On sale December 15, 2010 in comic shops is MOUSE GUARD: THE BLACK AXE #1, launching a brand-new volume of the popular MOUSE GUARD series by David Petersen.

The Eisner Award-winning MOUSE GUARD returns with THE BLACK AXE, a third volume of the critically acclaimed series. Set in 1115, this prequel to MOUSE GUARD VOL. 1: FALL 1152 fulfills the promise the wise oldfur Celanawe made to Lieam the day his paw first touched the Black Axe: to tell the young warrior about the mouse who first wielded the deadly weapon. The arrival of distant kin takes Celanawe on an adventure that will carry him across the sea to uncharted waters and lands, all while unraveling the legend of Farrer, the blacksmith who forged the mythic Black Axe.

Flames Rising is pleased to present a Preview of MOUSE GUARD: THE BLACK AXE #1:

The fairy tale lives again in these forty new stories by some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction.

Spinning houses and talking birds. Whispered secrets and borrowed hope. Here are new stories sewn from old skins, gathered from around the world by visionary editor Kate Bernheimer and inspired by everything from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” and “The Little Match Girl” to Charles Perrault’s “Bluebeard” and “Cinderella” to the Brothers Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel” and “Rumpelstiltskin” to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino. Fairy tales are our oldest literary tradition, and yet they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature. This exhilarating collection restores their place in the literary canon.

Flames Rising is pleased to present the introduction to this new collection by Kate Bernheimer.

Zombie Week continues here at Flames Rising with a new essay from Nick Tapalansky, creator of the Awakening series published by Archaia Entertainment. In this essay Nick tells us about his love of the zombie genre, his frustration with the zombie fad and the challenges of writing a comic series in a genre he admits is already packed.

Genesis of the Living Dead

I like zombies. I also like being understated. Those two statements may be related. Take a journey with me.

It’s early in 2004 and the genre is experiencing something of a renaissance. 28 Days Later had landed over the summer of ’03 and set a brand new ball rolling. The Walking Dead was hitting its stride as a comic (don’t forget kids, it was a funny book long before it was a TV series), and the Dawn of the Dead remake shambled, ran, and lunged at our collective throats. Shaun of the Dead was coming, ready to take us to the Winchester until the whole thing blew over.

Anyone up for brrrrrrrraaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnnsssss?

FlamesRising.com is pleased to announce we’re bringing you a full week of zombies. From essays to new interviews and reviews, we’ve got your flesh covered. To kick things off, we’ve scoured our archives to bring back some old articles from the dead. Check out some of your favorite zombie-themed articles here at FlamesRising.com.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a look at how romance and zombies go together from paranormal romance author Lori Devoti.

This past year, Lori released Zombie Moon, which was published by Silhouette Nocturne. How do these unlikely elements go together? Read Lori’s thoughts and find out! If you enjoy reading paranormal romance, be sure to enter our contest for a free novel from this talented author, too.

Novelist Ashley J. Barnard has a new novel called Shadow Fox from Champagne Books. In this design essay she tells us about that initial fear of releasing her work to friends and family.

How a Nice, Shy Girl Passes Off Dark Fantasy to Her Family

One of my older sisters recently compared me to Giselle from the movie Enchanted. It’s a fair comparison; I sing when I clean the house, I love animals, I’m a hopeless romantic and I have a bright and sunny disposition. I want everyone to love me so it’s shocking to me when I annoy someone. The biggest difference between Giselle and me is that Giselle doesn’t write dark contemporary fantasy with heroin use, violence, occasional S&M and a liberal sprinkling of the F-bomb throughout. And if she did write it, she’d probably use a pen name and would die before letting anyone read it.

Ullsaard has conquered the known world. All have fallen before his armies.

Now it is time to take the long journey home, back to the revered heart of the great Empire he had helped create for his distant masters. But when he returns to the capital, life there is so very different from what he had believed. Could it be that everything he has fought for, has conquered and killed for, has been a lie?

I’ve long been a reader of Gav’s work and consider the novels he has written for Black Library Publishing to be among the best works they have put out to date. I was excited to see that Gav had stepped out of the Games Workshop intellectual property to create something all his own. The folks at Angry Robot were nice enough to send me a copy of The Crown of the Blood several weeks ago and I happily stuck in.

Our design essay series continues with Scott Browne telling us about the process of writing the novel, Fated.

