Episode 42- Book Review

After a bit of time, we finally are releasing our review of book 2 Dragons of Winter Night. All you Dragonlance fans let us know what you think of our review!

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Episode 40 - Interviewing a man named Drake Part 1

On tonight's episode Roy and I chat with Maxwell Alexander Drake, Author of the Award-Winning Epic Fantasy Saga: Genesis of Oblivion. We discuss his career, writing styles and the 30th Anniversary Snarf Quest Kickstarter!

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Hyrule Hysteria - From Dark horse Comics

"Dark Horse Books and Nintendo® bring you The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, containing an unparalleled collection of historical information on The Legend of Zelda™ franchise. This handsome hardcover contains never-before-seen concept art, the full history of Hyrule, the official chronology of the games, and much more! Starting with an insightful introduction by the legendary producer and video-game designer of Donkey Kong™, Mario™, and The Legend of Zelda™, Shigeru Miyamoto, this book is crammed full of information about the storied history of Link’s adventures from the creators themselves! As a bonus, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historiaincludes an exclusive comic by the foremost creator of The Legend of Zelda manga—Akira Himekawa!

* The full history and making of the The Legend of Zelda™franchise, never-before-seen concept art!

* Introduction by Shigeru Miyamoto!"

The following Q&A is from The Dark horse comics blog:

TRANSLATING A LEGEND - AN INTERVIEW WITH ARIA TANNER

01/17/2013 11:09am

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is only 12 days from release here in the United States and Canada and we've been working incredibly hard to make sure that this book is as great an experience for you as it was for us in our first experience reading it. To aid in that we needed to translate the whole thing for an English-speaking audience. The schedule was tight and editor Patrick Thorpe brought on some folks to help. Aria Tanner jumped at the opportunity and contacted Dark Horse Comics to assist. As a fan and a translator her work helped us keep this book on schedule. We sat down with her to ask a few questions about the experience.

Dark Horse Comics: You helped Dark Horse Comics speed up the translation process for The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. What made you jump at the chance to help?

Aria Tanner: To answer that, I’ll have to begin by explaining why I was interested in the book in the first place.

I’m fascinated by the development process of video games, and how many changes a title goes through from conception to release. Particularly in the case of Zelda, ideas from earlier games are often expanded upon in later titles. One example would be the Imprisoning War mentioned at the beginning of A Link to the Past, which later became the basis of its chronological prequel, Ocarina of Time. Another would be the elemental temples that have appeared in many incarnations throughout the twenty-five-year history of the series.

Because of this, I was immediately excited to hear that Nintendo was planning to release a book that documented these changes, as well as the internal chronology, of nearly every Zelda game in existence.

When I first gathered fellow fans to work on the unofficial translation of Hyrule Historia, we didn’t know if the book would ever see a US release. What a shame it would be if all this incredible information was lost to the language gap between Japan and the rest of the world!

That’s why I was so excited to hear that Dark Horse would be releasing an official English version. Now, instead of having to read the information secondhand on a tiny website, fans would be able to hold the actual book in their hands, and have a giant Zelda encyclopedia on their shelves to refer to in future timeline debates.

Because it’s not very often that encyclopedia-style game books are released in North America, its announcement seemed to be the perfect opportunity for me to get involved in the industry and participate in making an official release happen. I hoped that Hyrule Historia would set a good precedent, ensuring that it wouldn’t be the only such project to reach foreign shelves.

DHC: I have heard translation runs smoother with context. What were some of the most challenging pieces to work on in this book?

AT: Even though it has nothing to do with context, I think the most difficulty I had was deciphering the terrible handwriting of the developers. The staff of the Zelda games may be visionaries, but their penmanship rivals that of doctors. When it came to the handwritten notes on the concept art, I had three or four native speakers doing their best to help me puzzle out the characters, at times, and there are one or two utterly unreadable characters that still haunt me to this day. I won’t name names, but one developer in particular is notorious for spelling errors and questionable grammar. Luckily he’s a creative genius to make up for it!

