My booth at San Diego Con this year is 4605 - not far from where ive been the last few years. Buena Vista Comics will have a booth at the show and will be giving away a cool poster/print hyping THE LAST BATTLE... i just finished it recently.
Below are some sketches for my next big project Ill be starting in a month- 'L'Ultima Battaglia' ( the last battle) for disney global - who are headquartered in Milan. the 64 page story will appear in several languages, including english ( a US version is planned as well) though this branch of Disney handles children's publishing and comics for the rest of the world, which means this book will be seen by potentially more readers than anything ive ever done. The Last Battle is written by Tito Faraci, italian comics scribe, who Im told is quite popular over there.
Set in 52 BC europe L'Ultima Battaglia follows the surrender of the Celtic king Vercingetorix to Julius Caeasar after the siege of Alesia. Ceasar dispatches his favorite general, Caius Rodius, to track the Gaulish barbarian , Cammius, whom Rodius himself trained to fight for Rome a decade earlier. Cammius now leads the final holdouts against Rome, and only Rodius, his mentor in war, is the only man capable of brigning Cammius's head to Caesar. Rodius travels thru wild germanic lands with his 'dirty" half-dozen hand-picked warriors, braving the untamed lands that even the Romans have yet to conquer.
its quite a departure for me, and for Disney Global Publishing. They will have a booth at San Diego comic-con this year and plan on giving away a special print ( illustrated by yours truly) at the show.
Im psyched! Im not sure how the folks at Disney in Milan saw NOCTURNALS and somehow felt id be the perfect artist for this tale, but Im glad they did. its going to be a new direction for me as an artist and storyteller, delving into a story set in the ancient world that doesnt include monsters and zombies .
the art attached is part of 16 sketches shown at a book fair in italy last month- both attendees and disney were very exctied by the prelim art I sent- and Im happy to be able to share some of it here...
These glasses are terrific, check 'em out: http://www.drinkwiththelivingdead.com/nocturnals
You can buy them as a group or individually. Limited to 313 sets!
A review by Benjamin Baugh, who posted this on RPG.net. Thanks!
Got mine yesterday.
Damn.
How do you say enough good things about a book which clearly has this much love and care and enthusiasm put into it? It really raises the bar, and I hope will encourage other comic creators to be directly involved in licensed games with the kind of dedication Dan Brereton has done with the Midnight Companion.
OK, I’ll break my rave down into three categories:
Looks
This is fairly important for me when looking over a game product… the way a book looks (the art, layout, graphic design etc.) should at the least not reduce my enjoyment of the thing. Some games would be better off leaving out some of the art than printing cringe-worthy pieces which distract… Nocturnals Midnight Companion does not have this problem. It crossing the ‘no harm done’ line and marches well into “looks make this product superior”. It is amazing just to thumb through it. Every time I pick the book up and open to a random page, I find something I hadn’t caught before. Dan’s commentary on how other artists featured in the sketchbook pages treat his characters are also fun. After reading Dan Brereton’s comments and intro, I wanted him to be my friend. He seems like a really cool guy.Content
Boy Howdy, does NMC have content! This is the definitive guide to the Nocturnals world- both in actual who/what/when/where, but also in tone and inspiration. Want to know the influences for The Nocturnals and which elements of the look and story they inspired? Its all here- along with a great media list for inspiration. There is so much- entirely ‘official’- detail on the characters and places seen in the comics in NMC you almost can’t believe it. Walk-on characters who get 1 panel in the comic get backgrounds and stats here. There is enough info in this book for a dozen sessions, and with the mixo-blend attitude of the GM advice, there is technique enough to keep a Nocs game going for ages. You could take every character from Kill Bill, turn them into freaky human-animal hybrids, and run them as Nocturnals characters… and it would be pretty cool.Utility
Can you actually use this book? Hell yes. It screams to be played. The rule-tweaks are tight and simple. The M&M game system is solid and flexible enough to easily accommodate authentic feeling Nocturnals action without much reworking. A dial-down on the starting PL, some more detailed gun rules & gun feats, and a few off-limits powers (nothing you’d really miss), and a skill-point tweak are all it takes. I’m used to building PL10 M&M characters… the significantly reduced PL is making me rethink my build strategy, and makes me appreciate how even a minor power can be a huge advantage if well used. Even better, starting characters clock in as mid-range Nocturnals in terms of power and ability. Not quite Doc Horror or The Gunwitch… but a touch better than Eve or Starfish. I read the comics and dug the characters- I wouldn’t want to get stuck playing second-stringers ( ::cough::d6 Star Wars:: cough:: ).Any Problems?
Beyond the “oh my God! How do I decide what to do with this? So many options!”, I only saw a couple of typos (nothing major), and I would like to have seen stats for a couple of the well-described walk-on characters described in the book… but this is hardly anything I would doc a star for if I were rating it.Conclusion
Buy this book.Right now.
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