jlward's page

Tell me even if you can't imagine yourself reading fiction based on a game. Humor me. Who would get your attention and get you to buy?

--Erik Mona

I'll read about anything George R. R. Martin writes. I believe he has too many projects of his own for something like this, but it would be interesting to see what he would do with your world.

Hey, so how does it work when you commission an author to write a book for you? Is it the same as with traditional publishers i.e. they get an advance and royalties-- or is it different somehow since it's work for hire type stuff?

John Ward

I absolutely loved seeing the pencil sketches in the margins of Dungeon and would pay money-money for the Art of Pathfinder or Gamemastery.

-Doodle obsessed Vrock!

On a related note, I'd really like to have the sketches featured on the Pathfinder blog hotlink to higher res versions so we can see the details. They're kind of small as they are posted.

Thanks,

John

Will pathfinder be in full-color? Can we expect the same standards of artwork and cartography?

How many illustrations can we expect to see in a single volume? And how many different illustrators will be working on interiors?

Thanks,

John

Hey Paizo, I got a question. Is there any way you guys could look into maybe subcontracting a company to make pre-painted plastic minis? If not what about a harder plastic mini (like model car type of plastic) that we could buy in a sheet and paint ourselves?

I don't wanna buy WotC minis anymore and I would like to avoid metal ones that I need to paint.

FH

Contract it out to McFarlane Toys... those would be really cool!

A circulation of 32,000+ is certainly nothing to sneeze at. I would assume that Dragon's circulation is better than Dungeon's since there's a built in reason that less people are going to want Dungeon.

Still . . .

In my current group of people I game with (11 people), only two purchase Dungeon and no one to my knowledge purchases Dragon. If I extend that to the people I have regularly gamed with since I started in 2001 (a grand total of 24 people) you can add one person that I knew purchased Dragon. And it's not like one individual purchases the magazine and shares it with the group . . .

I think Dragon's sales are larger.

I buy Dragon regularly at the newstand, and I've never been able to find a copy of Dungeon at any of the bookstores or comic shops in my area (Southeast Tennessee). I've asked the large bookstores and they've told me that they used to carry Dungeon, but stopped because it didn't sell as well as Dragon (which they all still carry).

John

Much of the ERB stuff is commonly available. Barnes & Noble, for example, has published at least one omnibus of the John Carter books, and Penguin (of all people) has one too (with an absolutely hideous cover, alas). The Carson of Venus books are available in handsome editions from the University of Nebraska Press, and many of the Tarzan books are also available.

I do have a hankering to publish an ERB book called "I Am a Barbarian," but I suppose I should probably read it first.

Did you have an specific titles in mind?

--Erik

Nope, no specific titles.

I was actually surprised to hear that the Martian books were available so readily. I've looked for his stuff in the past and was never able to find a copy; so I assumed they were no longer available. I've never read ERB before, but I'm a huge fan of Lovecraft and I really enjoy much of Robert E. Howard's stuff.

Thanks for mentioning that Barnes and Noble had an omnibus of the John Carter books. I was able to swing by and pick up their only copy on my way home from work. Can't wait to get started on it.

--John

Introducing Planet Stories: Classic Science Fantasy Novels

New Paizo Novel Line to Feature Moorcock, Howard, Gygax

March 30, 2007 (BELLEVUE, Wash.) – Paizo Publishing®, LLC announced the creation of a new line of classic science fantasy novel reprints called Planet Stories...

Any chance of getting all of Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff through Planet Stories? Some of his books are hard to find.

I'm really excited to see Almuric. I've never read that one, and it's always great to find a new story by Robert E. Howard!

Thanks,

John

James Jacobs wrote:

jlward wrote:

So, do you also track the performance of covers painted by individual artists and make decisions about who to hire for future covers based off of those metrics?

Absolutely. Also the colors used in the skyline, the types of cover lines, the presence or absence of numbers in cover lines, the composition of the cover, the presence of keywords such as "Greyhawk" or "Forgotten Realms" on the cover, and so on and so on.