Fated is a dark, irreverent comedy about fate, destiny, and the consequences of getting involved with humans.

The inspiration for Fated was more of a series of connected ideas than an inspiration: a journal entry in 2003 about a character who can see the future because he’s Fate; a scene written in a shopping mall in 2004 from the point-of-view of the same conceptual character; and the splitting of the often married concepts of fate and destiny into two separate characters.

The day after Thanksgiving can be a virtual nightmare for many shoppers, but yours doesn’t have to be.

We’ve made sure our Flames Rising RPGNow Sale is up-to-date and we’ve got a few other deals we recommend checking out. So grab your pen and pay attention!

This year’s deals are a little unusual because retailers have extended sale dates. Some sales, like Amazon’s Black Friday Deals are going on through the end of the week, so be sure to visit the sales page for details.

The Dresden Files RPG (DFRPG) by Evil Hat Productions is their adaptation of the FATE 3.0 system to the world created by Jim Butcher in his novels. While not required reading to play the game, a brief overview of the novels will be helpful, as no such summary is included in the game, with that in mind, there are mild spoilers throughout. The novels are chiefly concerned with the cases taken by a private investigator who is also a wizard. He solves various crimes in the city of Chicago that have an occult connection. The writers of the RPG have done an excellent job of using an established intellectual property as a baseline setting and not allowing the characters from the novel to overwhelm the game, a situation that has hurt other settings in the past.

The book itself is a large volume at just over 400 pages. The cover is a full wrap around image depicting Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy and Michael Carpenter doing battle against a host of supernatural foes. The interior of the book consists of full color pages that are printed to appear as if a coil bound notebook. This appearance is due to the fact that the game is framed in such a way that it appears to be a manuscript of the game written by one of the characters from the series of novels. This stylistic choice is furthered by the inclusion of marginalia written by the “author,” a werewolf named Will, Harry Dresden and Bob, a spirit assistant to Dresden.

Dusk is a supernatural action/drama story done in a dynamic blending of the sequential art styles of American Comics and Japanese Manga. David Doub tells us about the series in this new design essay.

When I first had the idea for Dusk, I was doing comics just a form of creative expression. I wasn’t worried about making money or rewards, I just wanted people to enjoy my comics. Since I was keeping it fairly low key, I figured the internet would be the best place to cheaply get the comics out to potential readers. I was so new at everything, I even tried drawing one of my own stories. Since I lacked skills in sequential art I did that particular story in a story book style. One page was art and the other side was prose.

We have a new design essay to start the week. Film-maker Lisa Stock tells us about the world building that went into her project Titania.

People are always curious about where I shoot my films. But when I tell them it was a state park, local beach, or neighbor’s backyard they seem disappointed that I haven’t said Oz, Gotham, or at least New Zealand. I’m thrilled though – because for me, that means I’ve effectively created a world they believe exists somewhere further than a few blocks from home.

World building is as important in fantasy film as character building. It not only holds and surrounds the action of your plot – but influences it. An actress said to me once, “I have terrible fears about the forest, nightmares since I was a child of being left alone in a forest.” Luckily, the film we’re working on together takes place entirely in a forest and I need for her to be frightened.

Just in time for Halloween, FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with advice on terrifying your players from veteran game designer John Wick. Games that John has designed recently include the Lovecraft-inspired CURSE OF THE YELLOW SIGN and HOUSES OF THE BLOODED. For more about John, visit his website located at John Wick Presents

Play Dirty: Happy Halloween

Every Halloween, I run Call of Cthulhu.

It’s a tradition. Something I’ve rarely broken. Every year, I dress up in my “Man in Black” outfit (black pants, black shirt, black vest, black jacket, black tie, black hat and Yellow Sign pin) and I tell a story of man’s futile attempts to understand the universe.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a preview of modern horror zombie novel PARIAH, by author and artist Bob Fingerman. Bob wrote an essay for us entitled “Confessions of a Boy Fraidy Cat where he talked about his personal experiences with the horror genre as a kid. Today, Bob offers us original artwork and a preview of his zombie novel PARIAH, which was released from Tor Books.

Halloween is coming and White Wolf is celebrating with a huge sale on tons of titles. Calling all trick-or-treaters!

Have we got a sweet deal for you! If you love games that go bump in the night, then grab your flashlight and slink on over to check out White Wolf Publishing’s Halloween Sale!