DHC: What got you started in the world of translation? 

AT: My adventures in translation actually started with Zelda, so it’s fitting that it’s still a big part of my life today!

I began studying Japanese at fourteen, first through self-study and casual lessons with a visiting Japanese professor who lived down the block, then via a year in a beginner-level high-school class. This culminated in a ten-month exchange at a Tokyo high school in my sophomore year.  

While I was on exchange, I rediscovered a site called Zelda’s Secret Ocarina, where users attempted to catalog all the prerelease screenshots of Ocarina of Time, pointing out and speculating on how different they were from the final game. This was the catalyst that sparked my interest in the creation process of video games themselves. I joined the forums at the site, and used my Japanese knowledge to (poorly) translate some of the screenshots that had Japanese text in them.  

(Around that time, I also started playing games in Japanese, mostly old SNES RPGs that I pored over using an electronic dictionary to look up words I didn’t know. At first, it was almost all of them.)

Eventually, the screenshots dried up, so I moved on to translating a series of Ocarina of Time developer interviews. I enjoyed the challenge; it seemed like a good way of practicing my Japanese, and things just snowballed from there. Bit by bit, I branched out into translating material from other games and other forms of media, including voice acting, video, and game scripts. Because I didn’t want to lose track of what I’d done, I built a site to house my work, and the rest is history.

DHC: How many languages do you speak/read? 

AT: I’m Canadian, so I’ve studied French from elementary school to university, but my French isn’t nearly as good as my Japanese. I can read and write, and that’s about it. I’ve also taken Spanish at a university level, and I try to study a little bit of every language I come across. Widening the pool of people I can communicate with is always worth the effort.

DHC: What’s your process for translating a page? Do you jump in and simply tackle it from top to bottom, left to right (or right to left as the case may be), or do you have a step by step process that takes you from rough translation to final copy, like a sketch might go from scratches to inked and then colored pages?

AT: If it’s linear, I generally go from top to bottom. Writing is usually chronological, so if you translate things out of order, you might miss references or foreshadowing that you would be aware of if you had read the previous section. This is especially important when translating dialogue.

If the text is just a series of captions that don’t have any relation to one another, I’ll bounce around to whatever I feel like doing first. I try not to linger on things that I’m having trouble with or get bored with doing; otherwise the work begins to feel grueling.

Most of the time, I start by translating a rough draft, leaving placeholder marks in sections I’m having trouble with so I can come back to them. Sometimes I’m not sure I understand a reference or particular turn of phrase; other times I just can’t render something properly in English. The rough draft usually sounds pretty stilted, and has lots of unfinished sections.

Later, I’ll do a second draft that fills in the gaps, and rewrite any sections I’m unhappy with. I’ll also put my English translation and the Japanese text side by side to compare them and make sure I haven’t forgotten anything or made any mistakes.

Lastly, I try to reread my translation from the perspective of the audience, and fix grammar or edit sections that sound unnatural.

DHC: Everyone has one, but what’s your favorite of the Zelda games?

AT: My favorite is Majora’s Mask. Story is a huge part of the Zelda games for me, and I love the dark atmosphere and how you can see the lives of the characters unfold in real time. The game play is fun, the personalities are interesting, the world is expansive, and there are so many things to do.

DHC: Why do you think the Zelda franchise is such a popular series of video games? 

AT: Zelda is one of Nintendo’s flagship franchises, and it releases a title for nearly every system, showing off the latest hardware capabilities and stretching its flexible story line and motifs over new game-play mechanics. This has drawn in new players and kept older generations loyal and excited to see what comes next, forging itself a solid fan base that holds court in many communities across the web. 

Even during the long waits that come between Zelda games, the creative fans are always generating new art, music, and writing, and discussing every aspect of the franchise in detail. The release of Hyrule Historia may answer a number of long-standing questions, but I have a feeling it will raise even more, and keep the ball of Zelda’s fandom rolling until the next game appears to enthrall players once again.

