Back from South Carolina

After spending about five days in Columbus South Carolina, I am back home.

Some of you might remember that an old friend of mine has asked me to be the executor of his large media collection when he dies. During this trip, we went through his collection so I could get an idea of everything.

It's overwhelming!

He has a couple thousand CDs, mostly high quality esoteric stuff, including a nearly complete collection of FAX CDs (90's ambient label started by Peter Namlook), a nearly complete collection of EM:T CDs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Em:t_Records); and one of the best collections of classic dub and reggae I've ever seen.

The two things that impressed me the most were his collection of Moebius art books, and his comic magazines.

His Moebius collection might be one of the best in the world. He has over 100 art books, some are incredibly rare, with only 100 in production. The prices some of these command these days are in the hundreds, with a few in the thousands.

He also has a complete run of Heavy Metal from issue one through 1996. I actually got to hold Heavy Metal number 1!

In addition to the Heavy Metal, he also has complete runs of the classic horror comic magazines Eerie and Creepy, featuring art from Wrightson and Frazetta. These are spectacular!

He also has a ton of other amazing magazines including early issues of National Lampoon, and even a copy of High Times #1!

His collection of music magazines includes an almost complete run of The Wire, a very high quality music magazine covering underground music with each issue featuring detailed interviews and criticism.

He also has many hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays, with releases from Criterion, Anchor Bay, Arrow Video and Vinegar Syndrome.

His collection made me realize the importance and burden of physical media. It's so important to keep this stuff in the hands of people who will appreciate it and treasure it, not for it's financial value, but for it's information. So much of this information is becoming harder and harder to find, and this is all centered around human created art. Those days of quality art criticism and curation seem to be all but dead in this digital world. People just don't value high quality art curation and information like they used to.

However, it's also a burden because of the time, money and space it takes to keep and care for a collection. At some point, I will have to do the same thing with my books, CDs, and games. When that time comes, I'm hoping I can find people who will take on this responsibility of preservation with my collection. This really is one of the main reasons I collect books, especially vintage paperbacks.

But now that I'm home I'm excited to get back to playing some games! Right now I'm working on learning and playing Escape from New York and Restless.

Escape from New York is from Kevin Wilson, and if you like Wilson's brand of co-op adventure games, it seems like a good one. I think he captured the theme and tone of the movie.

Restless is a new adventure game that will be hitting a crowdfund in November. It feels like a board game / game book hybrid with a ton of random encounters, character building, and some resource management. So far, I think it's pretty cool, especially for solo play.

After these two games I'll be learning and playing A Wayfarer's Tale, a board game version of an older print and play dice rolling game. It's all about exploring different maps efficiently. I love the look of it.

And finally, when I got back I had two name games from Alex T. and Blackoath Entertainment waiting for me! I'm excited for both.

Choir of Flesh

And Riftbreakers: Second Edition

I'm hoping Alex and I can get together for a chat on the channel to talk about these games next month! (hint, hint, Alex)

We have a lot of cool things to look forward to in November! Including some more episodes of the Digital Dive. I just ordered a new mid-tier gaming PC, and I'll be spending the next weekend getting it set up. I already have a list of cool games to check out, all of them under $20. This is the first gaming PC I've had since Diablo 3 was released.