Erik Mona's page

Were any of you reading comics immediately after Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 85-86? It strikes me that we had a very similar situation vis a vis continuity back then. It wasn't clear, immediately, what was in and what was out, and it led to some... stickiness for the first couple of years until people developed a sense of what is any isn't kosher.

This reboot is exacerbated a bit because there was apparently a rushed creative schedule on the books (which can lead to mistakes) and because at least some of the books were in the can or deep in development when DC decided to reboot. I know Batwoman #1 was originally supposed to come out a while ago, but was "held back" to time it for this relaunch.

At this point I expect significant revision about what's going on with Starfire, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them backtrack on Amanda Waller, too. I think the folks in editorial know they messed up on those two choices, at least in retrospect given the fan reaction. Neither of these character elements are irreversible. Kory is not going to remain a mindless sex-doll forever, is what I'm trying to say. It sucks that it happened, but it doesn't really ruin the whole of the reboot. At least not for me.

As for the Batcomputer calling Tim a member of the Teen Titans... I think that's really a nitpick. It's akin to complaining that the caption in Stormwatch #1 refers to events in Superman #1, which comes out three weeks later. Yeah, it's annoying, and yeah, it's a minor error, but it's really not that big of a deal. I mean, we know the Teen Titans are coming. We've even seen the whole team assembled on the last page of Superboy #1.

I don't think you can assume that every book that comes out in a given month happens at exactly the same time. One comic might have a three-issue arc that covers, in total, the events of a single day, while another comic might span a month or more in the same three issues.

It's neat when comics can be coordinated so that they do occur in exactly the right order, but that's a very tall order, and not a metric by which you can fairly judge any comic universe, at any time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a lot of the condemnation of the reboot in this thread and elsewhere on the net seems, to me, to be focusing on pretty nitpicky stuff, damning the whole thing because of a few bad decisions.

From where I was sitting as a lapsed reader, resurrecting every dead character in the multiverse and making every known character into a Colored Lantern Corps member was a bad decision, and one that kept me from coming back to comics. Adherence to muddled continuity* is part of what's been slowly killing comics for more than a decade, and it appears as though this course correction, from a sales perspective, was exactly the right choice for DC.

I'm certainly glad they did it. And while I haven't fully appreciated every change they've made, and I fell that they've certainly done some dumb stuff, as a whole I think they are headed in the right direction.

* Yes, I realize that stubborn Geoff Johns got to keep his precious, precious Green Lantern continuity, so much of this garbage is probably still in continuity, but my general point remains.

I suspect so given our experience with the Beginner Box minis, but I won't know for sure until I see the production run.

BTW, for folks who really want Colossal miniatures in the Rise of the Runelords set, my best suggestion is to use a dead bird for the Roc (or a live, very patient bird) and an actual chain for the chain.

That should work pretty well! :)

Exactly.

My original post on the Colossal issue says we do not _currently_ have plans to do Colossal minis. As someone else pointed out, the Colossal minis in the Rise of the Runelords AP are a giant bird and a big chain, so those seemed like pretty pointless choices.

We're currently working on Gargantuan minis. If the right opportunity comes by for a Colossal mini we think lots of people would be interested in adding to their collection, I'm sure we'll consider it.

But for now, we're still working on our very first big set, so give us time, please!

If this is something that has been covered, my apologies. There are a lot of posts, and I admit I haven't been following this thread.

That said, the other day I heard that Wizkids had an exclusive deal with Alliance; as a result, the Paizo pre-painted minis will only be carried through Alliance. Is this true?
Apparently some stores don't like to get their stuff through Alliance. Don't really know why, but the store down the street is apparently one of them. The owner was complaining about it, feeling Paizo was allowing itself to be strong armed by Alliance. He then made a good point: Paizo has what is probably the #1 RPG in the country & should be strong arming Alliance.
If all of this is true, I kind of have to agree. Paizo seems to be the 800 lb gorilla in the room right now, which seems like a good place to be to get others to cooperate.
I'm not in the industry, I don't know what Alliance's deal is or why some stores don't want to deal with them, I'm just curious what the situation is.

WizKids has an exclusive distribution agreement with Alliance, which is the largest hobby game distributor in America. Because, as you note, some stores prefer to deal with smaller distributors, we arranged with WizKids a way that Paizo can act as a wholesaler to other distributors. They don't get quite the same discount that WizKids offers Alliance (and Alliance passes on to their stores), but they can still get them if they want them.

Nothing really important. I think there's a roc that flies by that you might or might not fight, but most of the "big" bad guys are gargantuan.

