mannered
research scientist who gets caught up in some serious mystic sh*t--he
discusses literature with Thomas Pynchon in an alternate dimension and
exorcises the ghost of ENIAC.  He also gains the ability to become
unkillable via regeneration, leading to some gruesome fun.  The first
issue has Kim getting shot by golems produced in Romanian factories and
animated by the souls of insects trapped between window panes.  I think
they say it all about *Xombi*.

Best,

Rob

-- 
Robert W. Barrett, Jr. * E-mail: rbarrett at dept.english.upenn.edu * World
Wide Web: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~rbarrett/index.html * Dept. of
English, Univ. of Pennsylvania * "What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage!" The Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), *The Wizard of Oz* (1939)