Atroll attended the Phoenix ComiCon 2011 over the Memorial Day weekend.  While I was there, running games like Trollhalla and Tunnels and Trolls, I encountered a superabundance of beauty and imagination.  Here then is my inadequate tribute to the Fabulous Women of Phoenix ComiCon.

This is Sam. Catwoman never looked so good. Sam volunteered at Game Central in the gaming area, and was my first model for the Con.

I never got her name, but she was certainly very kind to me and all the other gamers at the Con.

This woman rn games about 16 hours a day--very fun, great sense of humor. More dedicated to gaming than I am, that's for sure.

When I left the gaming area behind, one of the first ladies I met was Supergirl. She really looks super, doesn't she?

Schoolgirls were at the Con in great numbers. Many of them had an anime or cuddly animal connection.

This was just a lovely costume on a lovely girl--one of the vendors.

Not everyone was showing a lot of skin and cleavage. This vendor had such a great smile that I took her picture even without a costume.

Poison Ivy was surprisingly friendly at ComiCon. This girl went green for her costume.

Courtney Leigh is a costume designer, and she is stunning in a dress of her own design.

This enchantress can go adventuring with me any time.

The deadly Princess Lea had some wookie bits to sell.

A horla wandered by while I was talking to Lea. That is a very original costume design.

I met Bianca the artist I would love to have her doing material for Tunnels and Trolls, but I have no idea how I'd pay her.

Some girls only needed one cute hat to make a costume.

It's a Pokemon, but it sure ain't Pikachu. Ash should get so lucky!

This is where the hats came from. The purple-hatted woman seems to be the mastermind of the group.

These are not your conventional beauties, but what fabulous costumes they had.

I took this picture on Friday. I didn't feel like a zombie until Sunday. But there sure were a lot of zombies wandering the halls. This one was probably pretty when she was still alive.

Could this be a demon butler and a one-eyed kid? That's one anime I've totally missed so far.

I wonder why this vampire is so blue?

I don't recognize the character, but I love the costume and the smile.

Blonde on blonde.

She looks like an artist and I wish I knew her.

Two, two, two Power Girls are better than one. (They were both great!)

G

Just a Scottish schoolgirl, but I like her costume.

I think this young lady looks like Spider-Man's girlfriend, Mary Jane. I guessed her for a California Girl, and she said she was.

The Arizona Aventers, a service organization of superheroes was at the Con in force. Here we see the Black Widow and Nick Fury.

There were light sabers for sale at the Con. This young Jedi looked pretty dangerous to me.

This warrior carried a katana, but won my heart with her flute.

I got a lot of these pictures including this one while hanging out with Steve Crompton at the Carnal Comics booth. Meow!

Just friends? Or, partners in crime?

Black Swan--I didn't recognize her, since I didn't see the movie.

I didn't know that Naruto was a girl!

Cool and deadly! Blowing smoke, or blowing a kiss? Sweet in either case.

Another zombie girl. Scary! And even scarier fingers!

The very acme of zombie cool! If you've got, flaunt it!

Would you make passes at these girls in glasses?

Schoolgirls had some of the best costumes at the Con, and they, more than any other age group, showed up in costume.

Hey, Sailor!

There were quite a few ladies in uniform.

My Facebook friend, Cindy, brightened up the gaming area.

Would you believe that Angie is one of Steve Jackson's Men in Black? She works hard for those MIBs.

A Sailor and her maid.

Lady Game Masters presided over many of the gaming tables.

Nola, Queen of Steampunk Costumers, and Lady of the Dark Ones!

Ariana!

Tiffany Hartwig, Game Coordinator Extraordinaire!

It's the Queen of Hearts!

A Wonder Woman if I ever saw one!

ComiCon was fun for the whole family. This mother and daughter are elegantly dressed in the occult tradition.

Three beauties from the Laughing Moon booth.

It's Marvel's Tigra! Another superhuman catgirl, and I loved her dearly back in the 80s.

Goth Girlz just want to have fun.

Leatherface--the mother of all calamities!

Three bee-yutiful honeys.

A steampunk lady and her beau.

Nazi chicks are the baddest of the bad. And that's good!

Legs!

Alice in Underland. She's late . . . for tea.

Big, bad, and beautiful Amazons if I ever saw any.

Slave Lea--Jabba the Hutt knew what he was doing.

She comes on like a rose . . . but everybody knows . . . she'll really do you in . . . if you let her get under your skin. Poison Ivy!

Sell me something, exhibitor! Anything!

Albino. I don't think it's Elric.

Mature elegance take a break. Snow Queen strides on by.

Kimono my house, baby!

And this is where my camera was completely full.  And it was still early in the morning.  As a consequence, I missed even more fabulous women of ComiCon all day Saturday,

But . . . Sunday I came ready for the fray.  Alas, there weren’t many really great costumes on Sunday, so I have only a few more to add.

