CONAN THE BARBARIAN RETURNS TO MOVIE THEATERS

My ten year old Dungeon & Dragons playing self was enthralled with the 1982 sword and sorcery epic CONAN THE BARBARIAN starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones. Wow has forty years passed by already?! Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film, Fathom Events and Universal Pictures are bringing the original 1982 CONAN THE BARBARIAN back to movie theaters for a two-night engagement this December.

Following his parents’ savage murder, young Conan (Schwarzenegger) is captured by the cold-blooded Thulsa Doom (Jones) and spends the next fifteen years in agony, first chained to the Wheel of Pain and then enslaved as a Pit Fighter. Rather than allowing this brutal fate to conquer him, Conan builds an incomparable body and an indomitable spirit—both of which he needs when he suddenly finds himself a free man. Aided by his companions Subotai the Mongol (Gerry Lopez) and Valeria, Queen of Thieves (Sandahl Bergman), Conan sets out to solve the “riddle of steel,” seize ultimate power and, finally, take revenge on the warlord who killed his family.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN will be at select theaters on December 12 and 13, 2022. Visit fathomevents.com for more information.

NETFLIX DISENCHANTMENT SEASON 2

I've been a fan of Matt Groening's work since my high school days reading his Life is Hell cartoons books. Since then he's gone on to create The Simpsons and Futurama tv shows which have gone to eclipse his original comic strips in popularity. Now Groening has brought his trademark illustration style and sarcasm to Netflix with the animated series DISENCHANTMENT. This Dungeon & Dragon themed spoof for adult audiences is full of modern day satire set in a fairytale setting following the misadventures of the tomboy Princess Bean, her personal demon Luci and a lil sidekick named Elfo.

Season One told Part 1 (2018) & Part 2 (2019) of the DISENCHANTMENT tale in two equally divided 10 episode story arcs. These farcical adventures through a fantasy realm show the evolution of a care free princess rebelling against her nobility to someone confronting life versus death decisions that are part of an evolving conflict of good versus evil. This story's princess continues to grow into her power and own her destiny in Part 3 (2021) which just debuted this January on Netflix which contains the first 10 episodes of Season Two of DISENCHANTMENT.

Thanks to Netflix for sending this dad blogger a box of goodies to make my binge watching the new Season 2 episodes of  Matt Groening's DISENCHANTMENT extra fun:

I'm geeked to view Part 3 of the DISENCHANTMENT escapades! I have a drinking horn full of Hofbrau and my own personal demon on my shoulder so lets get to streaming these new episodes on Netflix. Huzzah!!!

For more information about the show go to netflix.com/disenchantment. Plus click THIS LINK to take your own elfie pic on a mobile device. Also check out their social media channels on Twitter and Instagram. Don't miss out on following @Geekdad248 on Twitter and Instagram too! 

DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE

Imagine a world where dragons are real! William O'Connor's DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE shows a reality where dragons are actual creatures living in urban and natural landscapes around the globe. The book is laid out like a bird watching guide but for dragons instead. Filled with information on the habitats, diets, sizes and visual descriptions for a variety of dragons, the wonderful layout of the DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUILD will have readers hoping they just might spot one of these mythical beasts some day.

O'Connor, who passed away as this book was being published, made a name for himself as an artist providing fantastic illustrations for Dungeon and Dragons role playing game adventures and Magic the Gathering card game decks. He also created the Dracopedia series of books that delve into the artist's passion for dragons.  During his twenty-five year careers, O'Connor worked with entertainment companies that included Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, IMPACT Books, LucasFilm and Wizards of the Coast while also being a regular contributor to the popular art blog Muddy Colors.

DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE from IMPACT Books features more than 80 dragons. Sorted into thirteen categories of dragons from Amphipteres to Wyverns, there are a number of species highlighted within these groups. All of them are indexed with an image of each dragon along with a habitat map, species specifications, and a write up that includes their food sources, sizes, conservation status and other interesting information.

The artwork within this book itself makes perusing the DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE worthwhile but when you combine the depth of effort put into creating realistic identities for a world's worth of dragons it creates an exceptional reading experience. My son has been engrossed in flipping through this book since he got his hands on it. I haven't been able to read through it myself as much as I'd like from not being able to get it out of his grasp. If a book captivates one of my kid's attention it absolutely is going to get A Geek Daddy nod of approval.  This is a great pick up for anyone who is a fan of magical and mystical creatures.

DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE is a 160 page hardcover book. It contains 400 color illustrations. In addition to full-sized images of dragons, there are also pictures of the different colored and textured variations of dragon eggs as well as close up looks of different body parts of these creatures including talons, tails and wings.

Thanks to IMPACT Books who provided ageekdaddy.com with a DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE to review + one to giveaway. One lucky winner will receive his or her own hardcover edition of William O'Connor's DRACOPEDIA FIELD GUIDE mailed to them from IMPACT Books. Just complete the rafflecopter entries below by 11:59pm ET on May 15, 2019 for a chance to be the randomly selected winner. Must be a United States resident over 18 years old to be eligible for the prize. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE REALM SOUNDTRACK

I've been enjoying reading the new series from Image Comics called THE REALM. It is a comic book apocalyptic adventure that has a Dungeon & Dragons meets The Walking Dead vibe to it. The story is set fifteen years after a cataclysmic event impacted the Earth which involved an energy burst that destroyed the ability for anything using electricity to operate causing technology and vehicles to be inoperable.  This was followed by mystical portals opening up around the world unleashing hordes of invading mythical creatures like goblins, trolls and even dragons from another dimension.