DHC: Thank You, Aria!

Order your copy now!

Darkhorse

Amazon

Pre-Order The new Dawn of the jedi Novel

Del Rey Books is releasing a tie-in hardcover novel to Dark Horse Comics' ongoing Dawn of the Jedi series on May 7, called Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi — Into the Void. The series is set 36,000 years before the events of the original Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope and concerns itself with the events that led to the foundation of the Jedi Order. 

"On the planet Tython, the ancient Je’daii order was founded. And at the feet of its wise Masters, Lanoree Brock learned the mysteries and methods of the Force—and found her calling as one of its most powerful disciples. But as strongly as the Force flowed within Lanoree and her parents, it remained absent in her brother, who grew to despise and shun the Je’daii, and whose training in its ancient ways ended in tragedy.

Now, from her solitary life as a Ranger keeping order across the galaxy, Lanoree has been summoned by the Je’daii Council on a matter of utmost urgency. The leader of a fanatical cult, obsessed with traveling beyond the reaches of known space, is bent on opening a cosmic gateway using dreaded dark matter as the key—risking a cataclysmic reaction that will consume the entire star system. But more shocking to Lanoree than even the prospect of total galactic annihilation, is the decision of her Je’daii Masters to task her with the mission of preventing it. Until a staggering revelation makes clear why she was chosen: The brilliant, dangerous madman she must track down and stop at any cost is the brother whose death she has long grieved—and whose life she must now fear."

You can pre-order the book now at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com

Megascifi.com - Robotech Community

As I was searching the inter-webs this morning I came across an interview  with writer James Luceno. Robotech fans first encountered Jim’s work from when he coauthored the Robotech Novelizations with Brian Daley, the two of them shared the pseudonym Jack McKinney. Star Wars fans will know of him from Darth Plagueis and Dark Lord - The Rise of Darth Vader many more novels. You can read the interview here:

Interview

and a very cool time line:

ROBOTECH TIMELINE FOR THE ANIMATION, NOVELS, AND COMICS REFERENCE GUIDE VERSION

The art of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

If your anything like me you love Robotech! Luckily for us the folks over at Harmony Gold are still (slowly) producing Robotech material. 2013 looks to be the release date for "Love, Live, Alive", a modern remake of the original Japanese animated movie and it looks like a lot of the original voice actors from the next generation series will be involved. So at least we have something to look forward too from an animation stand point. Rumor had it Harmony was planning on continuing the Shadow Chronicles, but I haven't heard much about that.

Palladium books is releasing a couple new supplements, Genesis Pits which will be out around Christmas and UEEF Marines for their Robotech RPG Line. In other book related news, Robotech.com has released a Shadow Chronicles art book. Here is the description:

The Art of ROBOTECH: The Shadow Chronicles

The long-awaited comeback film Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles picks up directly from the pioneering space opera that first aired on television in 1985. The breathtaking animated movie combines the talents of artists, producers, musicians, and actors from around the globe, from Los Angeles and Tokyo to Seoul and Prague. Now, all the art - both classic designs from Robotech's Japanese heritage and modern digital production techniques from The Shadow Chronicles - that went into putting Robotechnology and Protoculture back on the screen has been collected into this stellar new full-color book from Stone Bridge Press. Everything fans seek in a film companion is right here:

- an inside look at the evolution of Robotech and the anime industry over three decades
- plot guides for the TV series and the movie
- in-depth character, mecha, and vessel profiles
- over 100 pages of concept art and production design
- detailed mecha and vessel statistics
- hundreds of full-color images, many never-before released
- a glossary of Robotech terms
- production commentary from director Tommy Yune
- foreword by original Robotech producer Carl Macek

$19.95

Thats it for now from the Robotech War front, I do plan on doing a review of the Genesis Pits source book when I pick up a copy.

Larry Elmore: the complete art book kick starter!