Eye-OH-muh-day, basically.

(Says the guy who made her up.)

Well, thanks, but to be clear we do not currently have any plans to do _any_ Colossal miniatures at all.

But yeah, when we do Gargantuan minis (and we _do_ have plans for those), they'll be on the right-sized bases.

Is it possible to subscribe specifying a number of cases greater than 1, but stagger the shipment? For example, if I order a subscription specifying 2 cases and 2 premiums, would I be able to request 1 case and premium to be charged and delivered w/ my Dec shipment and then request the 2nd case and premium be charged and delivered in Jan?

I would love to preorder more than 1, however so close to Christmas, it would be a huge hit to the pocketbook. Since I know the next set doesn't come out for some time, I would feel quite safe in knowing I could pay for the 2nd case the following month.

Unfortunately, this type of customization is not available at this time. Sorry!

When will information on the Encounter Packs become available?

Probably not for a while, yet. Even I do not know for sure which ones WizKids will be making yet.

I was just curious about the scale of these miniatures. Im assuming they will fit in the 1" grid of course. But i was wondering how they would look alongside D&D miniatures. I have looked online and on this site and havent really seen any information about that.

A standard human Pathfinder miniature looks the same size as a standard human DDM miniature looks the same size as a standard Reaper Pathfinder miniature.

All of them are designed to fit on a standard 1 inch = 5 feet grid, and all of the bases are designed to be the "correct" size for the creature's size, which happens to be the same in D&D and Pathfinder, so no worries there.

That's the plan. Early December.

I'll tell you what, I'll meet you halfway.

The hard October 1 deadline is for preorders. We may still have some Black Dragon minis left over after October 1, and we will include them in subscriptions until we run out. When that happens, you won't be able to start your subscription with Heroes & Monsters, but will instead need to start it with Rise of the Runelords.

There's no telling when we will run out of Black Dragons, but it will probably be after October 1st.

So you may be ok, but you're going to want to subscribe as soon as you can to make sure we don't run out.

After re-reading Green Lantern #1 for my New 52 Review blog project, I think the "have our cake and eat it too" non-reboot-reboot for Green Lantern, the Legion, and Batman _might_ just work, so long as they keep the background stuff to broad strokes.

You don't need to reintroduce concepts that everyone who wants to read the comic is familiar with just to get new readers. It helps, but I'm beginning to think that it may not be as necessary as I thought it was a week ago.

We'll see.

I kind of knew the basics of Flashpoint, it's just pathetic that you have to know anything about it to follow these stories.

I honestly think this "half-measure" reboot was a pretty cowardly way to go about their business. From the outside looking in, Green Lantern and Legion continuity is responsible for a lot of what was making the DCU so lame over the last decade, so it's double disappointing that stubborn creators were able to keep the lameness while others were more ready to embrace the reboot.

I mean, seriously.

And speaking of seriously, I'm "seriously" hoping that Matthew Morris stays away from Red Hood and the Outlaws, because the portrayal of Starfire in that book is going to send him to the freakin' moon. :)

I didn't have quite as big a problem with Green Lantern Corps, but yeah, Nightwing and Legion were too reliant on previous continuity.

Legion I found particularly disappointing, as it was probably the book I was most looking forward to in the week. I think they gave us too many characters (I know, I know, it's the Legion, after all), but there were too many tie-ins with Flashpoint (whatever that is) and the Legion Lost storyline to get a real feel for the characters.

I would have much preferred starting with a base of Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl, with new characters added one-by-one, perhaps using the tried-and-true "tryout" format that has served the comic so well for so long.

I think Legion Lost—which sucked, mind you—was actually a better, more accessible comic than the standard Legion book, which is really saying something.

I'm afraid I wasn't really impressed with any of this week's comics. Lots of really bad books, plenty of mediocre material, and some that verge on "better than decent," but nothing really interesting or experimental at all, and too many books with major ties to boring, confusing, lame old continuity.

Next week looks a lot better, though!

No. Tomorrow will be about non-digital sculpts, and will show off photos of some non-painted minis with some behind-the-scenes info on how these things are put together.

No.

Sebastian wrote:

how is that hypocritical?

I have no problems with Monte doing what is best for Monte, coupled with the fact that people can and do change, I don't find it hypercritical. I give him the benefit of the doubt...

Having said that however, the ONLY thing I can find that could possibly be construed as hypercritical, is that in the fairly recent past (with the laying off of Jonathan Tweet from WotC), he said some things about WotC that were "less than rosy"...