I don't suppose you might be able to give us a rough idea into your findings of what makes a popular cover?

Well, based off of past messages in other threads the covers that seem to sell best have at least one of these components:

1.) A Sexy woman
2.) The color red
3.) A blurb that mentions a specific number of items being discussed in that issue (i.e. 4 New Spells)

The following seem to be the kiss of death for a cover:

1.) Scantily clad men
2.) Any non-human race that is short (Dwarves, Fairies, Halflings, etc). Perhaps low sales of these issues is a result of a general antipathy for short people as opposed to a dislike of Dwarves. Just a thought.
3.) Anything with mind-flayers.

It remains to be seen whether these negatives can be overcome by combining successful elements with them. For example, you could paint a picture all in shades of red of several scantily clad dwarven women fleeing from a Mind Flayer into the waiting arms of a mostly nude barbarian man, with a headline that reads: "3 New Exciting Types of MindFlayers!" Hmmm... I wonder.

...We track each issue of the magazine, and how it sells in bookstores and on newsstands, and there's plenty of hard evidence that certain covers sell better than others...

So, do you also track the performance of covers painted by individual artists and make decisions about who to hire for future covers based off of those metrics?

Thanks,

John

They usually get about a month. Looking at my calendar here shows that yes, from the day we write our art order to the day they are supposed to turn in the art is roughly one month.

How many illustrations are commissioned to a single illustrator during that one month time? I notice that many times a single illustrator is turning in several pieces.

I had this toy. It gave my Warduke and Strongheart (who were allies) fits. Also, Hooked Horrors were a terrible site to see by those of the Star Wars universe and GI Joes.

I had Warduke and Strongheart as well. My other favorite toy was the evil sorceror Kelek.

They make me think of Gigan from Godzilla movies.

Yeah, that's a good point.

I loved the toy as a kid; but if you think about them as actual living creatures they don't make much sense. I suppose they could impale things, but not really having opposable thumbs really bothers me.

(2nd. Ed. MM. pg. 193)

Nine feet tall, cross of vulture and human physiology, mottled grey exoskeleton and hooked limbs. Clacking echolocation sounds used for communication and sensory purposes. Poor eyesight, natural climbers, low intelligence. They organize into clans of 2-12, centered in a cluster of connected caverns. They are nonviolent amongst each other but see every other creature as just meat.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate you typing all that out. I've been working on a painting of the little beastie, and wasn't sure that I was getting the details right. I do remember them as being more vulture than cockroach-- which seems to be the way they are now.

You can see the painting (work in progress) here:
Hook Horror

I'm still not entirely convinced that the head is right... or maybe it's right, but it just doesn't feel finished yet.

Hey everyone,

I recently bought the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon set. Watching the series again, got me to remembering the action figures that came out during the same time. I loved those things; and one of my favorites was the Hooked Horror.

You can see the action figure here: http://www.toyarchive.com/DungeonsDragonsCreatures.html

Anyway, my question is how was this creature described in the original manuals? I played D&D back then, but for the life of me I can't remember this guy from the actual books.

Thanks for your help.

No no, you've got it backwards. "Shatner" is a role played by Captain Kirk, who was obviously stuck here in our time continuum when a surge from the warp nacelles wreaked havoc with the teleporter.

(I voted for Shatner, incidentally. It was him or ninjas, but frankly even ninjas can't stand up to the power of Shatner.)

Eh, I think Denny Crane could take them all!

Hey everyone,

I'm an artist preparing to submit to Dragon magazine. With that in mind, I've been reading past issues and trying to get a feel for the magazine and what they're looking for. I was doing some searches on Amazon.com when I found The Art of Dragon Magazine.

Does anyone own this that can tell me more about it? Is it just reprints of all the covers or does it have interior art as well?

Thanks,

John Ward