The story combines realistic elements from everyday life and spins them together with a fantasy landscape filled with monsters and magic creating a captivating supernatural drama. In THE REALM, a group of humanity's survivors embarks on a quest to reclaim our planet from the growing darkness that is enveloping it unleashed from mysterious portals that arrived the day electricity stopped working. Can they find a way to reverse the dampening field that is hindering people from using the technology and transportation that society had become dependent on? Can our heroes shut down the portals transporting these alien invaders to the Earth? Or is the planet destined to end up looking like the setting for J. R. R. Tolkien's novel Lord of the Rings.

THE REALM is released in monthly installments and I've looked forward to getting my hands on each new comic book issue as it comes out.  The creative team has taken what could have been a really cheesy concept and portrays this nightmare scenario as if it crazily actually happened.  It provides a gritty drama that is interesting to read complimented with excellent artwork that draws you into the story. This series provides an entertaining escape from reality for its readers which in my opinion is what comic book authors and artists should always be striving to achieve. This comic book series is rated M for Mature Audiences.

To further immerse readers into THE REALM experience, its creators have teamed up with the Indie rock band Me Like Bees to create a musical soundtrack for the comic book series.  Me Like Bees has created a five track album titled "Songs from the Realm" as well as a music video for the first song, The River Divides to give readers a multi-media experience when it comes to reading these comic books. Movies and television shows have music soundtracks so why not comic books too?!



You can take a listen to THE REALM's musical soundtrack for FREE on Spotify:

You can also purchase a compact disc of "Songs from the Realm" from Me Like Bees website or buy digital downloads of the songs from iTunes.

Great comic books … great tunes … I encourage you to pick up THE REALM from your local comic book shop, tune in to the soundtrack from Me Like Bees and imagine yourself in a world where scary creatures have come to life. How would you cope in a world without automobiles, lights, the internet, refrigeration, and other conveniences we've become accustomed to that has suddenly become filled with monsters straight from the pages of a Dungeon and Dragons fantasy game? Reading THE REALM will immerse you in that world and have you anxiously looking forward to each new issue.

AUTHOR REBOOTS DUNGEON & DRAGONS FRANCHISE FOR A NEW GENERATION

I tend to read more Science Fiction novels than Fantasy but decided to read R. A. Salvatore’s new book “The Companions” because I had previously really enjoyed reading the Star Wars story that he had penned “Vector Prime” despite the fact that he killed off Chewbacca in it …. boo!  I have to admit I’m a fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, Baulder’s Gate video game and played Dungeon and Dragons in middle school so I was curious if this book could keep my interest.  The “Companions” takes the characters from the Forgotten Realms stories that Salvatore authored in the late 80s/early 90s and reboots this Dungeon and Dragon franchise for a new generation of readers.

As I started flipping through the pages the characters seemed really familiar as if I’d known them from before.  I’d forgotten but reading this story jarred my memory that years ago back when they first were published I’d read the Ice Wind Dale Trilogy my freshman year of high school.  This story is like an old memory combined with a new adventure.  Most of the characters from the books I had read have died off by the timeline set in this new novel.  One remains though, the long living drow elf Drizzt Do’Urder, and he is in need of assistance from his prior cast of companions from Salvatore’s past Forgotten Realm trilogies.  So Do’Urder’s companions are brought back from heaven and reborn into new bodies.  They have to grow up from babies to adults from scratch but have retained all their personalities and memories from their prior life.  Picture having to go through childhood again; having a child’s body and an adults’ mind.  This is the scenario portrayed in this book which spans the twenty years after the companion’s rebirth. The focus of the novel is explaining how these companions were reborn and eventually all meet up again with each other and Drizzt Do’Urder.  The Companions are born in different corners of the world and must find each other and Drizzt before their 21^st birthday. The book essentially creates a new generation for the core characters of Salvatore’s past Dungeon & Dragon novels to appeal to a new generation of young readers…though at 40 I still enjoyed it.

What was nice about “The Companions” is that you don’t have to read the Ice Wind Dale Trilogy to understand the characters and the plot of this story but if you had read those previous books you had an added comfort level with these characters…especially since they are being brought back from the dead.  The one thing I didn’t like about the book was that the first few chapters really didn’t flow well and you had to chug through them to get to where the story really engaged you to a point you were invested in finishing it. 

The story doesn’t really finish though as it is Part 1 of a multi-book series called the “Sundering”.  So the characters have been reunited after a series of adventures and now the real adventure begins.  Know that before you read it because you are investing yourself into reading other books if you venture to read “The Companions”.  If you know a teen that enjoys fantasy stories, or an adult who appreciates the Conan or Hobbit adventures, than I’d recommend this book for them.  “The Companions” is a well written novel that would be a great travel companion to take along with you on a vacation or business trip or it would be equally well suited as an entertaining read on a lazy weekend at home.

"The Companions" was published on August 6, 2013 and is 384 pages.  You can purchase it online at Amazon.com or from your local book retailer.

DISCLAIMER:  I was provided a complimentary digital pdf advance copy of this book to review. The thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.