As my best friend Jenn would put it, I am a very happy camper.
Last week, I won an auction for the D&D PoDW role-playing module, and it came in yesterday, and I picked it up today. It’s got a book and over 100 pages of new character descriptions…I’m seriously floored. This is as cool as the cels were, except that this is a lot more informative. And what I totally didn’t realize is that the guy I won these from is the one who wrote the book. I should’ve recognized his name from his e-mails, and because this set’s up at Amazon and his name’s there, but it didn’t click till I looked at the front page and saw his name there and did a double-take.
It’s a gorgeous day out; I just spent about an hour at the Campanile (those of you unfamiliar with Georgia Tech’s campus, it’s also known as the Shaft; it’s an outdoor amphitheater right in front of our student center, with a tall “shaft-like” statue in the middle; they put it up right before the 1996 Olympics–and it’s a popular hang-out-and-relax place on nice days, like today) reading through it and wondering if people would walk by and go, “Wait, is that Pirates of Dark Water?” Dang, oh well. ;o) But there’s so much information in this…background stories, character descriptions, descriptions of the islands, a BIG, FULL-COLOR WORLD MAP *dies*, and…wow. :o) I wish I had a scanner…there are lots of awesome sketches of the characters in the 100 pages of species descriptions, and lots of really cool pictures of cities and landscapes (I’m wondering if Floro Dery drew those…? They reminded me of the concept line art he e-mailed me of the interior of the Maelstrom and Janda-town) and…wow.
I did notice some discrepancies between some of the descriptions/names printed here and the series, though…nothing extremely major, but I kind of blinked and went, “Wait a second..” when I saw them, so. :o) I’m attributing them to the author taking creative liberties, though. *grin* I’m wondering if he got permission from Hanna-Barbera to take these liberties, or if he’s basing these off their guidelines, or…?