Holy shitballs, he's back!
Okay, it's not like I actually went anywhere. But, as I've just noted on my comics blog in a post that puts the 40 Years of Comics Project on hiatus, creativity is not infinite and there's only so much energy to go around.
If you haven't heard or read me going on about the music I'm making right now, it's right here. That's all I'll say, aside from noting that my style is, literally, all over the place, so I like to think that there's a little something for everyone in my musical meanderings.
However, another outlet errs more on my need to do and create in a more physical manner. A few years back, while in conversation with a friend about my, frankly, ridiculous LEGO collection, the suggestion was floated that I make a large-scale board for Arkham Horror (2nd ed.) out of the building medium. I was fired up and built a few pieces that were in scale with the RAFM Call of Cthulhu classic miniature range.
And then a workman in the basement bumped a shelf, and they fell on the ground and shattered. And I just didn't have it in me at the time to rebuild what had taken a remarkably long time to begin with (my Police Station even had a working jail that you could put a figure in who had been arrested).
Fast forward to COVID. One of the things that has kept me sane these last couple of years is painting gaming miniatures. I've loved it for a long time, but, as only an ADHD person can, I threw myself into it wholeheartedly in order to stave off the existential crisis I, and the world, was going through. And growing from that was a desire to craft cool terrain for these little people and creatures to inhabit, I was brought back to the idea of a 3D Arkham Horror board.
As of this writing, I'd say it's about 60% done. I'll post development pics and write a bit about the components of each piece. I'm fucking loving it. As with my comic collecting, I'm approaching this project with an eye to the dollar bin, so to speak. As much as possible, I'm trying not to spend too much money on the board. Lots of it, especially the substructures, are recycled lumber left over after the last people moved out of the house. Many of the buildings and structures were bought on sale, though enough to make it an expensive project were not.
Building the board has necessitated a full reworking of my basement lair, and the placing into storage of some things in order to make room for the board. I hope to have it completed within the next few months. This will mean not only a full and complete range of locations and other worlds, but also places on the board for all of the necessary technical functions of the game. I want the board to not only look cool, but also be completely playable. And I've had some neat ideas in incorporating that stuff into the various components of the table.
So that's where I'm at with my blogging these days. I love my comics, but I'm only one person and I'm not one of those ones who has infinite reserves of energy. Pictures and posts forthcoming.