Now, I think it would indeed be hypocritical of him to go back to Wizards IF he still felt that way towards the company and its management (but like I said, people change and I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here)...

I quoted what he said one page back...

It's also worth noting that there was a significant managerial switch between the time Monte posted his criticism of the way D&D and its creative staff was being managed and the way it is being managed today.

Yes, the black dragon is Huge. Technically, its name is "Huge Black Dragon."

Amanda Waller.

Over the weekend, my brain dredge this memory unbidden to the front of my mind.

During the early 2000's Amanda Waller was a member of President Luthor's inner circle. During that time a new Suicide Squad book came out. They ran out of a warehouse instead of Belle Reeve Prison. Since Waller could not run it, she had her daughter do it. The series ended with the warehouse being attacked and Waller's daughter was badly injured. Her fate was never revealed. Also, if the memory is correct the daughter mentioned a sister.

Since the people asking the question only asked about "Waller", it may not be Amanda Waller running it.

Edit: If the Waller running the Suicide Squad is the daughter who was injured, could she have suffered brain damage and is now a villain?

This is all good theorizing and a nice backdoor out of a decision DC must now regret, but I'm afraid Deadshot recognized Waller's voice, and said so even before we saw the new waifish look.

So unless a daughter can sound just like a mother (not impossible, I suppose), your solution seems unlikely.

Aren't half-orcs green?

Mostly. This guy is sort of a drab green.

Hi, folks! Dan Curtis Johnson here - Kevin Murphy pointed this thread out so I thought I'd pop in. (As he says, we go back to college days - twenty years now!)

Hey, Dan! Great to hear from you!

Chase was one of my favorite series in all of comics. I really dug what you were doing with that book, and I think it was canceled way before its time.

I wanted to see more of the Justice Experience! :)

Anyway, congrats on the family. Here's hoping you get back into writing at some point during life when things mellow out a bit.

I'm glad to hear you're playing Age of Worms! As the primary architect of that campaign and the author of the first adventure, it makes me feel good to know that my creation gave you some good times.

Consider it payback for the great comics!

Batwing isn't that new. He appeared in a couple scenes on Batman Inc. Was probably going to become a character there even if the reboot hadn't happened.

Shows you what I know.

I've been Out of the Loop for the last several years, so my knowledge of the DCU is somewhat dated.

I don't know what his current writing projects are but I can ask.

From poking around his website it appears he wrote some stuff for Mongoose's Paranoia RPG.

Ask him if he likes Pathfinder! I'd love to have him write something for us!

From what I can tell, the new "diversity" characters are mostly in the background supporting cast, people like Andre Briggs in JLI or the computer hacker who helps Green Arrow.

But in addition to new characters, there's been much more of a spotlight on existing characters (especially blacks), many of whom are now headlining their own series or playing a very significant role in existing series.

• Cyborg is now a major player in the Justice League.
• Mr. Terrific has his own ongoing series.
• Static Shock has his own ongoing series.
• Batwing is a new character with his own ongoing series.
• OMAC's host is now an Asian male.
• At least part of Firestorm is black, and he's headlining an ongoing series.
• Apollo and the Midnighter in Stormwatch are gay.
• Batwoman is a lesbian.

Of these only OMAC's host and Batwing are really "new" characters, but they're front-and-center in ways that seem a little more prevalent than they have been before. The addition of the Milestone and Wildstorm universes (both more organically diverse than the traditional DCU) will probably help with this, too.

That's it.

Frog God is in the short print run business.

I don't think anyone expected this to sell out in less than a day, though, so everyone's heads are kind of spinning at the moment.

I loved Green Lantern except.....

1. Hal Jordan channeling Brand New Day Peter Parker (insensitive schmuck) doest not work.

2. Hal's comment about how the Air Force 'let him go' bugs me to now end. I am recently retired AF and they do not just 'let go' of thier personnel. Somebody needs to speak to Larry Hama before trying to write about military characters in the comics. Sigh...

Some of the jargon in Men at War was so thick it's pretty clear to me that DC has some folks with military experience on the payroll already...

Why is there a black man named Gary in the GL comic who is Hal's roommate? And then said roommate kicks him out/evicts him?

Not that I'm complaining, I'm just wondering. This can't be a coincidence. I may frame this issue if only because it's a dream come true.

I thought that guy was his landlord, not his roommate.

It's mostly the Williams art I like. As I was reading it I was thinking to myself: I've seen this before, and I love it, but I can't quite remember where. And then a turn the page, and agent Cameron Chase is looking at me, and I'm like "duh".