This sale includes Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Hunter: the Reckoning, Demon: the Fallen and more! Enjoy twenty-five percent off books from the original World of Darkness. What a treat!

Sale ends on Halloween so don’t wait until the last minute. Break out your fangs, your claws and your dice today! Check out all of the titles on sale at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Sony Online Entertainment will be summoning the spirits, spooks and skeletons with the upcoming Halloween-themed activities and in-game events taking place in several of its hit online titles including, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms™, EverQuest, EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures: Sith O’Lanterns and Battle Droid Scarecrows have taken over the Jedi Temple! The inaugural Halloween celebration in Clone Wars Adventures adds plenty of creepy-crawlies around the virtual world. Players can participate in the daily Mask Handout to collect a new iconic mask each day, including Yoda, Jar Jar Binks, Padmé and Grievous! Players can also dress up their characters and droids and decorate their houses with festive items available for purchase in the Marketplace. R2-D2’s Rocket Rescue minigame celebrates with a special spooky Halloween-themed level, complete with a ghost costume for R2-D2. Clone Wars Adventures Halloween celebration is scheduled to begin October 22 and run through November 5. Live in-game Halloween “Emissary Events” are scheduled for October 27 and 29 and November 5 at 3 PM PST/6 PM EST.

Halloween is right around the corner, and many people read tarot cards to celebrate the holiday. In this three-part series of articles, FlamesRising.com turned to tarot card expert Paula Dempsey to talk about the history of the tarot. In the last article of this series, Paula discusses tarot and how we use and think about it in our modern day.

The History of Tarot: Modern Day

Finally, this whistlestop tour of the tarot brings us to the twenty first century. My question for modern times is: Is the tarot still truly occult? There are hundreds, possibly thousands of modern tarot packs, many of which are easily obtained from bookstores or online retailers. Books on how to read the cards may be borrowed from public libraries and tarot courses are offered in most cities. For those uncomfortable with the occult connotations, there is even a Jesus Deck.

The broken-hearted or inquisitive amongst us can phone or text a tarot hotline at any time of the day or night and instantly get an answer to “Does she love me?” or “Will I get that great new job?”

Halloween is right around the corner, and many people read tarot cards to celebrate the holiday. In this three-part series of articles, FlamesRising.com turned to tarot card expert Paula Dempsey to talk about the history of the tarot. In this first article, she discussed its mysterious origins. Today, she talks about the occult revival.

The History of Tarot: Occult Revival

The late 18th century saw Western society immersed in the Age of Enlightenment and on the verge of the Industrial Revolution. Paradoxically, this era of scientific rationalism also saw a rebirth of magical traditions. Druidry was reinvented in Great Britain by William Stukely and others. The end of the Witch-craze in Europe and the USA meant that those claiming to practice magic could do so without fearing a noose around their necks and to many, magic had an undeniable romance to it.

Did you know that Halloween is a popular time of year for divination? One way that many people celebrate the holiday is to have their tarot cards read. In this three-part series of articles, FlamesRising.com turned to tarot card expert Paula Dempsey to talk about the history of the tarot. In this first article, she discusses its mysterious origins.

The History of Tarot: Origins

Once Upon a Time…

… in 48BCE to be exact, when the Roman Empire was at its height and Julius Caesar’s troops laid siege to the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The custodians of the Royal Library of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, knew they didn’t have much time before enemy forces broke through and destroyed their precious scrolls forever. Fortunately they had made a plan. Decks of cards were small and portable, so they prepared special decks rich in symbolism carrying much of the spiritual and magical guidance from the Library, if one knew how to read them.

DriveThruComics.com, the first digital comics retailer, announced today that it is supporting the flood relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders by offering a charity
bundle of digital comics and e-books. For a $10 donation, customers will receive $170 worth of products. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the charity bundle will be donated to Pakistan flood relief.

“We’re happy to have this chance to help out a great cause like Doctors Without Borders. ” said Matt M McElroy, Publisher Relations Manager for DriveThruComics.com. “We have some very cool titles from a variety of publishers donated for this bundle.”

The DriveThru sites, which includes digital gaming retailer DriveThruRPG.com, raised over $175,000 for the Haitian Earthquake relief efforts earlier this year. DriveThru has renewed its commitment to Doctors Without Borders because of their tireless dedication to provide medical assistance and aid all over the world.