RotoRuner

Spend any time in the City of Rando, and you will find yourself wondering about the enchanting female, garbed in feather and lace, who wanders the city, carrying nothing but a coffer and a canteen. She is known as the Galavia, and for a donation, she will let you drink from her canteen. Within the canteen is found love’s liquor: Vita Noir.

Vita Noir is by far Rando’s largest grossing domestic product, despite it being a product sold solely by the Church of Rando. The Black Fairy, as it is known in back-alley clubs and hidden dens of questionable virtue, is a thick, black wine, sweetened by herbs found in the foothills of the Rando Ranges. It is bottled exclusively by the Galavia, a private sect of Randoist priestesses who’s sole responsibility is to honor Rando through the creation and distribution of Vita Noir.

Like flies to fruit, controversy surrounds Vita Noir. A myriad of underground imitations exist, many of which involve infusing gutter wine with succubus blood. The blood used in home brewing is rarely given by choice, and is typically obtained by an unscrupulous mudman looking for some quick profit. Demand for these black market variants is exacerbated by the Church of Rando keeping special guard of its recipe. For many years, Vita Noir was only obtainable via the Galavia or attending mass at the nearest Rando Temple. It wasn’t until Duke Diamont, known for his campaign for the widespread distribution of Vita Noir, finally came to an agreement with the Church of Rando that love’s liquor could be legally obtained in locations outside of Randoist worship. Now, anyone who wishes to taste the Black Fairy without tithing Rando need only visit Diamont’s Diamond Club, Rando’s exclusive location for secular Vita.

An excerpt from the “Tome of Travel”
Written by Jack Procyon
Wandering Chronicle

Have you ever found yourself lost in the Rando Woods, only to cross into the Unknown Glen because of your shoddy, poorly drawn map?

NEVER AGAIN!

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Plus, the first 1500 maps come with a free RotoRuner LostLess Compass.

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE! ORDER TODAY!

This has been a message from RexWare Industries.
RexWare – Divining a Better Tomorrow!

#4 Grant Morrison

(Note: This is the first comic creator on this list that is solely a writer. Any of the artwork associated with his stories was drawn by a separate entity.)

As mentioned in the previous post, theoretical physics are an interest of mine. Yet, they have no place in comics, right?

The first Grant Morrison penned story I ever read was his run on New X-Men. Like many of my generation, I grew up on the X-Men animated series from the 90’s. Reading Morrison’s take on the X-Men years later was both new and exciting; it was drastically different from anything I had read before from Marvel.

Later, I read his take on the JLA and was impressed. Seven Soldiers of Victory, however, was the first series written by Morrison that really made me a fan. It was in this series that Morrison’s own love for breaking extra dimensional barriers and playing with pop culture tropes was most blatantly evident.

So, why should I hold back with my love of theory if Morrison doesn’t?

The other reason I am so greatly inspired by the work of Grant Morrison is the fact that he can write super-heroes without making them campy, unless he specifically wants to.

As it stands, I cannot currently read any super-hero tripe without convulsing in spiritual disgust. Morrison is one of just a handful of writers who can take super-heroes and make them interesting. His work on “All-Star Superman” was ingenious. Every issue read recaptured the feeling of reading my first comic while not talking down to me. Furthermore, his current work on “Batman and Robin,” though yet completed, feels like a happy mixture of detective noir, circus kitsch, and psychological horror/thriller.

(Special mention should be made to Frank Quitely at this moment. Frank Quitely is a phenomenal artist who has worked on many books with Morrison. Specifically, his more recent collaborations include the aforementioned All-Star Superman and Batman and Robin,)

Lesson Learned: Comics can be as complex as you desire to make them.

Apologies to all once again for stepping outside the bounds of the world of Rando yet tonight is one of my favorite nights of the year and I’d just like to invite all who are able to come.  Starting at 9:15pm at the historic Fargo Theater in lovely downtown Fargo, ND is the Two Minute Movie Competition portion of the Tenth Annual Fargo Film Festival.

“Why exactly are you inviting me?” you may ask.  Well, first off, it’s free admission and in a world of $5 coverage charges and what-not, free admission is a rare commodity.  Two, (Warning! Shameless plug eminent!) you’ll find five films created by the group I work with, Idea Machine Productions.  These little shorties contain anything from Criss Angel on a blind date to Droopy Dog doing collections calls and I defy you to find those two things happening in the same place ever on this planet before this night.

C’mon and down and come early because the place will fill up fast.  Also, best to leave the kids at home tonight for this one, it can get a bit racy at times so this is an adult swim only. (Please don’t sue me for using that term, Cartoon Network!)  Hope to see you all at the show.

Patrick Thompson
Wordsmith Supreme

Friends and fans, it has been a busy week behind the scenes here at Roto Runer.  Besides the rampant general sickness all about, there has also been the Tenth Annual Fargo Film Festival which some of us are involved in as well an upcoming rebranding of our little site (More info in that later).  On top of all of this, I also have a Math test I must study for; because of this, I knew my blog may be a little short today.  No matter though as I remembered a tactic a Math teacher of mine used on the I was in class; he would have us all go onto his online lessons and looks for errors he had made, each correction we made would equal one point of extra credit.  In honor of that concept, I would also like to give everyone some gold stars, metaphorically speaking.

The task is simple:

1. Go back and read some old blogs, find a great big grammatical or spelling mistake.  I have added at least three on purpose however you may find more. (Go waaay back, quite sure I left some doozies there.)

2. Send us what you’ve found. (Find some good ones.  Commas and semi-colons are too easy and I screw them up a lot as it is, to be honest.)

3. For your hard work, poster prizes will be given in two categories to one lucky person each; Quickest E-mail Received and Best Typo Found.

4. Winners will be awarded a poster of any one of our character sheets or backgrounds!

I’m truly unsure if this is a cop-out or not but hey, at least you’re getting better than some arbitrary point that equates to nothing for my rushed blogging.  Thanks to all and good luck!

Patrick Thompson
Wordsmith Supreme