[Coming Soon] Skull and Bones: Savage Storm Comic Book Miniseries

Dark Horse Comics has announced the release of SKULL AND BONES: SAVAGE STORM, the first comic book based on Ubisoft's forthcoming pirate game, SKULL AND BONES... and my first comic book writing credit, alongside John Jackson Miller.

I worked with John on Scrye and Comics & Games Retailer magazines back in the day, but this is the first time I have ever collaborated with him on writing a comic book. It was an amazing experience learning under a Master of the craft, and this not-at-all-young Padawan discovered that writing for games and writing for comic books are two very different things.

I was brought in as a "world-wrangler," to bring together a story out of the amazing possibilities and huge world that Ubisoft has built for SKULL AND BONES. Founded upon historical themes, birthed in the myths and legends of the pirate era, the world of SKULL AND BONES is something all its own, fresh and new -- and yet hauntingly familiar.

The SKULL AND BONES game releases on November 8, with the comic book following on November 21. SAVAGE STORM is a three-issue miniseries that gives readers a glimpse into this world, its beauty, its horrors, and its possibilities. You can preorder the first issue from your local comic book shop using Diamond order code SEP220465.

Oh, and I can't forget the art. THE ART! Jodi can attest I shouted with joy at seeing the initial art for the first issue. Christian Rosada's work is AMAZING, and I cannot wait to see the finished product with colors by Roshan Kurichiyanil. And that cover by Pius Bak is just so classic!

A Tale of Three Worlds: Mystara, Mystoerth, and Mystaerth

Over the years I've used campaign material from the Known World and Mystara in various ways, adapting and adopting material here and there.

Twice I've made major adaptations, dropping the Known World and other elements of Mystara into other worlds wholesale, and vice-versa.

One of these efforts was Mystoerth, which combines Mystara and Greyhawk by dropping the Flanaess into the world of Mystara. Here is my Mystoerth map:

It is really great to see that others took and ran with the idea of Mystoerth, such as Tim Brannan on The Other Side Blog and his development of Mystoerth. Chatdemon's version of the map, which you can find at Tim's site, re-centered the map and added the parchment effect.

Another such effort was Mystaerth, which combined Mystara with the world of Aerth, the campaign setting from Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys: Mythus setting. Here is the map from that effort:

I really feel the need to return to Mystara soon. Just which Mystara, I'm not quite sure yet...

This post was inspired by Trey's posts on From the Sorcerer's Scroll about placing Karameikos and the other locations from Mystara in the Real World.

I should also note, inspired by Trey's post, I went and finally dug up a huge treasure trove of old Mystara files, some of them dating to 1994! Now to go through everything and see what passes the sniff test...