I cant believe I never knew about this kick starter! Larry Elmore is putting together a 306 page hard cover collection of all of his art work from the last 40 years! the goal was $17,500 but it has been meet, currently it sits at $72,500! Which means we get A LOT of cool extras, check out the kickstarter page or Larry's website for more details!

Stan Lee's Fireside editions! 1974-1979

The other night the wife and I where at Barnes and noble killing some time and I found a book I wanted to share with you. Going through the clearance section of the store I picked this book up for $5! This over sized trade collects various Hulk comics (along with Avengers and Fantastic Four issues) with an introduction by Stan Lee before a few of the stories story. This gives the reader a bit of insight  behind the story. It is  the coolest book I've seen in quite a while, The behind the scenes articles by Stan Lee makes it much more than another collected edition. Unfortunately the book doesnt list the issue numbers of the comics that appear in it, which does bother the collector in me, but for a first time reader of a character I can see why it wasn't included or more importantly not necessary.

Wiki description: "The Marvel Fireside Books Series was a series of full-color trade paperbacks featuring Marvel Comics stories and characters co-published by Marvel and the Simon & Schuster division Fireside Books from 1974 to 1979.
The series enabled fans of the old comics to have access to the stories without having to pay exorbitant prices for the original back issues. It introduced new readers to the work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other Marvel creators, and packaged the material in a traditional book format that carried more caché than the flimsy pamphlet style of a typical comic book. Many of the books featured painted covers illustrated by such artists as Bob Larkin, John Romita, Sr., and Earl Norem. In this way, the series was an antecedent to the now common practice of packaging "classic" stories into archival editions and trade paperback collections including Marvel's 1998 book Grandson of Origins of Marvel Comics.

Publishing History: Marvel Publisher Stan Lee came up with the idea of compiling the origins of some of their most popular characters in a book format similar to Jules Feiffer's 1965 book The Great Comic Book Heroes. Teaming up with Fireside, a young-adult imprint of Simon & Schuster, Marvel initially produced Origins of Marvel Comics in 1974, featuring the origins of the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and Doctor Strange. Like the books to follow, Origins featured a foreword by Lee, and short introductions to each section, which followed the format of presenting the character's origin followed by a contemporary story by current Marvel contributors.
Origins of Marvel Comics was followed in 1975 with Sons of Origins of Marvel Comics, featuring the origins of the X-Men, Iron Man, The Avengers, Daredevil, Nick Fury, The Watcher, and the Silver Surfer.
The two Origins books were followed by Bring on the Bad Guys, origins of a selection of Marvel villains; and The Superhero Women, featuring some of Marvel's most popular female superheroes. Eventually, the series began straying away from origin stories and published collections of classic stories with individual characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Captain America, and Doctor Strange.
One of the Marvel Fireside Books superhero story editions was not a reprint but was an original story. 1978's The Silver Surfer, by Stan Lee, with art by Kirby and Joe Sinnott, was a new take on the late 1960s icon; and is considered by many to be one of the first true "graphic novels."[citation needed]
In conjunction with their reprint collections, Marvel and Fireside also produced a number of activity and game books, how-to books, and even a cookbook, again all featuring Marvel characters. The most well-known and popular book of this kind was 1978's How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way, which is still in print.
Marvel/Fireside published 24 different books, many with multiple printings in both hardcover and paperback."

Now my plan is to try and find the rest of this series of books to add to my book shelf. If you have or have read any of these titles let me know what you think! 

Del Rey - new Star Wars titles announced

 Del Rey Star Wars announcement from the New York Comic Con: (Via Facebook)

- New Han Solo novel written by James S. A. Correy. Part of the new "Rebels" series of stand alone novels       set in the Classic era.
- New KENOBI (tentative title) novel by John Jackson Miller. Novel is set after the events of Episode III. Promotional artwork seen here by Chris Scalf.

I love all of the upcoming Star Wars novels from Del Rey, it will be nice to have a larger variaty of titles to choose from.