Whatever happened to Dan Curtis Johnson? He wrote a couple of JLA one-shots and did Chase, and then sort of went off my radar. He was quite a good comics writer.

Here's my New 52 Week 2 first impressions.

Batwoman and Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. are easily the best books of the week, and both would now take several bad issues in a row to fall off my pull list.

I wasn't impressed at all with Batman & Robin, Grifter, Legion Lost (some cool costume updates in this, though), Mister Teriffic, and Superboy.

Among what was left, I was most impressed with Demon Knights and Green Lantern, but honestly everything else was at least decent.

Yeah to me Wintergreen was as integral to DS as Jarvis, Wong, Alfred, Kato.... Holy Crow! Why havent we ever commented on the Man Servant schickt before!? How many comics might have been saved if only they had Man Servants? It would have taken on a meaning for Power Girl, Zatanna and Birds of Prey (Although they did have Blue Beetle for a bit).

Did they ever do a comic where all the manservants get together at a manservant convention and solve a crime together?

Because that would be cool.

Erik Mona wrote:

Isn't Wintergreen a chewing gum flavor?

Long explaination (Remember I'm a Titans fan)

There seems to be a semi-similar character in this week's Deathstroke, so perhaps you will get that element of Slade's relationships with the New 52.

Also, you'll probably want to check out Superboy, as Rose Wilson is a fairly significant character in this month's issue, and looks to possibly be one of the comic's main cast members, at least for a while.

Isn't Wintergreen a chewing gum flavor?

Will this be early December or closer to Christmas?

Too soon to tell. Everyone involved knows that the sooner they come out, the more money they make and the more people get a chance to get them as holiday gifts, but this is a complicated international operation, so we won't know the arrival date for sure for a while yet.

As I'm a very messy boy, will the case be able to hold the minis after being opened. Or will I need a new box to put all these new figs ?

I suspect you're going to want to invest in a new box for these, as the case packaging will actually consist of lots of little boxes shrinkwrapped together.

Tell Lisa you want to write an adventure then. XD

I suspect she would be thrilled to hear this news.

I'm in charge of the editorial schedule, so it's not for lack of opportunity. Things at the company are crazy busy these days, which doesn't leave a lot of free time for other projects.

I'm working on it, though. I've been posting to my personal blog again lately, and have a novel outline brimming, as well as a new campaign that will likely spin off some game products.

It's all in the timing.

I have definitely thought about stuff like that.

Wait! Do you consider Denizens of Leng Cthulhu Mythos monsters?

Just wondering.

They do when they coordinate conventions with dozens of judges and hundreds of tables.

It's not really a problem for us, though. The system is working the way it's supposed to work.

That's correct.

There is a bright red notice in your sidecart when you click the purchase button.

I'm glad someone likes them, because I spend more time writing, editing, and assembling them than I do almost anything else related to Paizo these days.

Once upon a time I wrote about zombie tea parties, unlucky gremlins, and the like. Now I try to find seven different ways to describe a Flip-Mat.

The adventure continues! :)

For the time being we plan to release new Pathfinder Battles images every Friday, so it'll be a couple more days, yet.

I would love to have all of the dragons finally.

So would I.

We've got a Huge Black Dragon in Heroes & Monsters, and some additional dragons coming in Rise of the Runelords.

I want a whole set myself, and since I get to pick which miniatures we make....

Jason S,

Full lists will generally be available before a given set ships, but perhaps not early enough to meet the case preorder date for the premium miniatures. We won't have a full Heroes & Monsters list, for example, before October 1st, but we will have leaked enough miniature images by that point that folks should have a general idea of what's in the set and whether they want it or not. This is something we're still coordinating with WizKids.

This super-long thread covers most of the whys behind the random distribution, with plenty of reasons why other options, like the "everybody gets a vote" proposal you suggest, are not tenable. I know it's a long thread, but it really covers the topic in exhaustive detail from many different points of view, and it's worth spending some time with if you're genuinely curious about the decision-making that goes into how to distribute prepainted miniatures.

We will probably conduct several polls about what minis people would like to see, and add those minis to future sets down the road, but because the first set (Heroes & Monsters) is all about baseline adventurers and monsters and the second set (Rise of the Runelords) is based entirely on the monsters and characters of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, the sort of feedback you propose would not be tremendously helpful.

Even I am not sure what to do with the next set after that, however, so we're very much open to suggestions from you guys, and the idea of putting out some polls and targeted questions is certainly a good one.

My answer: Lots.

You know you Customer Service people are always welcome down here...