It's another Harley Quinn. I like her better without the white face paint.

It takes courage to attend a Con dressed as Bomb Girl!

It's Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, but it isn't Cassandra Petersen. She's my favorite ghoul friend.

Near the end, I met some lovely elfin maidens.

This oriental beauty was my last picture from ComiCon. She was hanging with the elf maids, perhaps to show that human girls are just as beautiful and fantastic as any creature of Faery.

The pictures I managed to take are only a small sampling of the Fabulous Women of ComiCon.  They won my heart and excited my admiration, every one of them.

End

Lacking anything really important to say today, I thought I’d just put up the rest of the pictures from the Hobby Japan RPG anthology.

Cover art is so generic. This could be for any fantasy rpg in the book.

 

This may be the rpg version of Jack and the Beanstalk. That's a mighty big door.

 

Artists, when in doubt what to do next for your project, draw a beautiful woman. They go well just about everywhere.

 

And even better than beautiful women is naked women! The Japanese aren't afraid of the human body.

 

Let's switch universes! Armor styles have changed a lot.

 

I think I'd hate it if all the aliens I met were taller than me.

 

It's always the Dwarf male and the Elf Female. You never see it the other way around. I wonder why!

 

Moonbathing! This girl is going to have a moontan all over.

 

Time to Head for the exit!

 

That’s it!  You’ve seen everything in that gamebook.

The perfect generic fantasy rpg pciture. Guy with a sword + naked elf woman + monsters in the background,

Back in 1991, Hobby Japan released an anthology of 5 tabletop rpgs, and I showed a little of their illustrations for it in my blog yesterday.  Then WordPress went crazy on me, and refused to allow me to finish my blog.  I don’t understand why the software worked up to a point and then stopped working, but I don’t care.  I’m back.  I’m going to show all the illos for the Wizardry section of the book, since that was the only rpg in the bunch that was actually written by the Japanese–even though they based it on the American computer game D & D clone–Wizardry by Sir Tech.  The computer game was successful in the U.S., but much more successful in Japan.  There it was so successful that water ran uphill, time went backwards, and they created a tabletop pen and ink game from the computer game, instead of the other way around.

Well, I’ve never managed to actually play either of the games–not one of the 8 computer games released in the series or the Japanese tabletop game.  I’m not that fond of D & D clones anyway  unless the game mechanics can be very well hidden, but I do like the art that the game inspires.  Here then are the pix from the Hobby Japan republication of Wizardry the RPG.

The well-equipped adventurer is armored on every inch of his body andhas plenty of ways to carry things.

And it's always good to have an Elf friend who's very good with bow and arrows.

"Leave the lizard alone, Fred. It isn't bothering us."

The path of dungeon delving never did run smooth. Monsters! Monsters!

Not only are the Elves always good guys, but you can count on them to supply a hot dungeon girl or two.

Somebody doesn't like the plan.

Don't piss off the Elvish wizardess. It's always a bad idea to have women mad at you.

"If I don't get to kill something soon, I'm going to scream!"

Lost in the wilderness again.

Black bat-winged dragons. Now, that's the ticket. Death or glory, here we come!

Finally, the evil wizard behind the Dragon Plague. Let's kill this bozo and head for home, or the nearest tavern.

And that’s our epic fantasy for today.  Hope you enjoyed it!

End

The cover scene might be from Tunnels and Trolls. Note the elf woman in the background. We see her again in the T & T section.

Way back in 1991 Hobby Japan published an anthology of popular tabletop roleplaying games.  Five games were included: Rune Quest (Avalon Hill Dark Ages Europe version), Mega Traveler, Tunnels and Trolls, Call of Cthulhu, and Wizardry. All of those games originated in the United States, but Wizardry started as a Dungeons and Dragons clone of a computer game.  When it went to Japan, it became so populsr (ca. 1988) that they made an original tabletop rpg out of it.

I can only read a single kanji character so the contents of this book are wasted on me, but I sure do like the art that accompanies it in the manga/anime style of Japan.  The purpose of this blog is just to show off a bit of it, and to encourage even non-Japanese readers to get their copies of Japanese rpgs whenever they can.  In my humble opinion, this is pretty cool stuff.

I also like the insight that the art gives into the way the Japanese see roleplaying.  What a blast it would be to game with them!

Presented below for your enjoyment: pictures from Japanese rpgs.

Rune Quest

 

Questing for runes, Japanese style.

Mega Traveler

 

Aliens! Why does it always have to be aliens? (from Indiana Jones in space)

Tunnels and Trolls

 

Could this be my favorite Death Goddess? Note the ears! Lerotra’hh is both half -elf and half-uruk. See the evil smile and the chaotic hair. This woman is Trouble!

Call of Cthulhu

 

Is Call of Cthulhu the Weird Sex rpg in Japan? Sure looks like it.

WordPress has gone strange on me. Going to have to stop and publish right here. To be continued . . .