SPITTLEDRUM, the Four-eyed Demon, has scoured the internet for new eyes: four sword-and-sorcery gems! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.
"The Familiar's Four Gems will be posted every week. It is a curated list of old and new digital resources for amateur sword and sorcery writers and readers; it will occasionally provide short reviews where appropriate. If you have something you would like to include, contact us. -JRC
Book Review: Deep Cuts: The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage (2013) by Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock. "The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage is not quite a biography, however. It is primarily a collection of obscure but critical sources and essays on her life and work: memoirs and interviews normally only found in moldering and expensive fanzines, as well as new essays that expand on her life before and after Weird Tales. On top of that, the book includes a full gallery of her pulp art, and numerous photos of her life and art you won’t find anywhere else, all reproduced without the clipping or muddying of color typical of a lot of pulp art books. It is a gorgeous production from start to finish—and an enlightening one, as Brundage herself is a fascinating subject."
Lexicon: Grognardia: Words Gary Taught Me. "High Gygaxian is the term I coined to refer to the pedantic, archaism-laden, run-for-the-dictionary writing style often employed by Gary Gygax, particularly in his AD&D rulebooks and adventures. I'm on record as adoring this idiosyncratic manner of speech. For me, High Gygaxian establishes the feel of the particular strain of fantasy that I associated with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This is one area where I believe AD&D is superior to OD&D and goes a long way toward explaining the enduring influence of this version of the game, even though it's been twenty years since any currently published RPG bore this title."
Dungeon Synth Album: Amn: Lands of Intrigue. "The Lord of Murder shall perish, / But in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny / Chaos will be sewn from their passage / So sayeth the wise Alaundo / So sayeth the wise Alaundo."
Digital Gaming Convention: Bride of CyclopsCon in October! "Bride of Cyclops Con will be online everywhere October 16-18, 2020. And this convention will feature not only Dungeon Crawl Classics, but also Dungeons and Dragons, and every other game that you can associate with Goodman Games. We’re talking DCC, MCC, XCC, DCC Lankhmar, D&D, and maybe even some of the others that you don’t think about as much—we’re looking at you, Metamorphosis Alpha, DragonMech, Dinosaur Crawl Classics, and others!"
